THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s “43% Burnt” Probably Isn’t About What You Think It Is

Have you ever wondered why The Dillinger Escape Plan named “43% Burnt” what they named it? Us too. So Metal Injection’s Frank Godla asked The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s Ben Weinman and Dimitri Minakakis, and got exactly the cryptic answer you’d expect – though they did dispel a long-running rumor.

When asked about the rumor of it “43% Burnt” is about how much burning the human body can take before dying, both Weinman and Minakakis laughed. “That’s horrifying,” said Weinman. Minakakis started: “That’s pretty good. I like that. That’s totally [wrong].”

“When I was in the band – I don’t know how they functioned when I saw out – our song titles had nothing to do with the songs themselves,” said Minakakis. “‘Clip the Apex… Accept Instruction’, if you knew the genesis of that song title you’d be like ‘oh.’ But ‘43% Burnt’ was… for me, that was a mistake to put that song title to that song because it got me in a lot of trouble socially. Not on a mass level, but it’s not – I wish it was about your body being 43% burnt.

“It’s more personal, but it’s a two way split. The title meant one thing but the lyrics meant another. For that particular song. I like theories. I read a short little thing about Quentin Tarantino where he does visuals that he never explains. Why he does that is he likes the audience to create their own story within the story that he’s making. It’s what I intended to do, but I agree with his sentiment.”

He continued: “For me, I like hearing people’s interpretations and seeing what they come up with. It extends the creativity. Not that I’m copping out on what it means or whatever.”

Weinman added: “We have songs named after a soap opera characters that me and Dimitri watched, and it was like, some badass song – I don’t even have to mention it. It was literally named after someone from Days Of Our Lives. Now people have to figure it. We would watch it, and we’d laugh so much because we’re watching this soap opera and people would never think [it’s the name of this song].”

The Dillinger Escape Plan has a bunch of Calculating Infinity shows coming up, except for that one festival date.

6/8 Pomona Fairplex (No Values Festival) – Pomona, CA
6/21 Brooklyn Paramount – Brooklyn, NY (w/ Car Bomb & Candy)
6/22 Brooklyn Paramount – Brooklyn, NY (w/ The Callous Daoboys & Deadguy)
6/23 Brooklyn Paramount – Brooklyn, NY (w/ Car Bomb, Candy, The Callous Daoboys & Deadguy)