Greg Puciato

Gregory John Puciato (born March 27, 1980) is an American musician best known as the former lead vocalist and lyricist of the metalcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan.

In addition to being a solo artist, he currently fronts Better Lovers and previously provided vocals in the Black Queen and Killer Be Killed, the latter of which he also played guitar for.

Puciato had several older friends who traded tapes and they would introduce him to underground music; when Puciato told one of them which were his favorites bands, his friend gave him a tape of I Against I by Bad Brains that "blew [his] mind apart" and subsequently showed him a 1980s' Bad Brains live bootleg that would make a long-standing impression on the singer.

In early 1990, Puciato went "through a really rapid musical evolution," broadening his taste to bands such as Faith No More and Primus.

When recalling the appearance of these or other artists such as Nine Inch Nails on TV, he viewed it as "inspiring" and said it "seemed like the weirdos had infiltrated the system, or created a new one."

Puciato joined mathcore band the Dillinger Escape Plan in September 2001 and first performed with the group weeks later at the CMJ music conference in October 2001.

Puciato had already played in some bands from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, but, at that time, he preferred to refine his vocal style than commit full-time to a band, and waited for the "right opportunity" to do so.

In a scenario mirroring that of young Henry Rollins and Black Flag, Puciato started out as a fan of the Dillinger Escape Plan in their earlier days.

When the band split with their singer Dimitri Minakakis (due to him wanting to focus more on his graphic design career and personal life), they searched publicly for a new singer by releasing the instrumental version of the song "43% Burnt" (off of their debut album).

Puciato sent in a tape with one version of him mimicking Dimitri Minakakis and one with his own take on the song.

He was contacted shortly after by the band, auditioned in person, and was subsequently asked to join.

Coincidentally, the band's first release with Puciato was for a Black Flag tribute compilation, where they covered "Damaged I and II".

In a 2003 interview, Puciato said that the band had gone on to "mean everything to" him.

In 2013 he reflected:

[My older friend] would tell me, "Check out this fucking weird zine and check out this tape of the Bad Brains."

And I thought: "Wait, I've never heard that band, they're nobody! Are they Slayer? Are they Testament? Are they Exodus? Are they Anthrax? Why don't they cover them in Metal Edge?!"

... I had no idea this even existed but then I watched it and I was like, "This is the craziest shit I've ever seen! Not only are they black, but he's got crazy vibrato on his voice, he's doing flips, people are crowd surfing and stage diving, ... That guy just jumped on his head? What the hell is happening here?! That's beyond the circle pit in a giant club or an arena. They're in a room that looks like my basement just freaking out!"

That was what really pushed me into performing the way I do.

Anything that has to do with punk rock or hardcore, all came from seeing the Bad Brains at that age.

Puciato recorded his first cassette at thirteen, performing original music with his best friend who was a drummer.

When he was a teenager, Puciato began to write abstract poetry, his first passion in parallel to songwriting.

At the age of fourteen, Puciato started singing for a thrash metal group.

While originally their guitarist, he switched to vocals because he was "too much of a control freak to let someone else sing" and could not perform both at the same time, but he continued writing the band's songs on guitar.

After people started praising his singing ability and Puciato realized that it came more naturally to him, he shifted his focus to vocals.

Although raised in a non-practicing home, Puciato attended a Catholic private school.

He was a good student and skipped grades, graduating one month after he turned 17.

He went to college in Maryland and after a year of studying he took a break, during which he was invited to join the Dillinger Escape Plan.

Commenting on his entrance to the band in 2013, Puciato recalled:It was definitely weird.

In 2018, Puciato and visual artist Jesse Draxler co-founded the art collective and record label Federal Prisoner.

Puciato is noted for the intensity of his live performances, wide vocal and stylistic range, outspoken views, and controversy stemming from his bands' performances and interviews.

Rolling Stone said that "few singers live, breathe and often literally bleed their art like he does."

Puciato was raised in Baltimore, Maryland.

He is an only child.

His Belarusian ancestors came to the United States from Slutsk.

Puciato's parents owned many vinyl records by artists such as Elton John, Bee Gees, Prince, Black Sabbath, Mitch Miller and Molly Hatchet, as well as an old victrola, and they bought him a small 7-inch record player.

They listened to music constantly and Puciato's early memories include beating on things to drum along, and singing along, it.

In recent years, Puciato revealed that he grew up in a dangerous, poor neighborhood, which "giant[ly]" influenced him in the sense that he does not "feel uncomfortable in any area," while the African-American culture of the area led to his fondness for R&B and hip-hop.

As a child, Guns N' Roses was the first band Puciato was "obsessed with."

Around the age of nine, he saw Metallica's video for "One", which was the "darkest thing [he had watched]" and inspired him to learn Metallica songs on the guitar.

During this period, he describes his life as centered around thrash metal and Nintendo.