Diarrhea Planet

Real-life guitar heroes Diarrhea Planet have stumbled upon a musical sweet spot. The six piece are able to maintain their reputation as a party band (crowdsurfing is encouraged at their shows, and the band members themselves often take part) while writing songs that touch on deeper topics than binge drinking and foggy memories of lost weekends. We sat down with guitarists Emmett Miller and Evan Bird to discuss writing on the road, their new song “Platinum Girls” and, for some reason, French composer Maurice Ravel.

Is your writing mostly done by one of you, or do you all collaborate?

Emmett: We share. Generally if a person writes a song, that person sings it. Casey’s got two, “Cigarettes” and our new one “Bamboo Curtain”. He’s been singing that one live. Brent has like three or four now. He’s got “Field of Dreams”, his new one “Platinum Girls” and “Teepee Toes”. Jordan’s got most of the other ones. Generally whoever writes the song will have a framework and bring it to practice and everybody kind of writes their own parts for it and fleshes it out.

You guys tour a lot. Do you write on the road or do most of your writing at home?

Emmett: It’s kind of difficult to write on the road because you’re all over the place.

Evan: We’ll maybe come up with an intro, or maybe improvise stuff, but as far as coming up with a framework, that almost exclusively happens at home.

Emmett: I wish we could pull a Van Halen and be demoing constantly in the hotel room. Jordan’s done that before. I think he wrote “Spooners” in a hotel room while we were stranded in Birmingham. I forgot all about that.

What’s a song on your new EP that you’re particularly proud of?

Emmett: I like “Platinum Girls” because I like thinking of Brent coming up with that song. Brent being in that situation.

Evan: I like “Platinum Girls” too. That was the first time I’ve gotten to flex a guitar solo move and I kind of had to shoot from the hip but I’m pleased with how that turned out. So whenever I think of the new EP I think of that first. I’m pleased with how all of them turned out, actually. I think this is gonna be our strongest release to date. I think we’re all really proud of how everything came together.

What’s a song of yours that people have really connected with?

Emmett: On an emotional level, probably “Kids”.

If you could co-write with anyone living or dead, who would you choose?

Emmett: Taylor Swift.

Evan: Alphonse Duvernoy. That dude was crazy.

Emmett: Maurice Ravel.

Who do you consider an underrated songwriter?

Emmett: Maurice Ravel.

Evan: Max Martin and Shellback. Those guys have been churning out top 20 gold for a decade or more, and no one really knows who they are.

When you write, do you try to put most of the focus on guitar work and instrumentation or is lyricism really important to you?

Emmett: Well, I’ve written one song for this band. I tend to write slowly and I have to start from the end and work backwards. I tend to be kind of a maximalist, so I’ll come up with all the parts and have everything fully orchestrated because that’s what I hear first. Everything has to have a context. I can’t just have a jumping off point. It has to be this sprawling thing, like a big knot that I can untie, and then I come up with words.

Evan: I take a lot of pride in the guitar parts that I come up with and I think I really shine from an arrangement standpoint. I think I have a pretty good ear for figuring out what’s best for every song on a song-by-song basis. If we need four guitars to try to drive some kind of crazy message home, we can do it. If we need three out of the four guitars to not play we can also do it. We’ve reached a really nice place where there isn’t really any ego involved. We can read each other really well and communicate what we need to musically and it doesn’t get stressful.

What do you hate the most about songwriting?

Emmett: Feelings.

Evan: Self-discovery.

Emmett: Vulnerability. Opening up a big ol’ can of worms to unveil in public.

Evan: Yeah. Going on a big cross-country drive, opening the closet, letting those skeletons out.

What inspires you to write?

Emmett: Maurice Ravel.

Evan: I look at it the same way as Emmett. I’m trying to tie a giant knot for the listener.

Emmett: “White Girls” started as an exercise. I was trying to come up with two guitar lines that go in contrary motion. A lot of times when I write, it feels like a Sudoku puzzle and I’m trying to fill in the gaps. I try to think in terms of puzzles as often as I can.

What do you consider to be the perfect song by someone else?

Emmett: I think “Enchanted” by Taylor Swift is a perfect song. There’s nothing I would change about that. Weezer’s Maladroit. I would go as far as to say that’s a perfect record. There’s not a single note I would change on that record. Big Star’s “Thirteen”. I think that is a perfect song. That whole #1 Record – the whole thing is so composed that they can make it seem like an accident. Nothing on that album is accidental, but it seems so loose and it breathes like a living thing.

Evan: Maybe “Pon de Floor” by Major Lazer. In my mind, there’s nothing you can take away and nothing you can add. “Milkshake” by Kelis is another one.

What do you hope to accomplish with your songs? What do you want people to take from them?

Emmett: I want people to feel like they saw School of Rock for the first time after they hear our songs. I want people to go home and not just be driven to learn to play guitar, but be driven to become guitar heroes.

Evan: What he said.