For those that really follow the music industry, Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist, sole remaining founding member, and band ringleader Ben Weinman is just as notorious for his entrepreneurial vision as he is for jabbing at flat fifths in odd meter while hanging by his legs from a scaffolding. In a metal landscape partially shaped by Dillinger’s innovation it doesn’t seem as much of a feat, but it couldn’t have been easy to take a band as utterly unconventional as DEP was in the late ’90s, and then turn them into a juggernaut of success. Sure, some of that was simply due to the staggering summed talent level of the individual musicians, but the band never would have reached the heights that it did without canny leadership.
Now Ben has launched Party Smasher Inc, “a one-stop portal for photographers, illustrators, fashion designers and industry mavericks of all stripes.” Here’s what he had to say about it:
I was well into my twenties, with a college degree and a corporate job, playing music with no intention of generating money or some massive fanbase. Before I had even realized it, I was making 100% of my living creating art. How did this happen? Because we ignored the ‘rules.’ It wasn’t until I started living my artistic life with that mindset that I became a responsible creator – one who could move people through honest expression. And that is what Party Smasher Inc. is all about. We are here to celebrate the artists that are following their own path, undeterred by the trends.
From the description I got the impression that the site was going to be some variety of social network, like a Linkedin for folks making their living in some variety of the arts, but it’s more of an inspirational blog with posts from Ben and some of similarly motivated go-getters. It’s tough to get a vibe on how regularly Party Smasher Inc will be updated, or even if it’s intended to be its own entity outside of Ben Weinman’s shadow (possibly not, given the logo). But there’s a decent amount of interesting content up at the moment.
