Shock Narcotic’s Jeff Tuttle on Dystopia, Dillinger, and the Drive to Keep Moving Forward

Shock Narcotic’s Jeff Tuttle on Dystopia, Dillinger, and the Drive to Keep Moving Forward

Jeff Tuttle has never been one to sit still. From his visceral stage presence with The Dillinger Escape Plan to the dystopian chaos of Shock Narcotic, his creative output has always been raw, relentless, and deeply personal. Now, with the release of My Flesh Is Afraid, But I Am Not—Shock Narcotic’s latest slab of cinematic grind and existential fury—Tuttle reflects on everything from cults and cover songs to the long-lost days of paper maps and punk tours. In this interview, we trace his journey from the underground trenches of Capture the Flag to the genre-defying legacy of Dillinger, and into the bleak-yet-hopeful terrain of Shock Narcotic’s newest chapter.

We’re here with Jeff Tuttle from Shock Narcotic. First of all, how did the recent tour with Pantera and Amon Amarth go? What were some of the highlights?
The tour went well—presuming that playing two shows qualifies as a tour. I mean, two is better than none. It was supposed to be four, but, you know, the death of Ozzy kind of sent shockwaves through the community. Zakk Wylde had to leave to attend the funeral. So, what started out as a very limited run turned into a very, very limited run. But having that opportunity at all? That’s bucket list shit right there. I’ve been a huge Pantera fan since I was a little kid. Getting the chance to share a stage with them—it’s never going to get old. I hope there are more opportunities like that to come.

If Shock Narcotic were invited to play on a Pantera tribute album, what song would you want to cover and why?
“I’m Broken.” That’s one of those songs that, no matter what time it is or what’s going on, if I hear that riff, I just want to go ape shit. Everything about it—the riffs, the tone, the lyrical content, Phil’s voice—it’s just so pummeling. It’s one of my ultimate workout jams too.

You mentioned Ozzy’s passing. How did that affect you personally? Were you a fan?
Honestly, I don’t think it matters if you’re a fan or not. If you play any kind of heavy music, you owe a debt to Ozzy Osbourne. That’s just how it is. Would someone else have done it if Black Sabbath hadn’t? Maybe. But guess what—Black Sabbath and Ozzy did it first.

Did I listen to Ozzy regularly? No. But I remember being a kid, listening to Faith No More’s The Real Thing—I was like nine—and my dad came down and said, “That’s crazy, you’re listening to Black Sabbath.” I said, “No, this is Faith No More.” And he goes, “No, this is 100% ‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath.” That was my introduction. So of course I went out and bought as much of their catalog as I could. Very formative years—not just as a fan, but as a musician. Everybody needs to pay their respects to Ozzy. He helped start it all.

Let’s talk about the new album. My Flesh Is Afraid, But I Am Not—such a great title. What inspired it?
It’s a quote from the movie The Seventh Seal. It fit the motif of the lyrical content and the album as a whole. Also, in line with what we’ve done before—our first album title was also pulled from a movie quote.

When Shawn pitched the idea, he said maybe going forward we should pull lines of dialogue from films for our album titles. I was like, absolutely. I did a lot of that in Old Gods and other projects. It’s a fine line between stealing and homage, but if it’s obscure enough and you’re doing it out of love for the art, I think it’s appropriate.

“Oblivion Licker”—tell me about the influence behind that song and video.
I can’t speak much to the lyrics—Shawn handles that—but broadly, the whole record and most of Shock Narcotic’s catalog leans dystopian. But there’s hope in there too. It’s doom and gloom, sure, but it’s also like, things are bad, but we’ve got to keep moving forward.

As for the video, I’ve always been fascinated by cults—how someone becomes a member, you know? I watch a lot of documentaries, and the first 30 minutes always seem like a great idea. Then there’s that hard turn. So, the pitch was: let’s do a cult angle. Weird people, babies wrapped in barbed wire, worshiping a dystopian future—that’s a common theme in our music and that song in particular.

We kept it freeform. Didn’t want to spell everything out. I think art works best when you leave some mystery for the viewer. But yeah, the cult angle was definitely the jumping-off point.

You’ve got a cover on the album—“A Furred Grave” by Meathook Seed off their Embedded album. What made you choose that one?
We all threw names in a hat when it came to the cover. That one just stuck. It’s a great song. And while Napalm Death is well-known and respected, Meathook Seed isn’t remembered as much—and they should be. So, this was us paying respects to what they did and how they influenced us growing up.

Personally, I liked the idea of taking a simple but effective song and adding layers—atmosphere, ambient elements—just going nuts with it a little.

Your previous album, I’ve Seen the Future and It Doesn’t Work, came out in 2019. Then came the pandemic and political chaos. That title ended up being kind of prophetic, didn’t it?
Yeah. Who knew, right?

When was the last time any of your bands played in the Los Angeles area?
That would’ve been during my Dillinger days. One of my first bands—like 25 years ago—we made it out to LA and played the West Coast. Other than that, it was Dillinger.

Speaking of Dillinger, when you look back on Option Paralysis, what do you think of it now?
That was an amazing time. I’ll always look back on those years fondly. I wish I’d had more of a presence on the record than what ended up there. My biggest contribution was “Parasitic Twins,” the album closer—I wrote all the lyrics and vocal harmonies and melodies for that one. Aside from some backup vocals, I didn’t play a single note of guitar on any Dillinger records.

Do you still keep in touch with any of the guys?
Yeah, I do. I saw Liam Wilson—shit, maybe over a year ago—he came through with In Flames, which is awesome. I saw Ben at Full Terror Assault. Greg came through with Better Lovers and I caught up with him then. So yeah, we still keep in touch. Maybe not as often as we should, but we check in from time to time.

That Dillinger album came out in 2010. Now I want to go back to the turn of the millennium—1999—when I believe you released one of your first albums, Time and Again with Capture the Flag. When you look back on that band and that record, what do you think of it now? It’s been a good 25 years.
I didn’t fathom that you’d even know Capture the Flag at all. But yeah, that was the band that came out to LA. We made it all the way out there—I can’t remember where we played, probably some little hole-in-the-wall spot. Mostly, you go out to California, you’re gonna hit LA and check out the Strip. That was my first time in California.

Getting back to your question—looking back on that record, that was really me just figuring things out as a musician. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere. We had a couple records before that one, but the recording process for Time and Again was a little weird. It’s a whole thing we don’t need to get into. I wasn’t 100% happy with how it came out sonically, but it was a learning process.

Anytime you’re in the studio, you learn just as much from what you don’t like as from what you do. I look back on that time fondly. It was fun recording. I went through the trenches with those guys. A lot of it was trial by fire. Touring out of state back then—man, the internet was just becoming a thing. We were driving through states with a paper map and a binder full of phone numbers. A lot of times it was a complete disaster, but what are you gonna do?

I wanted to talk about Old Gods before we wrap up. Give Them Color came out in 2022, and I think the previous album was nine or ten years before that. Will we have to wait another decade for the next Old Gods release? What’s going on with the band?
No, you won’t have to wait ten years—because unfortunately, there’s no reason to wait. That band kind of fizzled out and faded away.

When we put out Give Them Color, we had recorded those songs three or four years earlier, if I’m not mistaken. A couple of the guys in the band play in The Armed, if you’re familiar with them. They just got too busy with that. I would’ve loved to do more. I liked playing in that band. I liked being just the vocalist. I had a lot of fun.

With Stylized Violence, our first full-length, I loved exploring film references—using horror movies as a springboard and metaphor for a lot of things. Then with Give Them Color, which was supposed to be a full-length but ended up just being the four songs we finished, we used pro wrestling as the metaphor for life. I would’ve loved to keep going, but again—what are you gonna do?

Are you currently involved with any other bands or projects outside of what we’ve already talked about?
Not at the moment. I’ve got some things brewing in the back of my mind—stuff I’d like to do. Whether it ends up being solo or with other people, I don’t know yet. It’s still a ways off from coming to fruition. But I definitely want to do more Shock Narcotic stuff, and hopefully get this other thing I’ve been kicking around off the ground.

Basically, I’m heavily entrenched in this nu-metal revival. There are a lot of bands coming out of Australia and Europe doing really interesting stuff, and I’m 100% here for it. I’d love to experiment with some shit like that.

You just got off a two-date run with Pantera. What’s next for Shock Narcotic?
Nothing at the moment. Having a drummer who’s in a thousand different bands and lives out of state complicates things. But we definitely want to do more—we just don’t have anything lined up right now. We’re trying to figure out how it could possibly work.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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