Interview with The Devil Wears Prada


The Devil Wears Prada

December 4, 2011 Fort Lauderdale. "The fact that we can write music that makes people move in a way that in turn makes us move; it’s a giant circle of energy and it just feeds off each other...it's the best feeling in the world." Daniel Williams, drummer for The Devil Wears Prada, describes the dynamics of the stage and mosh pit. Guitarist Jeremy DePoyster adds "We take it so personally if people don’t enjoy the show."


	photo courtesy of Revolution Live

New album and tour DEAD THRONE has most definitely elevated TDWP to stake their claim as heavy weights in Christian metalcore. But this is a band that does not want fans to put them on a throne or pedestal; which happens to also be the theme of the album. Humble and hard working are the foundational Christian values that feed the band. Hardcore metal is the fuel that ignites them in the studio and on stage. OFC met up with Jeremy and Daniel at Revolution Live to catch up on The Devil Wears Prada's epic year. 2011 boasts the band's fifth album, pumped up production Dead Throne Tour and "Zombie Slay" mobile device game on iTunes!

Check out the interview audio with photo montage on video, transcription of the interview and photos from the Dead Throne Tour show in Fort Lauderdale!

The Devil Wears Prada is wrapping up their 2011 North America tour! Buy tickets on Ticketmaster

The Devil Wears Prada will be in the UK for their 2012 Dead Throne Tour! Buy tickets on Ticketmaster UK

Download DEAD THRONE on iTunes

Interview took place at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale on December 4, 2011. Interview, video and photos of Daniel and Jeremy by Sally Rosen - OFC contributor. Photos of band found TDWP facebook page. Mobile users can view the video on youtube.com/watch?v=-ZrVEdGrFv0

OFC: You guys have had an epic year, "Zombie Slay," the mobile device game is out on itunes, release of DEAD THRONE album and tour. What has been the highlight for you in 2011?
Daniel: I think the release of Dead Throne was definitely our highlight of the year, at least for our band. Maybe even just the Dead Throne tour in general as well. Everything related to Dead Throne in general has got to be the highlight of my year personally. Just getting out on the road and being able to perform the songs that we worked really hard the last two years of our lives. It’s really cool to see it all finally come together.
Jeremy: Like all we’ve been doing last couple of years has been culminating to this point whether it’s the logo related stuff, the music obviously most importantly, the shows, the vibe, and our friendship, relationships as a band has come to this point right here. I think all of us feel the most happy we’ve ever been in the band right now than we ever have.

I understand that when DEAD THRONE was in its genesis, an underlying theme of “anti-idoltry” was to be the message of the album?
D: Pretty much the entire record has an underlying theme of anti-idoltry, that’s the theme of the album actually so it definitely came through. Whether it's talking about not putting your girlfriend or something that you do on pedestals and not to worship false idols.

I love the instrumental “Kansas” on DEAD THRONE. For a band who has rad vocalists, have you done a lot of instrumentals on past albums, is that something new?
J: It’s definitely new to have on an album but just the flow and vibe of that song was something we always did as a band.
D: We always did the whole interlude thing.
J: Especially Daniel and Andy and Chris and I will write these jams that go in between the songs - interludes for sets. We’ve been doing this for years now. I think we were going to put vocals on it too and decided not to and just do an instrumental. "Chicago" is kind of the same way but written to have vocals on it. I think it’s definitely something we’ll carry on.
D: It’s a good way to get between songs in a set and then that actual in between thing becomes a song.

Did you find any new found fans who googled “THRONE” surfing the web looking for JAY-Z / Kanye West (and their new album out WATCH THE THRONE) and stumble upon TDWP and visa versa?
D: That would be awesome. (laugh)
J: Yeah I know (laugh). I know Mike came up with the album name now almost two years ago, a long time ago. I know when I heard about that record coming out, I was like “Man, really?” we had waited so long. I know its completely unrelated but I just look up a couple things on Dead Throne, even myself, and Watch The Throne stuff comes up.
D: My favorite part is watching on iTunes, number 9 Dead Throne, number 10 Watch The Throne and I’m like “oh yeah!” (laugh). They’re in their tenth week and our first. (laugh)

On that note of hip hop fans, “Still Fly” on compilation PUNK GOES CRUNK was pretty creative. Did you guys break the ice with the infusion of rapping into metal core with that album?
J: Maybe unfortunately. (laugh)
D: It was more just for fun. At the time we didn’t think anything of it. It was like our label came to us “this other label wants you to do this song, do you guys want to do it?” and we were like throwing around ideas and we were like “whatever, we’ll get Chris to do it on his computer and it will be no big deal." He wrote it on his computer. And then eventually that song just blew up and people were like “this is the coolest new thing!” and all these bands started doing rap hard core / metal core covers. And we were like “oh no, what did we start?” (laugh)
J: Because all the other bands out were super different sounding and we were like the sore thumb the only metal team and then they were like “what? That works, alright cover song!"
D: We started a new genre I guess. (laugh)
J: We tried to kill it ourselves (laugh). We don’t play that song in years now because you can’t go to a show like this without hearing a rap cover.

Do you have plans for exploring that more?
J: We have cover ideas.
D: Instead of doing a cover, I would like to do a collaboration. On Dead Throne we have Tim Lambesis from As I Lay Dying doing some vocals on one of the songs. I would rather get together with band like Slipknot or As I Lay Dying and write an actual full song. That would be cool.
J: I would like to do a split with completely different sounding band. Anything like that is creative I guess.

Daniel, I saw your facebook post about Florida shows “ Its about time for some good ole fashioned headbangin' in the south. -Daniel” How does it feel to you as a band and artists when you are on stage to see your music creating a cultural, visceral force that synergistically permeates the audience in the mosh pits? What goes on in your mind when you witness this?
D. It’s the best feeling. Seriously, the crowd’s reaction completely 100% reflects on to the band. If the crowd is not getting into it, the band is not getting into it. The fact that we can write music that makes people move in a way that in turn makes us move it’s a giant circle of energy and it just feeds off each other and some shows just take you over the top and seriously is the best feeling in the world.
J: We take it so personally if people don’t enjoy the show.

I see you guys have some UK tour dates lined up for early 2012. Any plans to expand into a full blown European tour – have you played across the pond before?
J: It’s our fourth time to UK. Probably around festival season we’d like to do similar to what we did last year but more expansive and hit more European markets.
D: We were actually planning on going to Germany and hopefully will be back this year. No definite plans yet.

When I listen to your drums and guitar riffs on tracks like “HTML Rules Dood” I can’t but help but think of rock n roll hall of fame metal band – Metallica. Were there any predecessor bands who influenced you as musicians?
J. Yeah, at that time compared to Metallicca younger bands Underoath, As I Lay Dying, Norma Jean and a lot of Christian hard core bands at the time. Us at the time 17 and 20, that’s just where we were. Definitely as we’ve gotten older, influences have changed. It’s kind of interesting to look back on it like that.
D: Not only that but I definitely listen to Metallica much before I listen to Underoath. I definitely listened to a lot of Metallica, Pantera, Slayer in my day but much younger much before I was into this type of music.
J: Van Halen, he did have a Van Halen background
D: My step dad was into Van Halen and I definitely listened to a lot of that too (laugh).

On the subject Christian metalcore, for fans not familiar with the genre, it seems to be a paradox - Christian and Metal and you have “Devil” in the band name which seems to be contradictory?
D: The way we look at is bring light into a dark place. I don’t think it necessarily matters how it sounds or anything like that as long as it makes you feel or think a certain way or you can relate to it in a certain way or it helps you in a certain way. The idea behind it is more important than how it sounds like “rah, rah” but there’s meaning in it.
J: It baffles me to think about I have had kids tell me their pastors say “don’t listen to this, don’t listen to this to this kind of music and band.” How can your brain not wrap around the idea, it sounds like this but there’s meaning in it. Even playing electrical guitar on a Christian pop song than Biblical music or praise. I think it’s shallow minded of them to draw the line on that

Election year is coming up and it is not uncommon to see bands and artists expressing their political views and even endorsing and campaigning with candidates. What do you think about musicians who use their popularity to extend their political agenda or options?
D: I think it’s awesome. I think that anybody that writes music, writes music for a reason. Whether it’s our band playing about what we believe in or somebody talking about the girl they want to write about or politics they believe in, whatever it is, they are writing music based on the fact they want to get something out. If someone can respect the fact that I want sing about this or play drums about this, I should be able to respect somebody who wants to sing about politics.
J: A lot of people say that bands should have a certain level of consciousness about how their views affect how people see them. I’ve heard a lot of people say “I don’t think this punk band should say this because all their fans will think that way regardless of what their real thoughts are.” In my opinion if their fans are that shallow that a band will warp them to one way, then even a debate will take them the other. I don’t think that’s an excuse people can use. If someone ‘s that shallow they’re in a lot more trouble if they go by what a band says.

What do you think of Spotify and Pandora ? Are these apps helping the bands or just another web tool ripping off the artists?
D: I think Pandora is awesome and they have legitimate reasons for asking for a paid subscription based fee. I don’t necessarily think that Spotify and RDIO do. I actually had a paid subscription to both Spotify and RDIO, and I am personally against them. I paid ten dollars to get my Spotify membership and with my ten dollars downloaded my bands’ entire catalog of music. And that alone is worth more than ten dollars. Not only is it worth more than ten dollars to the label but it’s worth then ten dollars to me. Because five CDs, that’s fifty bucks you would normally pay and I got it all for ten bucks plus all JAY-Z plus all Alicia Keys plus all of every band I can think of and its all for free. It’s on my phone, on my laptop, it’s on my ipad. I downloaded my entire catalog and never saw a dime from it.

What is your best kept secret? What is one thing about The Devil Wears Prada that most fans don’t know about but should?
J: We’re just people really I think is the big thing. A lot of kids always go on twitter and go “you’re my hero, if I could just be like you, you’re the best person, if I could only be like you” I don’t want to represent us as bad horrible people that do and say bad things. But I don’t want to dishonestly pretend that we are saints when we’re not. It puts us on an unfortunate pedestal that then someone who might look up to you is gonna feel like crap when they don’t meet up to that.
D: Absolutely. It happens a lot. For example, the other day on my Twitter I typed a tweet that had the words “bad ass” in it. And everybody got so angry at me. A couple of kids tweeted “ I can’t believe I follow you and you cursed.” I’m like when did I say that I never cursed? People always put you up to here and if you do anything wrong then you don’t match up to their expectations. I can’t match up to a million people’s expectations.
J: I look up to my parents so much. At one point in my life I would have considered them the perfect quintessential “Christian people.”. Things I’ve seen and hear them do and I still think they are good Christian people. I would hate for someone to see the band and spend their effort and time saying “they said this, they said that, they did this, they did that.” It’s such a bigger meaning then those trival things.
D: Everyone’s human – that’s my secret (laugh)

What can fans expect to see when The Devil Wears Prada performs tonight at Revolution Live?
D: Lots of sweaty dudes (laugh)
J: Sweaty dudes. Honestly, I think it’s our best live show we’ve had in a long time. We’ve put a lot of thought and time and money into the production aspect of it. Some of these people seen us five or six times now so to give them something that’s more than just us playing the songs is kind of cool.
D: Definitely

The Devil Wears Prada:
Vocals/Lyrics: Mike Hranica
Guitar: Chris Rubey
Guitar/Vocals: Jeremy DePoyster
Keys: James Baney
Drums: Daniel Williams
Bass: Andy Trick

tdwpband.com