THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA – INTERVIEW

EastScene got the chance to talk with with guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster from The Devil Wears Prada. The band is currently on the Sweet Brag Tour tour with A Day To Remember, Emarosa, and Sky Eats Airplane (http://www.thearteryfoundation.com/) and will be on Warped Tour this summer

ES:You guys recently switched labels from Rise Records to Ferret Records. How did that come about?

JD: We just had a two record deal with Rise and it was up. So Ferret seemed like a really good transition for us. They’re a big indie label, but they’re still an indie label. We’re really stoked.

ES: How has the support been from Ferret? Were they hands on while you were recording your new album or did they let you do your own thing?

JD: Y’know, they don’t really muddy their hands in what we’re doing, they kind of just take what we gave them and went with that. Which is awesome, that’s exactly what we want, especially being a Christian metal band in a secular label and in a secular market so we don’t want anyone’s hands muddied in our stuff. They pretty much took what we gave them and gone with that. So it’s awesome.

ES:Speaking of the new album you guys decided to work with Joey Sturgis again. is there a specific reason for working with him again?

JD: We went with Joey again because, well, we were given a whole bunch of different options, a bunch of different producers talking back and forth, but we just felt that for this record we still pretty much wanted the same sound and everything, just a more mature sound. And he’s really grown up with us and as we advance as musicians and song writers he has done the same with recording. So it made sense for us to go with him and especially just because he really knows us, knows what we want and the sound that we want. He just pulls off exactly what we wanted.

ES: On your last album Plagues a few of your song titles came from pop culture references such as the Rugrats and a play on Snakes On a Plane. are any of the song titles on your new album related to pop culture?

JD: They’re all jokes, well a lot of them. Six of them are named after our crew members, with jokes about our tour manager and stuff like that. Then the rest of them are all like the one titled, “I Hate Buffering”. Y’know, when you’re trying to listen to something online and it just keeps buffering. Just stupid stuff like that. We were thinking about doing serious titles, but I don’t know, it’s not really our game.

ES: Do you think people will get the idea or is it more like inside jokes?

JD: I think a lot of them are inside jokes, but it’ll be funny. Maybe we’ll post a “Guide To The Songs” or something someday.

ES:Was the writing process for this album any different from the previous albums?

JD: Yes and no. Like, before we had six months to write our records because we had two dudes who were still in school and we just had a lot of time to write. Whereas now, we’re on the road so much that we can only really write in the back of the bus or on laptops and that’s just a totally different process from what we’ve done before. We’ve been trying to do stuff as far back as Warped Tour, but we still have some skeletons of how we wanted things to go. Y’know, minute and a half of jams and riffs and stuff, then we kind of took those when we were home in between Warped Tour and the tour we did with Underoath. After that was when we really started cracking down and spilled everything into the eleven songs that are on the CD. Before we had six months to write songs and now we only had a month and a half, but I think the deadline almost made it better because we couldn’t waste time. Just a bunch of really good songs really fast and I just think it sounds better.

ES: Would you say you work better under pressure then?

JD: Yeah, I mean we’re always under pressure with shows and stuff like that and there’s always somebody there that you want to impress. Kids are paying so much freaking money for tickets and you just want to give them a good show.

ES: In a video update for the new album you stated you’ll be playing songs in tunings other than Drop D. Is there a specific reason for this?

JD: Yeah, we have four or five songs that are in drop D. We just kind of, I don’t know, we talked about doing Drop C on Plagues and it just kind of never happened, but I felt like for this record, talking to Chris, our other guitar player, “Dude, y’know what? We should drop it down and see what it feels like.” And we did it for fun, just jamming around and we just really liked the way it was going. Not changing our style or anything, just playing things in our style in Drop C. It kind of gave it a much different feel. It was cool, just a heavier feel for the songs, giving it different chord progressions and singing parts.

ES:How would you compare the new album to your previous albums?

JD: It’s definitely heavier, I would say. There’s a lot more metal and hardcore influence than before, but I think overall it’s much better written. As well as being heavier, at the same time I think it’s catchier because of the way the songs are written, there’s a lot more choruses and stuff like that. We didn’t want to go and write a radio friendly record like bands seem to do as soon as they get a little hype. We still kept it the same style while just trying to write a better The Devil Wears Prada record.
ES:Have you selected the first single?

JD: We haven’t. We put a song up on our MySpace and we’ve talked about what we want to do, but we’re not exactly sure what it’s going to be yet. We kind of need to crack down because I think we’re going to be doing a video soon for that.

ES:Being that you’re a Christian Metalcore band do you draw influences from other Christian Metalcore bands? or is it just Metalcore in general?

JD: Not necessarily Christian, but it just happens that a lot of those bands that I and the other guys listen to happen to be Christian, like Underoath and As I Lay Dying and stuff like that. But as far as metalcore goes, I love Parkway Drive and Killswitch [Engage] and stuff like that. So it really isn’t just Christ bands per say.

ES:You guys are on tour with A Day To Remember, Emarosa and Sky Eats Airplane. And after the tour you’re heading to Russia with A Day To Remember for two shows in May, then Warped Tour. Do you guys have any other plans for the rest of the year?

JD: After Warped Tour I think we’re going to try and do some international stuff, but I’m not sure yet of what exactly we’re doing. We’re kind of just riding it out. Gonna get through Warped Tour and see what happens from there.

ES: If you do wind up doing international shows, do you have any places you want to go to specifically?

JD: I really want to do South America and Mexico, that would be awesome. We haven’t done Mainland Europe or Japan yet and I definitely want to go back to England and Australia. I pretty much want to hit up everything.

ES:Anything else you’d like to say to the fans out there reading this?

JD: Thanks for coming out the shows. This tour is definitely the most fun we’ve ever had. We’re so grateful to everybody for coming out. If you liked the older records hopefully you’ll go and pick up this one. And if you haven’t given it a chance before, maybe check it out and see what you think.