Anthony Toto of Pop-Break.com recently conducted an interview with The Devil Wears Prada guitarist Jeremy DePoyster. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Pop-Break.com: “8:18” really pushes the band’s sound into newer territories. This is your heaviest offering yet. What influenced the new direction on this album?
Jeremy DePoyster: It’s really just the kind of stuff we’re into. We like it dark and we like it heavy. That’s the most fun live. We have some stuff that’s a little more diverse like “Killmore”, “8:18”, and songs like that. Even those songs, I think they are darker if they are not heavier.
Pop-Break.com: From a guitar standpoint, the low tuned guitars are sometimes reminiscent of Slipknot because they’re complex yet filled with grooves. Your playing still maintains its melodic phrasing that is a signature part of your style.
Jeremy DePoyster: We toured with a lot of metal bands like Slipknot, Slayer, and the As I Lay Dying guys. They really influence us as far as metal goes. I know for Chris [Rubey] especially, the majority of the stuff that he listens too is in the metal realm, so that’s what he writes. I try to bring in some melody here and there just to give it a little variety to the sound. Chris is very talented and a lot of the riffs he writes are really awesome.
Pop-Break.com: Vocally, Mike [Hranica] and you experiment and incorporate different styles on this album. Your singing remains a highlight of the band. On “8:18” or any of the past material, how have you balanced your vocal approach with Mike?
Jeremy DePoyster: We just try and do it naturally, especially as time goes on. We tried to be very formulaic with it in the beginning. We would go, “Okay, this is going to be a verse and this is going to be the lead singing part.” I think we look at it now where if the part feels like it needs singing on it, it’s going to have singing. Sometimes we will even change it up from that. If it feels like it needs singing, we’ll put screaming on there just to see what it sounds like. With Mike, he’s finding his own voice more and more with a lot of variety. Even parts where we may have had to just sing, he could now do in different styles. The more voices the two of us come up with together, the more variety it gets on the record. It just doesn’t become the same monotonous thing for 10 songs. [laughs]
Pop-Break.com: The Devil Wears Prada came up during a time where metalcore became a massive sensation within the metal community. While your band incorporated elements of metalcore into your repertoire, I always felt the band separated itself from its contemporaries in the genre. Reflecting back, what do you think helped you stand out amongst the scene?
Jeremy DePoyster: I don’t know; I think that we came up in a generation where we learned a lot from the bands that we toured with. We toured with a variety of all kinds of bands from Silverstein, Chiodos, and bands that were nothing like us. We toured with Shadows Fall, Chimaira and Gwar on the Sounds Of The Underground. We did the Warped Tour and even that had a lot of variety: punk bands like Nofx to the more metal stuff like Killswitch Engage. We really learned that it’s not genre dependent, being a good band is just being a good band. You should be able to go see a reggae band, a pop band, and a metal band all one after the other. If the band is good, it should be a good show. We really took it to heart that being in a good band just means writing great songs, playing them well, and having a real fun and exciting show. That’s always been the goal. I think that allows us to branch out of genres. “You know, maybe these guitars are a little too melodic here for metalcore?” We don’t care; we’ll do it anyway. “Maybe this thing is a little too this or that. Maybe there is a little too much keyboard here or something?” We don’t care and we do whatever we want. We’ve been really lucky that people like it. [laughs] By now, it should’ve been over and nobody should care anymore but we’re lucky that they still do.
Read the entire interview at Pop-Break.com.
The Devil Wears Prada will be heading out in May on the next edition of the Progression Tour 2014. Don’t miss your chance to see Caliban on one billing with The Ghost Inside, Caliban, I Killed The Prom Queen, and Breakdown of Sanity. Dates & locations are listed below.
Upcoming Shows:
Jan 22 Zebedees, Christchurch, New Zealand
Jan 24 Parachute Festival 2014 @ Mystery Creek Event Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand
Jan 28 TAB , Singapore, Singapore
Jan 30 Hollow Fest 2014 @ Parkir Timur Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia
Feb 01 KL Live, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Feb 02 Hollywood Awards, Bangkok, Thailand
Feb 09 Scream Out Fest ’14, Tokyo, Japan
Feb 10 Shibuya Club Quattro, Tokyo, Japan
Mar 16 South By So What Fest, Grand Prairie, TX
May 03 Groezrock Festival 2014, Meerhout, Belgium
May 04 Progression Tour 2014 @ Batschkapp, Frankfurt, Germany
May 06 Progression Tour 2014 @ Live Music Hall, Cologne, Germany
May 07 Progression Tour 2014 @ Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg, Germany
May 08 Progression Tour 2014 @ Huxleys Neue Welt, Berlin, Germany
May 09 Progression Tour 2014 @ Werk 2, Leipzig, Germany
May 10 Progression Tour 2014 @ Skaters Palace, Munster, Germany
May 11 Progression Tour 2014 @ LKA Longhorn, Stuttgart, Germany
May 13 Progression Tour 2014 @ Lowensaal, Nuremberg, Germany
May 14 Progression Tour 2014 @ Arena, Vienna, Austria
May 15 Progression Tour 2014 @ New Age Club, Roncade, Italy
May 16 Progression Tour 2014 @ Factory Club, Milan, Italy
May 17 Progression Tour 2014 @ Komplex 457, Zurich, Switzerland
May 18 Progression Tour 2014 @ Theaterfabrik, Munich, Germany
May 20 Progression Tour 2014 @ Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 21 Progression Tour 2014 @ Mo Club, Southampton, United Kingdom
May 22 Progression Tour 2014 @ White Rabbit, Plymouth, United Kingdom
Jun 14 Warped Tour 2014 @ Utah State Fairpark, Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 15 Warped Tour 2014 @ Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, CO
Jun 17 Warped Tour 2014 @ Isleta Amphitheater, Albuquerque, NM
Jun 18 Warped Tour 2014 @ Quail Run Park, Mesa, AZ
Jun 19 Warped Tour 2014 @ Luxor Lot, Las Vegas, NV
Jun 20 Warped Tour 2014 @ Pomona Fairplex, Pomona, CA
Jun 21 Warped Tour 2014 @ Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
Jun 22 Warped Tour 2014 @ Seaside Park, Ventura, CA
Jun 25 Warped Tour 2014 @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Chula Vista, CA
Jun 26 Warped Tour 2014 @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Wheatland, CA
Jun 28 Warped Tour 2014 @ White River Amphitheater, Port Angeles, WA
Jun 29 Warped Tour 2014 @ Expo Center Parking Lot, Portland, OR
Jul 02 Warped Tour 2014 @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Maryland Heights, MO
Jul 03 Warped Tour 2014 @ Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville, IN
Jul 04 Warped Tour 2014 @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, Canada
Jul 05 Warped Tour 2014 @ Parc Jean Drapeau, Montreal, Canada
Jul 06 Warped Tour 2014 @ PNC Bank Arts Concert Center, Holmdel, NJ
Jul 08 Warped Tour 2014 @ Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY
Jul 09 Warped Tour 2014 @ Toyota Pavilion, Scranton, PA
Jul 10 Warped Tour 2014 @ Xfinity Center, Mansfield, MA
Jul 11 Warped Tour 2014 @ Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
Jul 12 Warped Tour 2014 @ Nikon at Jones Beach Amphitheater, Wantagh, NY
Jul 13 Warped Tour 2014 @ Xfinity Theatre, Hartford, CT
Jul 15 Warped Tour 2014 @ First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
Jul 16 Warped Tour 2014 @ Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
Jul 17 Warped Tour 2014 @ Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Jul 18 Warped Tour 2014 @ The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
Jul 19 Warped Tour 2014 @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, IL
Jul 20 Warped Tour 2014 @ Canterbury Park, Shakopee, MN
Jul 22 Warped Tour 2014 @ Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
Jul 23 Warped Tour 2014 @ Farm Bureau Live At Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach, VA
Jul 24 Warped Tour 2014 @ Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta, GA
Jul 25 Warped Tour 2014 @ Vinoy Park, St Petersburg, FL
Jul 26 Warped Tour 2014 @ Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL
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Video below ‘First Sight’
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