Amanda Ferrante Batista of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with vocalist Mike Hranica of the Dayton, Ohio Christian metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
On the making of the band’s most recent album, “Dead Throne”, which entered The Billboard 200 chart at No. 10, selling more than 32,000 copies in its first week:
“I really liked demoing everything out. We had skeleton songs that didn’t have vocals on them, so we went in well prepared. And I think it paid off to work on [producer Adam Dutkiewicz‘s] potential, as far as being able to work on the songs early. He had more creative input because he had something clear and coherent in front of him. That technique was really rad — that’s something we did well with Dead Throne and we’ll keep in mind again.” [Dutkiewicz, guitarist of Killswitch Engage, also has produced albums for bands including All That Remains, Everu Time I Die, Shadows Fall and August Burns Red.]
On the need to innovate musically:
“I do get rather crabby toward bands that achieve that success without ever having the right idea, without contributing something positive, never really seeking truth in their music, or trying to understand something bigger. Everyone wants to write stuff that sounds heavy, epic, or ‘world-ending,’ but it’s all empty to me. It all falls short because it doesn’t have any substance to it.”
On the “metalcore” tag:
“The way I look at metalcore and The Devil Wears Prada in metalcore is to cast other bands out of it. I just want us to be the best that The Devil Wears Prada could be. Ideally I’d like to see the band push out of that and be a band that’s progressive or innovative enough that it’s hard to classify them as something else. I’m not saying we’re anything as good as that, but all I want to do is be the best I can be.”
On the band owning the music it creates and the decisions it makes:
“I’m always very happy to admit that we’re a very truthful group of dudes. We make music and we don’t compromise and I think that helps. As long as it’s what we wanted to do, there is so much reward there, because you created something that is honest. That’s what music is. That’s what all art is, as rather forgotten.”
Read the entire interview from The Aquarian Weekly.
UK Tour Dates / February 2012
Feb 2nd – Cardiff Great Hall 2
Feb 3rd – Stoke Sugarmill
Feb 4th – Manchester Academy 3
Feb 5th – Glasgow G2
Feb 7th – Newcastle O2 Academy 2
Feb 8th – Birmingham O2 Academy 2
Feb 10th – Plymouth White Rabbit
Feb 11th – Southampton Talking Heads
Feb 12th – Brighton Haunt
Feb 13th – Oxford O2 Academy 2
Feb 14th – Colchester Arts Centre
Feb 17th – London Underworld
Video below: The first single ‘Born To Lose’ off the new TDWP album Dead Throne
Related articles:‘
‘The Devil Wears Prada’ signs with ‘Roadrunner Records’ [June 2011]
‘The Devil Wears Prada’ New Video Interview Posted Online [July 2011]
‘The Devil Wears Prada’s’ ‘Mike Hranica’ Doesn’t Believe in Hero Worship [July 2011]
‘ The Devil Wears Prada’s’ ‘Jeremy Depoyster’ Interviewed On ‘KASC The Blaze’ 1330 AM [Audio] [Oct. 2011]
‘Chris Rubey’ [TDWP] ‘Metal And God Can Go Hand In Hand’ [North American ‘Dead Throne’ Tour Dates] [Nov. 2011]