Interviews

The Devil Wears Prada

Interview with The Band on Oct 25, 2007 by

Just before the Ohio natives in The Devil Wears Prada were about to release their second album, Plagues, I had the chance to have a conversation with them while they stopped in Chicago for the Sounds of the Underground tour.  The topics included the new album, touring, being Christian and the most important of them all, Chipotle. 

By: Wade Rice 

First can you guys start off by introducing yourselves and what you do in the band?

James Baney: I play keys and I'm James.

Mike Hranica: I do vocals and I'm Mike.

Daniel Williams: Daniel, I play drums.

Chris Rubey: Chris, guitar.

Andy Trick: Andy, bass.

You guys mentioned it on stage; you have a new album coming out. Can you give us an idea of what we can expect in comparison to the last album? Is it heavier, is it more melodic?

JB: Yeah, it's heavier and it's lighter. We kind of went both ways. With this album we knew we were putting an album out for people, where the last album we were just kind of like writing songs for like...local shows. You know what I mean?

Right, yeah.

JB: So this time we've obviously put more effort into it, and wrote better songs, better music.

So, a longer production?

JB: Yeah.

Who did you guys end up working with producer wise and all that?

CR: Same dude actually.

The same producer?

CR: No, I'm saying us in general.

JB: We kind of produce our own stuff.

CR: But it sounds different because we got a whole new sound; it sounds a lot better.

You guys have had some success on PureVolume, Myspace and stuff like that. Do you ever get scared of that sometimes? Like does it ever kind of settle into "What is happening"?

MH: As for being scared, I kind of get scared, but we've just gotten big because of Myspace, and that doesn't really give us a good representation. We don't really get that good of a respectful representation from Myspace.

So you're worried about your getting out the right representation more?

MH: Yeah.

CR: We don't want to be known as a Myspace band.

Well, I don't think that there are too many that want to be.

CR: Yeah, that is why we're out touring.

You want kids to buy your CD and come to shows. You guys mentioned today on stage about being Christian.

JB: Oh, there's a train. (a train goes by)

JB: So that is the whole thing about the Christian thing. [Laughs]

I just wanted to ask what your response has been on this tour from the kids. Has anyone come up to you and told you that they found the Lord because of you guys?

DW: I've gotten Myspace messages and emails and stuff where people are like, "Yeah, I found Jesus because of you guys," or whatever.

JB: Not lately, but I can remember a long time ago, well not a long time ago. [Laughs] I don't know, I've gotten a few lately, but not as much as in the past months. I just think that I used to read a lot more of the Myspace messages. (another train goes by)

DW: I used to read a lot more of the messages but we just don't have time, we are on the road. So we might still get a lot, I just might not notice as much.

CR: Actually, the other day, some kid showed us his arm and there was like some pentagram tattoo that he had that was older and he had like a tattoo of our CD, like the back of it. He was like, "You helped me find God." It was funny because of the pentagram.

Kind of contradictive. How was Sounds of the Underground been? You guys are early on the bill so it seems like it might be a little harder to get kids involved, but you didn't have a problem with that today at all.

CR: Actually, it kind of rotates every day. Sometimes we'll play as late as six. As far as being accepted, we were really worried that it was going to suck. [Laughs] We get a few middle fingers when we talk about...

Is that what happened today, when you said that's not respectful?

MH: Yeah.

So that is pretty common on this tour?

MH: Yeah it happens, but who cares.

You just laugh it off, right?

JB: I'm pretty sure every band on this tour gets someone that disrespects them. There is no one here that likes every single band playing.

So, the infamous movie, do you guys hate it? The Devil Wears Prada?

CR: I hate the fact that it is a movie.

DW: I hate the fact that everyone in the world asks us about it. [Laughs]

JB: Actually the book, we've had members read the book, and then they came out with the movie.

Is that how you guys got the idea for the name, the book?

CR: Before we knew that the book was going to be popular, it was kind of like, "Oh I've never heard of this before." (another train goes by)

JB: I always say, As I Lay Dying is a book too. Everyone knows that, it just never got popular. It's a sweet name. Unfortunately, we chose the book that got popular.

I wanted to mention where you guys are from, Dayton, OH. Hawthorne Heights is from there.

DW: Dead Poetic.

Dead Poetic. A lot of bands have sort of laid out the foundation for you guys. Have bands like that been motivation for you guys? Have they been there for you guys to get through things?

DW: I love Dead Poetic.

JB: I used to listen to them so much. They were a big inspiration. Also, our area is great for shows and getting your name out there.

CR: We like Hawthorne Heights, and this is not sarcastic.

I think everything your saying is 100% serious.

CR: No for real, we rock out to Hawthorne. [Laughs]

Have you guys ever played shows with them?

CR: No.

Do they even know about you guys?

JB: Yeah actually, we ran into them in Boston. We were playing a show and they were playing a show. We just happened to run into them. We were joking about how much Dayton sucks, and they just turned around and they were like "Oh, Yeah." They actually knew more about us than we thought they were going to know about us. It was cool, since we thought they weren't going to know who we were at all, but no they were really cool dudes and stuff like that. They actually put us on the guest list for that night and we went. So, definitely a lot of respect for Dayton area bands.

You guys are a Christian and you don't really play the stereotypical Christian music. I was wondering if you have ever gotten backlash for being Christian and playing death metal type stuff? Were there bands that made that ok for you guys to do?

CR: Yeah, like Underoath and Still Remains. I don't think that we started the band with like, "We're going to be a Christian band" in mind. Then when we got Mike as a vocalist we made a decision to be Christian. I think we might have written a song with a different vocalist and we went back and changed the lyrics.

JB: As far as being Christian and being in this genre of music, there have been bands that have done it before, but it really doesn't matter. As long as you want to get a message out, you do whatever music you like and you add that message to it. So, you could be a Christian band and you could play any kind of music, it shouldn't really matter.

Alright, well that is it for the Christian stuff. What is probably the most surprising thing about you guys that people wouldn't know?

JB: Uh the fact that they just graduated (pointing at Mike and Chris).

Graduated...?

JB: High school, see, see?

Which one?

JB: Mike and Chris.

CR: Literally, we were sitting in high school, like regular high school.

How was that, balancing it all out?

CR: We weren't touring, we were just playing on weekends.

JB: Friday they would be in class, we would leave and play Bamboozle and then come back and they would be in school on Monday.

DW: People thought we were touring because we were playing crazy far states, like in Virginia and wherever. People would be like, "Why don't you come to California?" We're like "Dude we can't drive there in a day and get back."

So is this your first full tour?

All: Pretty much.

JB: This is our second full time tour, as a full time band.

CR: We toured last summer, but we booked it ourselves.

JB: We weren't even signed, well we were signed but we didn't have a CD out yet.

CR: Long tours too, like spring break and winter break.

DW: There were 20 kids at each show and nobody knew who we were. Not every show, there were some good shows, but a lot of the shows were small.

This was last summer?

DW: Yeah, like two or three days after they got out of school.

CR: People are like, "Oh they are in High School. They probably take like online courses or something." It was literally like sit in class on Thursday and I would have to get vacation forms filled out or I would have to pretend I was sick so that we could leave a day early to make it to where the shows were.

You guys came out with your second full length rather fast. Was that just because the first full length was just old material rerecorded?

JB: Tracing back to them being in school, we couldn't tour. So we had nothing better to do but write. So they would come over and we would have practice every day.

CR: As far as writing speed, it really wasn't that fast. When our last CD came out, those songs are from when we first started the band. So I think we actually started writing for this one before the first one was even out. Like right after we finished recording it.

DW: Yeah the crazy thing is that our first record, we never really toured in support of that record. We did tour, but not in response to the record. So we never really toured to promote that record. Basically all the records that we sold were through Myspace and advertising. A lot of bands will just come out with a record and tour, but we didn't have that chance. It sucks because I know that the record could have gotten a lot bigger than it was, but we are happy with what happened.

CR: Last time our record came out they only shipped like a certain amount to stores and for this record we are shipping out like ten times more. (another train goes by) This one will be way easier to find.

Well the next question is sort of in ruins now. You guys said that you haven't toured much but do you guys consider yourself more of a touring band or a studio band? Or is it to early to ask since you guys are new to being constantly on the road?

CR: If you ask us that in like a year, we will say that we are a touring band, because we would have been touring.

MH: Definitely not a studio band, we're a live band.

So you guys aren't a studio band?

MH: Well, we never really went under a professional studio.

CR: As far as like a big fancy like studio. The guy who recorded it is a professional, he is very good.

JB: The first album was just written for shows in our basement and stuff like that. The second one, we were in our practice place not doing anything as far as school goes. So I think what Mike is trying to say is that we've never gone into a studio with no material, and created something in the studio. We've never done something like that; hopefully, for the next record, we will do something like that. As of now, it's not in our options.

You guys are rather fresh to the touring life. Are there any bands that you would like to play with that you haven't had the chance to do so with?

CR: We have a dream tour.

There you go, your own dream world tour.

JB: Well I think everyone has their own dream tour.

CR: There is like the dream tour that will never happen, but then there is the dream tour with all of our friends.

JB: That would be Gwen Stacy, A Day to Remember and At the Throne of Judgment.

CR: But there are all bands that we would like to tour with. Actually, I've pretty much toured with all of those bands. We have a lot of stuff going on in the future though. [Laughs]

JB: If you want to name tours, I mean, we are on Sounds of the Underground. Taste of Chaos would be a good tour for us. Obviously Warped Tour, which we're going to be doing next year. We were looking forward to that; that is just a good tour for us.

CR: Big tours are fun, but uh...

JB: Bro tours are better. [Laughs]

Anything else that you guys want to say or plug?

DW: At the Throne of Judgement's new CD, which should be coming out soon.

JB: We want a Chipotle sponsorship.

All: Yeah.

I'll be looking for those in Dayton, we have those back home in Virginia.

DW: All day.

I have it so much back home though.

DW: Doesn't matter.

That's the thing to do.

DW: Chipotle for life.

JB: We actually almost named a song on the new album "Sponsor Us Chipotle"

But would you guys be able to get away with that.

JB: Dude, we're called The Devil Wears Prada. [Laughs] We also have a song "Swords, Dragons and Diet Coke".

DW: We should have titled it "Sponsor Us Chipotle, Please," That way it wouldn't have sounded so demanding.

Sounds like this is already in the works. You guys have already thought about the possible sponsorship of Chipotle.

All: Yeah.

CR: When we were writing the songs for the new album and we had to name them like 1,2,3,4 and so on, we had to assign names to them. We were thinking, maybe if we named it "Sponsor Us Chipotle," maybe they would do it.

Thanks to the guys for being really nice guys and waiting around after they played to talk to me. Thanks to Judy over at Warm Fuzzy, as always, for setting things up. A special thanks to Chris for fixing some problems at the show and helping me out.

www.myspace.com/tdwp

http://www.thedevilwearsprada.com/

www.riserecords.com