Interview: Jeremy Depoyster of The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada (Photo: HERFitz PR)

American metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada is currently touring across the United States as the support act for the KillThrax Tour, which features co-headliners Kill Switch Engage and Anthrax. The tour makes a stop at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle on April 25^th.  

Seattle Music Insider contributor Mike Baltierra was able to speak with TDWP guitarist Jeremy DePoyster to discuss the current tour, the band’s latest release Transit Blues, and a few other miscellaneous items.

SMI: Jeremy, thanks for taking time out of your day. How is the tour going and how has the fan reaction been?
DePoyster: The tour so far has been really amazing. Being able to play with bands we have been heavily influenced by or have grown up listening to. Kill Switch Engage and Anthrax are amazing and being able to support them and see both of them live every night is an honor. Fan reaction has been great too. We’re winning over those who may have not really liked us, heard of us, or hated us. It’s been great all around. Glad to be a part of this tour.

SMI: How did this tour come together?
DePoyster: People tend to say that different genres or cross sections of metal don’t or shouldn’t mix well together. But all the bands on this tour are great, and the mixture is great to keep everyone on their toes and the fans entertained. As stated earlier, some people have said they dislike us but by the end of our set, we have made the naysayers in to fans. We, as a band, are fans of all sorts of music so it was great to be included on this bill.  

SMI: Your latest album, Transit Blues, seems to center around traveling and separation. Who or how was this theme the centerpiece of the album and what was the creative process behind the album?
DePoyster: Mike Hranica (vocals) comes up with about 99% of all of the lyrics and their themes – he does a great job of describing what each song is about and what each song means or represents. For example, we have a song titled “Daughter” which is about a lady who has no love for her daughter so it’s pretty heartbreaking. We also have another song called “Submersion”, which is about feeling trapped, whether it’s a feeling of emotions or the stress of life, we wanted to write songs that everyone can identify with. It’s also about separation – for us it’s about traveling and separation, such as being on tour. That can mean something different to others.

SMI: For this album, the band decided to commune and record the new album all together, unlike on previous recordings were everyone was geographically in different places. Do you feel that this helped with the creative process?
DePoyster: We wanted to put out a solid album, so living, eating, and recording together seems to have worked. We work with a keyboardist, Johnathan Gering, who has a massive influence on our sound. He seems to curate the best ideas and helps us with our song writing. We also felt that all of us working together, we could bring the best out of each of us to make a really good album.

SMI: Do you have any personal or career highlights that you would like to share?
DePoyster: Definitely touring with KSE and Anthrax! But also being able to constantly play and tour and to go around the world especially festivals such as Download or Hellfest.

SMI: Any new bands or relatively unknown bands you may be into? What are some of your influences?
DePoyster: I really like Code Orange, and they just joined us on the tour – yes four bands on this tour! I also really love Caspian, though they aren’t heavy but they are very good. I am very into sleepy, dark, melodic death metal.  

SMI: Do you have any favorite cities that you like to play in?
DePoyster: Man, any city in Texas is always a good time. They love their metal in Texas! Orlando, FL is great! Chicago – most of us in the band live there so it’s always like a home coming show when he play there. Ohio, Michigan….man, we love playing, and every city is awesome and unique.

SMI: What are some of your favorite activities to do when you have down time while you’re on the road?
DePoyster: We are all sports fans, so we watch a lot of ESPN. We also like to do the touristy stuff, check out attractions and landmarks that are famous in each city we visit. We also like to frequent the local bar scene.

SMI: What is your opinion on the state of music today? Do you feel that the internet helps or hurts musicians and bands? How is it compared today as opposed to when TDWP first started?
DePoyster: Back when we started, back somewhere near 2005 or so, we just wanted to play. We just got out there, and played with thrash and punk bands and the thought of being a touring musician never crossed any of our minds. But, we went out there and earned out stripes. Young bands today have the convenience of the internet to help promote themselves. Streaming media such as Spotify really helps get the music out there. We get asked a lot by younger bands for career advice, and they only thing we can really say to them is play for the love of playing. If you’re in this to make money, you probably won’t be around for long. So, love what you do, love to play and things tend to work themselves out.

SMI: Any musician or band, living or deceased, regardless of genre or style, would you want to play with?
DePoyster: Pink Floyd – they have and will always be the greatest band. David Gilmour and Roger Waters wrote and played some of the greatest music of all time. The way they were able to get their thoughts, feelings and emotions into their style of playing is amazing.

SMI: Any plans for after this tour?
DePoyster: We go home for a bit, then we head to Europe to play some festivals. It’s like the entire continent of Europe comes out to these festivals – it’s pretty awesome! Then we head back home again for a bit and then we have another tour in the fall. We also have a few festivals here in the US that we will be playing and then in the fall we have a few surprises lined up that we can’t mention or talk about just yet. You’ll have to wait and see!

SMI: Thank you again for talking time today to speak with SMI. Looking forward to the show!
DePoyster: Thanks man! We’ll see everyone there! Can’t wait play in Seattle!

Tickets for the April 25^th show at the Showbox at the Sodo can be found here.