(Photo Credit: Anthony Barlich)
Birthed from the hardcore and metalcore scenes of the start of the millennium, The Devil Wears Prada are now a decade in as a band and more vibrant than ever. Through the release of the latest project, the Space EP, the band went through a bit of a transition period beforehand with the exit of guitarist Chris Rubey, forcing them to re-access things and as a result, the band has a fresh sort of energy.
Currently on the road with Motionless in White for their co-headlining Apollo X Tour, I was able to chat with guitarist Jeremy DePoyster over the phone while on their stop in Montreal, and we talked about the new EP, the band's history, and the love for his hometown Ohio sports teams.
How's the response of the Space EP been since it's come out?
It's been incredible. It's really hard to find anything bad about it, which is usually a good sign. It's been really awesome. We're really pumped on it. We worked really hard on it. Now we are out here playing a bunch of new songs, like playing the whole EP actually. That response has been really incredible as well.
The band has been around for about ten years now. What are your memories about those early years?
Painful! (laughs) We were young kids. We had no expectations or anything like that. We just started playing for fun. We ended up sending off the demo to a couple labels and got picked up, and even then, it was just the grunt work going out and playing for 20-30 people a night. We worked hard to get our van and our gear and all that kid of stuff. Honestly, it's not that dissimilar to now. We are just down for whatever, playing with whoever. We did a bunch of stuff with Silverstein and those guys really hooked us up back in the day. Just tried to find as many launching platforms as we could to do our thing.
Do you remember that time when you realized that this band could be something we could do for a long time?
I don't know if I ever felt that. It was just certain things like we did a tour with Silverstein and A Day To Remember back in the day and that was about the time I guess things were really starting to take off and response at the shows were really incredible. I guess that's when we started making decisions a little differently just because we knew there was some demand.
When things were really starting to cook for you guys, when you look out into the crowd, what was the feeling you had? What did you see out in the crowd?
It was crazy. There's the whole mosh pits and that whole thing. I guess people just singing along to songs you wrote is pretty crazy and awesome. We grew up going to shows in this kind of scene, so that was pretty cool.
Going into write/record the Space EP, what was overall mood of the band when you are just figuring things out for it?
Actually, things were really cool. Things were very new for us. Chris [Rubey] has just left the band, so there was a "figuring things out" phase. We've made so many records by this point, but the process as far as writing and recoding was so different without him, it was just fun and exciting see who was going to come up with what and get a new dynamic into things. It was just fun. I remember so many times the six of us just sitting in the studio listening back to every track, every take form every body and just being so excited and so creative, so much more so than the last couple albums I guess. Not to say we didn't have that on the last few, but just the group mentality was so much higher on this.
I hear you are quite the videography and you've done a lot of the band's video clips. What are some of your favorite ones or the most interesting ones?
I like the "Martyrs" video. That was really fun. Andy [Trick] and I shot a bunch of the footage and I just sourced a bunch of the b-roll stuff, and chopped it up and did some edits. I ended up drawing up all the lyric overlays and stuff by hand in Photoshop and doing a bunch of film effects. It was a lot of stress, but it was fun. I was really, really, really into the whole tour docs for a long time, but I guess it just got a little overwhelming trying to capture everything all of the time but stuff be a part of it at the same time. I slowed down at that stuff a little bit, but we're trying to ramp that back up our here and get some more stuff and do it.
If you weren't doing music, would doing video stuff be something you would be into?
Yeah, totally! Big time! That's another thing where I think it would be fun to just be out with a band and be able to capture it the whole time and not actually be a part of it. Just see it from a different set of eyes or even to do a video a little bit removed.
I was looking on your Instagram and I see you have a lot of sports related pictures. All your favorite teams are a mix of Chicago and Ohio teams. Are you originally from Ohio?
Yeah, I'm from Dayton originally, so hence the Bengals and Buckeye love.
I'm here in Detroit, so the Buckeyes are like...
We'll settle that score!
We have a long rivalry with you guys!
What's funny is that my stepmom is from Detroit so it's kind of like a house divided with her and her kids and my dad and us kids. They are all dirty Wolverines! It's get really fun around that time of year!
What do you hope the legacy of this band is?
I really just hope it represents the fact that was just always tried to do the best we could with what we had. I think that just because we came up in that whole metalcore/hardcore scene, actually really more of a hardcore scene, that was the influence we brought into the songs we were making then. I think as things moved on and we started getting into other of metal and other kinds of music, we tried to bring those influences in. I think we always try to write the best songs that we could at the time that we were writing them and I still think that's what we do. We are not really chasing any gimmicks. We are not trying to do those things, and not to say there is anything wrong with that because I like a lot of bands that do that kind of stuff. That's just not who we are. We always just tried to do the best we could with the skills that we had. I guess I would hope that is a legacy. Just really honesty, we have always been very upfront that we're just regular dudes doing the thing. The reason we have such big productions on our tours and shows is that we want there to be that connection between us and the crowd and the songs we are trying to playing at the show. It should be a shared experience, and I know that sounds kind of hippy and ethereal.
VENUE CHANGE: The show has been moved to Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit.
The Devil Wears Prada is currently co-headlining the Apollo X Tour with Motionless In White along with special guests Upon A Burning Body, The Word Alive, and The Color Morale. They hit Detroit Sunday, October 25th at Saint Andrews Hall. The Devil Wears Prada's latest release "Space EP" is now available. For more information, visit tdwpband.com.