"Comerica Park is really awesome, and we’ve always had great crowds there, so we’re really looking forward to it. "

Jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada talks about the message of their songs and why they love to be a part of the Warped Tour

By Paul Kitti

As the stage crews begin preparing Comerica Park for the musical tornado that is the Warped Tour, Jeremy DePoyster and his five band mates of The Devil Wears Prada are en route from Indianapolis to Detroit, eager to step through the arches beneath the two stone tigers and rock out at one of their favorite venues. With three albums under their belt and another to be released in September, these Warped Tour veterans have accumulated a massive fan base due to producing some the most high-quality metalcore music of the decade and putting on some of the most aggressive, memorable shows. The Devil Wears Prada was voted Band of the Year by readers of Alternative Press in 2009, and I expect the area in front of their stage to be the most congested space in Comerica Park this Friday. Jeremy DePoyster, guitarist and back-up vocalist, took a few minutes to talk to us about touring and the new album.

What can fans who are familiar with your previous material expect from the new album?

It’s in the same vein, musically. It’s kind of a mix of our last one, the “Zombie EP,” and our previous full length, “With Roots Above and Branches Below.” It’s kind of heavy, but at the same time, it’s more mature and a little more musical than the “Zombie EP.” That was really just a non-stop onslaught, and with this, we really tried to be more creative.

It seems many of your lyrics deal with issues of morality. What is the inspiration behind this?

I know a big part of the lyrical content, with Mike writing everything, was just two major themes: idolatry and anti-idolatry, and also, love loss. I think he was writing from some observations over the past couple years on those themes, especially with the idolatry theme. As a band, we’re really trying to concentrate on not lifting ourselves up. We are a Christian band, so obviously anti-idolatry is an important theme for us. Even in the current music scene there’s so much of “look at me, worship me, be like me…” and we just try to keep it down to earth because we’re just dudes likes everybody else and I think our fans appreciate knowing that we’re just normal people.

What sort of influences worked their way into the new album?

When Mike was writing lyrics, he just was like, “You know, I kind of want to write about these Christian themes, is that cool?” And, everybody was cool with it. So we kind of adopted early on in the shows talking about these themes, and it’s always been that way and it’s important to us. There’s a lot of negativity in other bands and I think that we just like to not be like that.

As a Christian band, how do you feel that playing metalcore music affects your influence?

We kind of have a weird position in that almost everything we do is real secular, with secular tours and playing in the normal secular world. But at the same time, we do have something to say, and as far as the secular music, I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal, whether Willie Nelson is talking about how he wants to smoke or somebody else is talking about how they want to be straight edge, I think a lot of people have stuff that’s important to them that they talk about in their music that, even if you don’t agree with it, you can still get into it. I think it’s like a two-edge sword. I don’t think anyone really will take away from our band that we’re too preachy, especially with the genre that we play in.

Back when your band formed in 2005, do you think you could have seen yourself where you are now?

Definitely not. I remember when we bought our first van, and I remember going on friend’s buses on our first big tour after we were like “wow, we would never do that” and now I’ve spent nine months out of the year for the last three years in a bus. So definitely not, but it’s kind of rad at the same time. You appreciate that stuff because you didn’t expect it.

What have been some highlights from the Warped Tour so far?

Really, our crowds have been awesome every day. I know it sounds simple, but that’s really what being out here is all about. Our fans have been really awesome and we’ve kind of been taking a strange direction, trying to simplify things like our imagery and the way we do things, and we’ve taken different chances with some stuff and our fans have been really receptive. They’ve kind of been growing up with us, as well as a lot of younger people starting to follow us. We haven’t played in the states in a year, since last summer, so it’s rad to come out and do it again and see all the fans still there and still supportive, and even growing, so I guess that’s been a big highlight.

What do you look forward to about coming to Detroit?

It’s a little close to home for us, being from Ohio originally, and always going up and playing in Detroit and the surrounding areas as a young band, it became almost a second home for us. Comerica Park is really awesome, and we’ve always had great crowds there, so we’re really looking forward to it. And my parents are coming out to that one, so that’ll be cool.

“Dead Throne” is the fourth full-length album from The Devil Wears Prada and will be released on September 3.