THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Frontman Wants Band To Progress Beyond 'Metalcore' Tag

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, EVERY 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.