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Interview
The Devil Wears Prada's Jeremy DePoyster talks live DVD/CD & more
The Devil Wears Prada's Jeremy DePoyster talks live DVD/CD & more
By NEIL SHUMATE
Sitting at his home in Chicago drinking coffee, The Devil Wears Prada
guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster is joined by his two anxious dogs
anticipating company.
“Every time I get a phone call, the dogs think someone is coming over to
the house,” said DePoyster. “So every time I get a call they’re like, ‘is
someone here?!’”
DePoyster's plans for the day? Watch some "Game Of Thrones," pick
up his wife from work and check out a new arcade in town.
During an interview with Out Of The Blue, Dayton, Ohio native
DePoyster spoke about Mayhem Fest, the band’s live DVD/CD
documentary Dead & Alive, the metalcore band’s seven-year
relationship with religion, sports and writing new material on the road.
How did your band become part of this year’s Mayhem Fest?
We’ve talked to Kevin Lyman about it and known him for years because
of Warped Tour and we’ve talked to him for a long time about doing it.
We are a metal band, we like that side of things. And as much as we
enjoyed Warped, there’s just so much more that we can relate to on the
Mayhem side of things, which is a little more respectable in certain
aspects. He brought it up to us and sent the line up over and our
manager said, "what do you think of Mayhem with Slipknot and Slayer?"
and we’re like, "why are you asking us, where do we have to sign?"
Whitechapel and As I Lay Dying, it’s just an awesome lineup and an
awesome, awesome thing to be part of.
When you play heavier music what carries your passion on stage,
what fuels the anger?
I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn’t say it’s anger. It's kind of a
feeling. We grew up going to hardcore shows and moshing and there's
energy that you can’t really explain, you just feel. I don’t think it’s
necessarily anger towards anyone. It’s just this powerful energetic
feeling and we still try to have that on stage as much as we can. It’s
more pumpedupness. I guess it's the same as going out on the football
field--you don’t want to actually physically hurt the other guy, but you
want to go out there and ruff it up a little bit. I think being a live band is
what being a band is all about. It’s what separates rock music from pop
and electronic and all these different genres is that it’s an energy and it’s
meant to be experienced live.
The band recently released a DVD/CD combo titled Dead & Alive
and you played a big role with filming and editing.
It’s something I’ve done for a long time now. Like three years ago I got a
camera. I’ve always been interested in film. I love movies. When the
DSLR movement came in I was like wow, I can’t buy an 18 thousand
dollar camera, but I grabbed a DSLR and started filming and I’m lucky
enough to be in a job where everything around me is pretty exciting
most of the time. I just had years of fotage put together and especially
from filiming The Dead Throne Tour and I had Andy [Trick, bassist] help
me interview all the guys about what being in a band is all about, which
is a focus of the behind the scenes stuff. It's what being in this band is
all about and what it means to us. I think it’s interesting for people to find
that stuff out. I saw the Foo Fighters' documentary and I think that’s one
of my favorite music documentaries and they're just super intimate and
honest and I tried to take that vibe into it. We put that together. Even
when it came to the live stuff we probably went through 45 or 50
different edits in the band alone of each person in the band being happy
with each shot. It’s a testament to the fact that the guys in the band
really care about it and what we do, it’s not just sitting around going,
"whatever man, put this thing out." It’s something we really care about.
Since you’re into movies, what actor would you say could play
your life in a movie?
Oh man, someone with long hair I guess. I don’t know. I have no idea.
Russell Crowe? (laughs) Maybe McLovin’ with longer hair! (laughs)
You released the last album Dead Throne almost a year ago. Are
you guys writing now or planning to?
I think we’re actually gonna be really starting the writing process on
Mayhem. Chris [Rubey, guitarist] has jammed out some stuff on his
laptop. I heard a couple things that are exciting. We’ve just been working
on getting our keyboard library together and getting ready for that. I think
Mayhem will be a real serious dive into what direction we want to go
with and planning. It’s been a year like you said, so it’s about that time.
Any plans to replace James?
We have a guy playing keyboards for us right now that we really like and
get along with. As far as the creative stuff goes I think most of that will
fall on us. With Joey Sturgis, Joey’s been a massive chunk of what you
actually hear on the records with keyboards anyways for the past few
years and few albums. Most of the stuff on Zombie EP and Dead
Throne have been from the brain of Joey. I don’t think you’ll see a mass
difference, if anything I think it’ll be a little cooler. We’ll definitely never
get rid of that as far as having someone do it in the live show. If you
don’t have it there, there’s no use having it.
Do you ever experiment with other genres of music?
When I’m at home that’s kinda what I do every day. If I’m not doing the
video stuff, I’m just jamming out different stuff and learning new things.
I’ve been super into keyboard stuff lately, so I have this massive library
of different things that I’m playing around with. I guess if you have a
creative personality you can’t stop creating. I just don’t have anything
ready to put out into the world at this moment.
What's been the band's biggest strength and inspiration?
We are a Christian band, that’s a super important thing to us. Obviously
that’s not something that we feel takes away from the secular audience
at all. But it is something super important to us. For me personally and
the rest of the guys we’ve grown into what that really means. We
started out as young kids that maybe had a church background or not,
but nowadays it’s more of a realistic look at things and not just a
contemporary American Puritan influenced view of what a church
means, but what an intimate relationship with God actually means and
that's really driven us. I think the more we discover how we really feel
about that kind of stuff the more it drives us to go out there and tell
people that may be turned off to the normal understanding of what that
really is. I think if you look at the history of the church and the things that
actually happened and what Jesus has to say, you'd see that it's a lot
different than what the majority of quote Christians in this country are
tyring to push out there. It's not a whole lot of love, it's a whole lot of hate
it seems and it shouldn't be that way I guess.
You've said you're a pretty big sports fan. Do you play any sports?
I did when I was a kid. Baseball for 10 years, soccer growing up, football
for two years. I did the American kid play’em all kind of thing. I love
sports. I can turn on ESPN anytime of the day and be happy with
whatever’s on. I’m lucky my wife is even more of a Bengal's fan than I
am. I’m like "wow, this is awesome!"
So, if music hypothetically didn’t exist at all, do you think sports
would be your second option?
No, because I’m very small and weak. I’d definitely watch it though, I’d
be sitting around on my couch watching it all day. I could be one of
those guys with a giant camera lens on the sideline. (laughs)
What made you move to Chicago?
I started dating this girl, like four maybe closer to five years ago, and she
lived in Cincinnati then she moved up to Chicago and then I moved to
Chicago for her and we got married. I moved here for a girl, but if you’re
from the Midwest, it’s kind of like the capital of Midwest. New York is just
a little too much for me in my lifestyle because I’ve gone so much, it
wouldn’t be enough bang for my buck out of it. Even though I love that
city. It just kinda makes sense to be here. Subsequently Andy moved up
here and Mike [Hranica, vocalist] moved here. The three of us live here
so it’s kind of our homebase hub. All of our gear is here and we meet up
here for practice and leave for the tour here.
You started playing when you were 10 and joined the band when
you were 15. Where do you see yourself in maybe 10 more years.
I love my band and I’m married and I have a lot of ideas. I would love to
start another band some day, maybe do that or do the video stuff or who
knows. I stopped trying to predict it years ago.
guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster is joined by his two anxious dogs
anticipating company.
“Every time I get a phone call, the dogs think someone is coming over to
the house,” said DePoyster. “So every time I get a call they’re like, ‘is
someone here?!’”
DePoyster's plans for the day? Watch some "Game Of Thrones," pick
up his wife from work and check out a new arcade in town.
During an interview with Out Of The Blue, Dayton, Ohio native
DePoyster spoke about Mayhem Fest, the band’s live DVD/CD
documentary Dead & Alive, the metalcore band’s seven-year
relationship with religion, sports and writing new material on the road.
How did your band become part of this year’s Mayhem Fest?
We’ve talked to Kevin Lyman about it and known him for years because
of Warped Tour and we’ve talked to him for a long time about doing it.
We are a metal band, we like that side of things. And as much as we
enjoyed Warped, there’s just so much more that we can relate to on the
Mayhem side of things, which is a little more respectable in certain
aspects. He brought it up to us and sent the line up over and our
manager said, "what do you think of Mayhem with Slipknot and Slayer?"
and we’re like, "why are you asking us, where do we have to sign?"
Whitechapel and As I Lay Dying, it’s just an awesome lineup and an
awesome, awesome thing to be part of.
When you play heavier music what carries your passion on stage,
what fuels the anger?
I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn’t say it’s anger. It's kind of a
feeling. We grew up going to hardcore shows and moshing and there's
energy that you can’t really explain, you just feel. I don’t think it’s
necessarily anger towards anyone. It’s just this powerful energetic
feeling and we still try to have that on stage as much as we can. It’s
more pumpedupness. I guess it's the same as going out on the football
field--you don’t want to actually physically hurt the other guy, but you
want to go out there and ruff it up a little bit. I think being a live band is
what being a band is all about. It’s what separates rock music from pop
and electronic and all these different genres is that it’s an energy and it’s
meant to be experienced live.
The band recently released a DVD/CD combo titled Dead & Alive
and you played a big role with filming and editing.
It’s something I’ve done for a long time now. Like three years ago I got a
camera. I’ve always been interested in film. I love movies. When the
DSLR movement came in I was like wow, I can’t buy an 18 thousand
dollar camera, but I grabbed a DSLR and started filming and I’m lucky
enough to be in a job where everything around me is pretty exciting
most of the time. I just had years of fotage put together and especially
from filiming The Dead Throne Tour and I had Andy [Trick, bassist] help
me interview all the guys about what being in a band is all about, which
is a focus of the behind the scenes stuff. It's what being in this band is
all about and what it means to us. I think it’s interesting for people to find
that stuff out. I saw the Foo Fighters' documentary and I think that’s one
of my favorite music documentaries and they're just super intimate and
honest and I tried to take that vibe into it. We put that together. Even
when it came to the live stuff we probably went through 45 or 50
different edits in the band alone of each person in the band being happy
with each shot. It’s a testament to the fact that the guys in the band
really care about it and what we do, it’s not just sitting around going,
"whatever man, put this thing out." It’s something we really care about.
Since you’re into movies, what actor would you say could play
your life in a movie?
Oh man, someone with long hair I guess. I don’t know. I have no idea.
Russell Crowe? (laughs) Maybe McLovin’ with longer hair! (laughs)
You released the last album Dead Throne almost a year ago. Are
you guys writing now or planning to?
I think we’re actually gonna be really starting the writing process on
Mayhem. Chris [Rubey, guitarist] has jammed out some stuff on his
laptop. I heard a couple things that are exciting. We’ve just been working
on getting our keyboard library together and getting ready for that. I think
Mayhem will be a real serious dive into what direction we want to go
with and planning. It’s been a year like you said, so it’s about that time.
Any plans to replace James?
We have a guy playing keyboards for us right now that we really like and
get along with. As far as the creative stuff goes I think most of that will
fall on us. With Joey Sturgis, Joey’s been a massive chunk of what you
actually hear on the records with keyboards anyways for the past few
years and few albums. Most of the stuff on Zombie EP and Dead
Throne have been from the brain of Joey. I don’t think you’ll see a mass
difference, if anything I think it’ll be a little cooler. We’ll definitely never
get rid of that as far as having someone do it in the live show. If you
don’t have it there, there’s no use having it.
Do you ever experiment with other genres of music?
When I’m at home that’s kinda what I do every day. If I’m not doing the
video stuff, I’m just jamming out different stuff and learning new things.
I’ve been super into keyboard stuff lately, so I have this massive library
of different things that I’m playing around with. I guess if you have a
creative personality you can’t stop creating. I just don’t have anything
ready to put out into the world at this moment.
What's been the band's biggest strength and inspiration?
We are a Christian band, that’s a super important thing to us. Obviously
that’s not something that we feel takes away from the secular audience
at all. But it is something super important to us. For me personally and
the rest of the guys we’ve grown into what that really means. We
started out as young kids that maybe had a church background or not,
but nowadays it’s more of a realistic look at things and not just a
contemporary American Puritan influenced view of what a church
means, but what an intimate relationship with God actually means and
that's really driven us. I think the more we discover how we really feel
about that kind of stuff the more it drives us to go out there and tell
people that may be turned off to the normal understanding of what that
really is. I think if you look at the history of the church and the things that
actually happened and what Jesus has to say, you'd see that it's a lot
different than what the majority of quote Christians in this country are
tyring to push out there. It's not a whole lot of love, it's a whole lot of hate
it seems and it shouldn't be that way I guess.
You've said you're a pretty big sports fan. Do you play any sports?
I did when I was a kid. Baseball for 10 years, soccer growing up, football
for two years. I did the American kid play’em all kind of thing. I love
sports. I can turn on ESPN anytime of the day and be happy with
whatever’s on. I’m lucky my wife is even more of a Bengal's fan than I
am. I’m like "wow, this is awesome!"
So, if music hypothetically didn’t exist at all, do you think sports
would be your second option?
No, because I’m very small and weak. I’d definitely watch it though, I’d
be sitting around on my couch watching it all day. I could be one of
those guys with a giant camera lens on the sideline. (laughs)
What made you move to Chicago?
I started dating this girl, like four maybe closer to five years ago, and she
lived in Cincinnati then she moved up to Chicago and then I moved to
Chicago for her and we got married. I moved here for a girl, but if you’re
from the Midwest, it’s kind of like the capital of Midwest. New York is just
a little too much for me in my lifestyle because I’ve gone so much, it
wouldn’t be enough bang for my buck out of it. Even though I love that
city. It just kinda makes sense to be here. Subsequently Andy moved up
here and Mike [Hranica, vocalist] moved here. The three of us live here
so it’s kind of our homebase hub. All of our gear is here and we meet up
here for practice and leave for the tour here.
You started playing when you were 10 and joined the band when
you were 15. Where do you see yourself in maybe 10 more years.
I love my band and I’m married and I have a lot of ideas. I would love to
start another band some day, maybe do that or do the video stuff or who
knows. I stopped trying to predict it years ago.
| ootb646.com |
Jeremy DePoyster at Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival in Cincinnati (2012).
Photo by Jared Perkins, Out Of The Blue Publications.
Photo by Jared Perkins, Out Of The Blue Publications.
Jeremy DePoyster at Vans Warped Tour in Cincinnati (2009).
Photo by Neil Shumate, Out Of The Blue Publications.
Photo by Neil Shumate, Out Of The Blue Publications.
The Devil Wears Prada. Photo Courtesy of Publicity.
Jeremy DePoyster at Sounds Of The Underground in Columbus (2007).
Photo by Neil Shumate, Out Of The Blue Publications.
Photo by Neil Shumate, Out Of The Blue Publications.
Cover of The Devil Wears Prada's latest release, a live DVD/CD, Dead & Alive.
Visit TDWP official Website
Visit TDWP on Facebook
Visit TDWP on Twitter
Purchase Dead & Alive Bundle
Visit TDWP official Website
Visit TDWP on Facebook
Visit TDWP on Twitter
Purchase Dead & Alive Bundle