The Devil Wears Prada Singer Mike Hranica on Their Upcoming Album (EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

Along with a live CD/DVD (Dead And Alive), a slot on the Mayhem Festival, and the departure of their keyboard player James Baney, The Devil Wears Prada had a crazy 2012.

As the group gear up for a big spring co-headlining tour with As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada lead singer Mike Hranica took some time from the band's hideout up in the Pacific Northwest to chat with Noisecreep. The band is up there right now composing songs for their next album.

So Mike, are you getting back into the swing of things after the holidays?

I am. We came off tour after being in Europe right in time for Thanksgiving which was nice because we're not usually home at that time. So I was able to visit my family in Chicago, kind of lay low through Christmas and really just catch my breath after a pretty crazy year of lots of touring.

You've got a co-headlining tour with As I Lay Dying coming up. What are you doing until then?

Actually, two weeks ago we all flew out here to Portland, Ore. and we started our writing process for the next album. Chris, our guitar player, lives out here so the rest of us came out and we rented a condo and have been diligently cranking out a lot of new tunes. It's a really great region for us to hang out in because it's a less stressful city, then say Chicago, but there's still good food and all that good stuff and not too many distractions. I will say we've been getting an amazing amount of stuff done here. I can't remember us ever being this productive and a lot of really good ideas are just flowing which is exactly what you want.

Can you give us any sort of sense of the direction of the new material?

Chris is the one that usually comes up with the riffs and some of the things he's got going right now are absolutely relentless. Since James left the band I have to say right now I'm very excited about how the keyboards are sounding, very dark and very intense. Vocally, I learned a lot working on the last record and I can tell you that I'm going further down the road as far as the misery and sadness of the lyrics. This will be darker than Dead Throne for sure.

Take us through the process of what happens when these songs are ready. When do you expect to be in the studio with them?

Well as soon as all the songs are done we will get into producer talks and all that stuff until we find the person we really want work with. Then as soon as the tour winds down will get into the studio and then hopefully just after after summer into fall will get the record out.

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Your fans are obviously very intense Mike, and I'm sure the thought of a new record gets them pretty amped up. Can you describe the relationship you guys have with your fans?

We really love our fans and have always tried to build the band into something to hold onto. We don't want this to be a temporary thing. This is a band we want the fans to be able to get into and have relations with and get pulled into all that we do. The show that we do and the music we create we think has heart and sincerity and if the fans can get an uplifting connection with that, then were happy. I check out our Tumblr account a lot and it always blows me away the connection we have with the fans who put the same amount of work and effort into us that we put into them.

Mike, as you've told us before, you write from a very dark place that contains lots of sadness. How do you balance that out with your faith, which is something we know that you take very seriously?

I've always liked depressing and dark music. For me it displays the most emotion and it speaks more truth than any other kind of music. For me, being a Christian involves a lot of truth and pain and so I do think there's a direct correlation with the way I write and my faith. The best way I can describe it is that I feel more when I hear sad and when I hear happy. And so that's what my writing comes from. As a writer I have to be honest and true to myself and the immediacy I feel from sadness is just something that's obviously deep down inside of me and something that's really important to me.

The Devil Wears Prada Visit Noisecreep

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The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying tour dates:

FEBRUARY

22 Ventura, CA Majestic Ventura Theater Half House

23 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst

24 Chico, CA Senator Theatre

26 Reno, NV Knitting Factory Concert House

27 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues

28 Los Angeles, CA Club Nokia

MARCH

1 San Diego, CA Soma

2 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre

3 El Paso, TX Tricky Falls

5 Corpus Christi, TX Concrete Street Amphitheater

6 San Antonio, TX Backstage Live

7 Dallas, TX House of Blues – Dallas

8 Lubbock, TX Cactus Courtyard

9 Oklahoma City, OK Diamond Ballroom

10 Memphis, TN New Daisy Theatre

12 Nashville, TN Rocketown

13 Charlotte, NC Amos' Southend

14 Charleston, SC The Music Farm

15 Norfolk, VA The NorVa

16 Silver Spring, MD The Fillmore

17 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre

19 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock

20 Huntington, NY Paramount Theater

21 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance

22 Williamsville, NY Club Infinity

23 Toronto, ON The Sound Academy

24, 25 Millvale, PA Mr. Smalls Theater

27 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall

28 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection

29 Milwaukee, WI The Rave

30 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue