The Devil Wears Prada’s Daniel William’s Talks Music and Beliefs

The Devil Wears Prada has been around for 7 long years with its original line-up since day one. Drummer Daniel Williams talks to me about the band's first ever CD/DVD "Dead & Alive", excitement for this summer's Mayhem Festival views on Christianity.

1. You have been around for 7 years also maintaining your original line-up how does that make you feel?

Daniel: We’ve actually had an original ever since 7 years ago I guess. Only change is our key player parting ways with him. I’m blessed to be able to play with my best friends and able to play some awesome shows as well.

2. How does it feel to have recorded and shot for your first ever live CD/DVD are you happy with the results?

Daniel: I am definitely happy with the results we had a few hiccups along the way; Jeremy does all of the behind the scenes stuff and editing for it. But it was kind of an issue. We had gone overseas had all of this stuff made for the DVD and our deadline was coming up and as soon as we got back our manager hit us up for the content and Jeremy had gone to export all of that content and his hard drive crashed. So we lost everything that we had so he had to last minute make a new video throw all of the information off his backup hard drive to get it all set up it was a huge hassle but it came out really well. But the actually DVD looks amazing, editing was done well, sound is great, happy with how we played, can’t say I played everything right but we’ll see what people say in the review of the DVD. I’m really happy and stoked about it just as everyone else is because it was a fun experience for us.

3. Where was the DVD filmed and why did you pick this spot to do it in?

Daniel: It was filmed in Massachusetts at The Palladium and we choose there because we’ve played there numerous times before so we knew what to expect the venue size, how many people would show up, the stage, every time we’d play the crowds are awesome so we thought it’d be the perfect place to be. We’ve had the same production throughout the whole tour we wanted to show everyone exactly what we did on tour, the show, and on that tour and get everybody excited for the next tour.

4. Why did keyboardist James Baney leave the band and are you looking for a replacement?

Daniel: We split ways because it’s hard to work with certain people in general it’s sometimes hard to work creatively and is married and such so there were some reasons we decided to split and no we’re not looking for another keyboard player. Both of our guitarists are going to be writing the keys for future releases. We do have someone playing the keyboard parts but we are not going to be looking for a sixth member for The Devil Wears Prada.

5. How does it feel to be on this year's Mayhem Festival? What do you have planned afterwards?

Daniel: Very excited it feels great I can’t even believe our name is next to the bands we’re playing with. The acts are massive and I never imagined playing with bands like Slipknot or Slayer and is a blessing. Getting up there to play with them or meet them is awesome. After Mayhem I think we’re going to be doing some overseas touring with August Burns Red and Whitechapel. We’ve already did our headliner then did overseas tour already this year so being able to do Mayhem and another tour with Whitchapel is awesome I love those guys.

6. When it comes to performing each and every night does the time stand still or does it fly by when performing?

Daniel: I would the first 20 minutes or so flies bye. If I was playing a 30 set the set flies bye but if there’s an issue or my kick drum pedal breaks that set feels like forever. I don’t know why but it breaks that rush of adrenaline. It’s so hard to get back in and longer sets are tougher and make it feel like a longer time.

7. What is one special effect that you would want to use or see during your shows?

Daniel: Hmmm special effects pyro I want to blow stuff up on stage but at the moment I don’t think that’s possible for our band I think we might blow ourselves up first. But I think it would be awesome to do it one day or have enough money to be able to blow stuff up and not catch the venue on fire.

8. What about stage props what items would you want to use?

Daniel: We had on our Death Throne Tour which can also be seen on the DVD a logo made of LED lights that was our first kind of prop along with the stage lights and stuff like that. But I don’t know I think something Gwar style like a T-Rex eating someone out of the audience would be cool. But as far as my imagination goes on props that’s all I can think of right now.

9. What has been the biggest banner that you have used during any of your tours?

Daniel: We had one overseas and played the Download Festival and I think it was 30 by 40 feet it was massive. We brought it over there for a two week tour before but only used it once.

10. Have you ever thought about playing a prank or joke on the audience for example since you’re a metal band you come out on stage with acoustic guitars and then break them and just return to yourselves that's a creative but funny idea.

Daniel: We’ve never pranked the audience but we have pranked other bands before, throwing ping-pong balls at them, took a smoke machine one time and let the fog machine going on as this band was playing and when they were done it was so foggy you couldn’t see your own hand. Other things we’ve done are cleaned wrapped clothing and vans but we might have to change it up though.

11. Do you think talking about spirituality in music is becoming more popular and accepted in music?

Daniel: To me it’s weird because some people get bent out of shape and feel music has always been an outlet of a feeling or emotion or an idea out there. Every band out there; like a punk band talking about politics or a pop singer talks about love or a boyfriend or girlfriend or a metal band talking about our beliefs why does it matter? Music is always getting a point across even if it’s just to play the music and people should understand that and it’s a outlet for the artists and what the fans can enjoy. I think it should be accepted.

12. Does the band ever get criticized for not being Christian enough? How do you respond to those people?

Daniel: Yes actually sometime’s people would be like “you said damn or you’re drinking a beer” I think nowadays are more traditional than before and the Christians don’t care about the old ways. We’ve definitely gotten a lot of slack for not doing things the way someone else does them. But my response to that is we can’t stay true to ourselves there are hundreds of ideas people say but we do our own thing. I hope our fans can be more understanding of us and not everyone is the same and believe in different things and just the general idea of Christianity that’s the important part.

13. Anything else you'd like to say or add?

Daniel: I would like to add a shout out to my friends in a band called Danger Kids they just started and sound like Linkin Park and they’re super rad dudes an go check them out if you can. Also go pick up our new CD/DVD when it comes out!