Braving the freezing Illinois plains of DeKalb for a show two days prior to Christmas, The Devil Wears Prada put on a sold out headlining show at the tiny House Café with definitely heated things up. Half of the band was sick with the flu, but I got a quick word it with vocalist Mike Hranica while avoiding his coughs and sniffles.

 

Alright, so I'm here with -

Mike, of The Devil Wears Prada.

Maggie: Alright! So you guys got this bug, this virus that's going around.

Mike: We do. Well, actually I think only two of us are sick sick but everyone else – Chasing Victory had to drop off the tour because they were sick.

Maggie: They were supposed to leave the tour yesterday anyway, weren't they?

Mike: Yeah, but they didn't play.

Maggie: Aww!

Mike: They were sick.

Maggie: Aww. So how did you guys get this tour pieced together? This small headlining run?

Mike: Our booking agent Dave – Chris and I's best friend from high school – he just got when we would be off and just booked dates around when we would be off. Basically and that's about it.

Maggie: Awesome. Seems like a lot of fun.

Mike: (Cough) I'd be having more fun if I wasn't sick, but.. I love being back on the road.

Maggie: Well yeah. You guys played Cornerstone this past year, right? You played a generator stage?

Mike: Yeah, two of them.

Maggie: Two of them? Wow.

Mike: Two of them, yes.

Maggie: Are you guys coming back this year? Are you still going to play a generator or, like, one of the Encore's?

Mike: It's hard to say right now, but I'd say from my perspective that there's a good possibility that we will be playing Cornerstone again, and if we do play Cornerstone again it definitely won't be on a generator! (Laughs)

Maggie: It was so hot this year though.

Mike: (Coughs) Yeah it was, it was horrible.

Maggie: It was crazy.

Mike: Uh huh.

Maggie: I know you guys probably get this question more than you'd like: but where did you choose the name The Devil Wears Prada? Was it from the movie or the book, or did it come from something deeper than that?

Mike: I wasn't in the band when they named it, it was just James, Dan and Chris. I joined when they already had the name. Chris got it from the book. He named it from the book, because, you know, it was catchy and cool. It was before the book was a best seller. So, we did that and then we developed our own meaning for it and everything, which is completely different from the movie.

Maggie: So.. you guys are a young band. Like, your members – your 17, right?

Mike: I turned 18.. is today Saturday?

Maggie: Yep.

Mike: I turned 18 exactly one week ago. So I guess I'm not that young anymore.

Maggie: (Laughs) You're still pretty young! Do you ever get slack for being young?

Mike: Do you mean do people take it easy on us or do people make it harder?

Maggie: Do people make it harder.

Mike: (Coughs) Uhm.. definitely not other bands. Venues. We've had some venues that treat us like jerks, probably because they judge us for being young. For the most part people are just pretty surprised about what we're doing at such a young age or whatever.

Maggie: Awesome. So are you stoked to be heading home now?

Mike: I am. My family loves lives all over the U.S. Right now they're all already at my house so I get to spend time with them and my girlfriend and eat oatmeal. Hopefully my throat will be better by the beginning of next tour.

Maggie: Speaking of next tour, what are you guys doing after Christmas?

Mike: We're finishing up this tour even though LoveHateHero and Chasing Victory won't be with us. It'll just be us and The Human Abstract. (Coughs) It's like four or five new dates. So...we're just trying to set up some more shows.

Maggie: Okay. I actually have a question from a fan who heard that Jeremy is a big fan of the Wii. Is that true?

Mike: The videogame Wii?

Maggie: Yeah, the system.

Mike: Jeremy actually isn't. The Wii fan is Dan, who was making people scream the night the Wii came out.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Daniel: Huh?

Mike: The Wii.

Daniel: Oh, yeah..

Mike: He's not that enthusiastic. Probably after he found out it's just a childish videogame.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Mike: Andy plays it a lot too. I'd say Andy and Dan are the Wii fans.

Maggie: (Laughs) Awesome. If you could be any animal, what would you be?

Mike: (Coughs) Usually I'd say dog because I watch my dogs lay around and sleep and I envy them for being able to sleep so much. But.. I don't know. Probably something small. Maybe a swallow.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Mike: I'll go with that, that's pretty jazzy.

Maggie: Jazzy? (Laughs) I would like to give you a break from the mediocre questions, especially since you're not feeling well. I want to stay away from the "so, how's your album writing going?!", you know? Unless you want to comment on that.

Mike: Actually, I will. We're writing for the next album right now and we're really slow song writers because we're trying to be as perfect as we humanly can. So we're trying to get that next album together, which is what we've been doing during the week. We've practiced three times or something like that, so. We're all very, very happy with the way the new songs are coming out. (Coughs) We've proposed like a million parts, but we very rarely accept them, we don't feel like they're good enough. So we've been very critical on picking our new parts. We have a little bit less than half done, but hopefully by mid-2007 we'll have a new album out and it should be even better.

Maggie: Awesome! That's really exciting. Do you have questions for me? Is there anything random you want to ask?

Mike: (Long silence) When will my throat stop hurting?

Maggie: When you go home and sleep. And enjoy Christmas. And eat your oatmeal.

Mike: Oh!! That's a good answer!

Maggie: (Laughs) It's hard to believe Christmas is here. It's not even snowing. Does that upset you at all?

Mike: I think my mom will be upset if there's no snow on Christmas.

Maggie: Aww.

Mike: (Picks at his retainer) I definitely need to wash my grill.

Maggie: (Laughs) Ew!

Mike: After all this coughing and stuff

Maggie: Ew, yeah! So, thank you so much. Is there anything you want to add?

Mike: Uhhhh... Texas is South, baby.

We’d like to thank Mike for the interview!

LINKS

* Click here for the Cornerstone 2006 Review

* www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhakCDeMlY <-- The Devil Wears Prada playing

"Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over"