In a new interview with Cutter’s Rockcast, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster spoke about the band’s last couple of singles, “For You”, which arrived in April, and “Ritual”, which was made available in 2024. Asked if those tracks are “a natural progression” in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA‘s musical evolution, Jeremy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We haven’t really said anything about it, but we have an album that we have pretty much finished that’s gonna come out later this year. And there’s a lot of heavy stuff on there too. Sometimes I just think I like putting out songs like this ’cause it riles people up and they’re, like, ‘Oh, this is how you are now’ and everything. I love it. I like to be hated on. My band is called THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. I’ve been made fun of my whole life, so I welcome it. [Laughs]”
He continued: “I think you just have to follow that weird feeling of excitement that you get when… I write so many songs. We as a band write so many songs and we don’t end up using a lot of ’em, and certain ones just have this, like, oomph to it, you know it’s special. And so I can think about the times in our career where things dipped down a little bit. I knew instinctually this isn’t right. It’s not exactly how I would wanna do it, and I wish I had chased that feeling more. But it’s more about just doing that and not listening to your team if they’re, like, ‘You need to put something out right now.'”
Jeremy added: “We took three years to make this new album, just because I’m, like, ‘I wanna wait until all the pieces are correct,’ and it actually matters and can have an impact.
“Being in a band 20 years ago was, like, we just wanted to make something new that no one had heard before. And it’s hard to do that over and over, but I feel like we finally have the space to be able to do it again.”
Elaborating on why it has taken THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA three years to complete the follow-up to 2022’s “Color Decay”, Jeremy said: “I think we’ve just been on the road so much, man. We literally are on tour for, like, seven or eight months out of the year, and we’ve just been hitting it hard here and in Europe and Australia and stuff like that. So it’s trying to balance… Basically, every time we would get home from a tour, we’d go out to L.A. and work on a bunch of music. And then I’m, like, ‘Well, I need to go home for, like, two or three weeks and hang out with my fiancée and my cat and stuff, ’cause we’ve been so much,’ and then I wanted to take a vacation. So it sounds like a long time, but it probably only was four or five months just spread out over three years. [Laughs]”
When “For You” first came out, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA stated about the song’s meaning: “A love story unraveling through the eyes of someone hopelessly devoted to a partner who can never truly give back. It’s the sound of desperation meeting blind loyalty — a crushing, cinematic anthem for the heartbroken. This is THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA at our most expansive, with our biggest chorus to date and a fearless step into the next evolution of our sound. We’re not just pushing boundaries — we’re redefining them.”
In an April 2025 video message, DePoyster stated about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to “Color Decay”: “We basically have been, for the last two or three years, spending all of our time not on the road just renting out studios and rental houses and stuff, writing so much music, just kind of working on what comes next after ‘Color Decay’. That was such a big moment for us and we really found our voice on the type of songs that we wanted to write and stories we wanted to tell.
“I think we still do have a lot of bad things in our head to say into the world,” he continued. “Even a song like ‘For You’, it’s a love song, but it’s a really sad love song.”
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA vocalist Mike Hranica added: “Jon [keyboardist Jonathan Gering] always makes a point of saying — well, all of us, I guess, make a point of saying — that we can’t write happy songs. But I think also just the fact that we’ve created so many. I think back in the day when making our early albums, we basically would write like 12 tunes and be, like, ‘All right, there’s our record.’ And now we’re, like, there’s dozens and dozens. And it’s certainly different now.
“It’s been quite a process since releasing ‘Color Decay’ and having that moment and doing so much touring around the world and whatnot,” Mike said. “And now we’re sitting on so many songs and refining and trying to perfect these things. Yeah, always working. And we’re excited to keep churning it out and put it out there.”
This past February, Hranica told U.K.’s Amped magazine about what fans can expect from the band’s upcoming LP: “ I think Jeremy‘s already kind of said this before, but we couldn’t make happy songs if our lives depended on it. So when the next record inevitably comes along, and we have a lot of songs we’re sitting on, people can expect to feel as sad as ever, because even when we kind of put it to the test to brighten things up, it’s, like, that’s just not THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA at all. So I don’t wanna say more of the same, because that’s the last thing that any artist wants to do, but it certainly hasn’t gotten brighter, I’ll say that.”
As for a possible release date for the next THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA LP, Mike said: “I think we’ll have a new record this year. We’ll see. And then hopefully this time next year back [on the road] in E.U., U.K. and, yeah, doing it all over again. [It will be] year 21 [for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA] by then, if we’re not dead. So, we’ll see.”
Last November, DePoyster confirmed to Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program “Wired In The Empire”, that he and his bandmates were working on a new THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA album. “We are, definitely,” he said. “I mean, it’s been about two years since we put [‘Color Decay’] out. But we’ve been working on that record for a couple years since before then. We’re really busy, like too busy. We’ve kind of spent every single moment that we’re not on tour going out to California and renting some studios and writing a bunch of stuff. So we’re sitting on a big pile of stuff.”
Asked if THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA still believes in “the album philosophy” as opposed to focusing on singles, Jeremy said: “Oh my gosh, yeah. Dude, I’m old school, man. I still like records. [Laughs]”
He added: “You know what? A couple of years ago, I had a bunch of people telling me the record is dead. It’s all about singles now. It’s all about short form. And then a bunch of my friends in other bands just kept putting out records and we kept putting out records. And I’m, like, I don’t think the suits really know what’s going on. I think the fans and the bands definitely know what’s going on. And I think people just, especially with physical media and putting an LP on and listening to it, there’s just something about just from start to finish, a really well-curated track listing, and that sets the vibe that I don’t think we’ll ever go away from.”
Asked if there is any sort of theme or direction for the new material that he and his bandmates have been working on so far, Jeremy said: “I think we all, particularly Mike and myself, and Jon, our keyboard player, that we write all the lyrics, and I think we all were, like, ‘Man, I’m in a really good headspace. My life’s really good. I’m feeling great. We’ve had a lot of great tours. My relationship’s awesome.’ And then we started writing, and it was, like, ‘Oh, man. This is so depressing and so soul crushing.’ And so I think there’s just these little demons lurking in there that come out when you put the pen down and you’re, like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know that was in there.’ … I think sonically, maybe I want it a little more upbeat, but it’s kind of like a pop song that just destroys your life type of thing — with some breakdowns. You can’t get away from the breakdowns.”
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA‘s headline “Metalcore Spring Break Tour” kicked off on April 17 in Wichita, Kansas and ran through May 14 in Charleston, South Carolina. ERRA, KINGDOM OF GIANTS and ACRES served as support. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA will also take part in the blockbuster “Summer Of Loud” tour with KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, BEARTOOTH, PARKWAY DRIVE, I PREVAIL, and more this June and July.
“Color Decay” followed 2019’s “The Act”. As Revolver stated when selecting the record as one of the “50 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2022,” “THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have proven time and time again that it’s possible to never stop sonically experimenting — with screamo, with spoken word, with atmospheric electronica, with sludge — and never lose their own crushing identity. Anticipating their next successful risk is one of the things that makes being a TDWP fan so rewarding.”
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have been consistently delivering since forming in 2005. Fans voted 2009’s seminal “With Roots Above And Branches Below” one of the “5 Greatest Metalcore Albums” in a Revolver poll, with the magazine christening it “a true metalcore landmark.” The group has notched six consecutive Top 5 debuts on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart, including “Dead Throne” (2011),“8:18” (2013),“Space” EP (2015),“Transit Blues” (2016),“The Act” (2019) and “ZII” EP (2021). The latter served as a sequel to one of their most beloved projects — 2010’s “Zombie” EP. In the wake of the EP, the group exceeded a quarter of a billion cumulative streams and views. During 2021, the musicians decamped to remote hideaways together in Wisconsin and Desert Hot Springs, California. This time around, keyboardist/programmer Jonathan Gering took the reins as producer, collaborating closely to assemble a rich sonic architecture for what would become “Color Decay”.
Photo credit: Imani Givertz
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