Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada recently had a chat with Loudwire before a show in New York. They covered a bit about Hranica’s short story Home For Grave and what this year holds in store for the band! Check it out!
Q: Lets talk about your book Home for Grave: A Somewhat Neverending Short Story and how this idea came about.
MH: I wrote something and put it out earlier in the year and Ive been trying to discipline myself about writing outside of the band more, which is what I used to do but the band takes a lot of effort and energy. When I had the idea to do Home for Grave the song was already in my mind the package of being a story also about the characters within the song. There was actually two people at first but after the song was edited I just kept it to the man rather than the man and the woman there was a woman in the song.
I love any sort of chance to write, especially something like that where I feel like its not an obligation but I make it an obligation for myself in order to force me to do it. I get lazy and I dont write as much as I should. It was just another project I got to enjoy. The idea of A Somewhat Neverending Short Story is just about that monotony of life and the mindless continuation and I wanted to call it a short story because I didnt want people to think it was a novel. Its a short story, which for some reason made people mad. Some people were like, Its not even a book, its just a short story. Ive read short stories that are three pages.
Q: What does writingliteraturedo for you mentally and emotionally that musicisn'table to do?
MH:I think that its encouraging for me and it energizes me to do more than just the band. Since joining the band I realized how much I love being busy, not too busy but if I slow down and get bored I know how miserable that makes me. Doing something like this and adding another layer to myself or to my entity, not that I really care, but its good. I know that Ive always wanted to write before I ever joined the band and being able to keep my heart on it is important.
Q: Have specific pieces of literature or authors influenced your writing and your music?
MH: I think there are hints of existentialism within something like First Sight. Authors like Camus or Satre, who I very much enjoy. Even like Dostoyevsky and different Russian stuff always inspires me. Dead Throne was very influenced by The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and his ability to use this metaphor character was the most brilliant thing to me. I wanted to create things like that and it even happens in 8:18 to where Im using the idea of her in the songs or she. On Dead Throne a bit of the time it was about a girl but then using it as she is misery in a song like R.I.T. was born out of what I perceive from The Screwtape Letters.
Q: What does 2014 hold in store for you and the band as a whole?
MH: Touring, lots and lots of touring with 8:18, within the United States, in fact so people should keep their ears and eyes open. Its that time to put out the record and then play it relentlessly. For me Im working on a few other things I cant really talk about. One main thing is more published work.
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