With Mayhem achieved, it’s big-time time

“The timing always seemed to be off,” says lead singer Mike Hranica during a recent phone interview from California. “We always felt like we had to do the Warped because if you miss a year, fans write you off as a band. But it’s going to be our first year on Mayhem and we’re excited because the tour has a great lineup and we’re going to be on the main stage. It’s a dream come true.”

This year’s lineup also consists of Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, Motörhead and Whitechapel. The tour makes a stop in Albuquerque Saturday, July 7.

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“We’ve been fans of these bands for so long, it’ll be great to share the stage with them,” Hranica says. “They are also all great guys and it’s good to actually know the bands that you are on the road with.”

Devil Wears Prada started in 2005 in Dayton, Ohio. The band, which consists of Jeremy DePoyster, Chris Rubey, Andy Trick, Daniel Williams and Hranica, is categorized as metalcore but also is a Christian band. It has released four full-length albums, with its latest being 2011′s “Dead Throne.” It also released its first live DVD/CD, called “Dead & Alive,” on June 22.

Hranica says the band decided to do this project to expand its show.

“We’ve been an opening band for a lot of the bigger bands,” he explains. “We’ve paid our dues, and this was our first really big headlining tour. We were able to bring out a different lighting package as well as just making our stage better. It was the perfect opportunity to capture this on film.”

Because the band had never dealt with filmmaking, putting the DVD together was a big task. Hranica says there were times that the process got frustrating because the members wanted to capture the tour in its entirety.

“We were under the pressure to make sure that we had enough material,” he says. “It would have turned out really bad if we would have finished the tour and didn’t have much footage to show for it. When we had travel days, we would watch the footage and work with the director on what we’d like to see as well.”

Hranica says it was important for the band to stay involved with the project very closely.

“It became like working on a music video,” he explains. “We were going back and forth with the director. We’d give him edits and he would come up with new ideas and angles to tell the story.”

While Devil Wears Prada tours this summer, Hranica say the band will more than likely head into the studio after the Mayhem tour.

“We’ve been demoing some songs and should have a good chunk of the next album written,” he says. “But we also may have more touring to do, so it’s all depending on how much longer we have to tour off the album.”