The chances of becoming a rockstar are probably less probable than someone getting struck by lightning…but alas, it happens. How does it happen? You take an already popular pop song and make it into a metal song. If that song belongs to Taylor Swift, hell, you now have the power to control world markets and impact global climate change by writing a strongly worded email.
I Prevail did not need write a strongly worded email, but they took “Blank Space” and made it even better. For the rock world, we met “Blank Space” with a blank stare and a pit, and we jumped in feet first! I Prevail’s rendition of the catchy tune put them on path that can only be likened to instant notoriety and fame. With a cover with over 16 million views, and a debut album that is stellar beyond compare, I Prevail is not leaving any stone uncovered. They are touring visiously and voraciously!
We’ve had the amazing fortune to not only spend a lovely afternoon conversating with Brian Burkheiser, but we also capture some gorgeous concert photos of the band at the Hawthorne Theater, in Portland Oregon.
I Prevail formed about four years ago, it seems it just exploded after the “Blank Space” cover and BOOM!, here you are. So how did the overwhelming response affect the band?
It’s actually how I Prevail formed. I had left my previous band in 2013 and I had a sense of what I wanted my new band to be, but never knew or felt that I could accomplish it. I found a couple of guys through different social platforms (like Bandmix and YouTube). So, we got together and started writing. We pretty much spent all of 2014 under wraps, and couldn’t tell anybody but our families that we were doing this. It was kind of funny because we just kind of came out of nowhere. We finished writing our EP, and we found the Taylor Swift song and launched with that, and the EP came out afterwards. Ever since then it’s been crazy, but great!
I can imagine. You were keeping these under wraps from your family? Did your girlfriends or your wives wake up in the middle of the night and be like, “Who are you talking to?” and you are like, “Um. It’s Jake with State Farm.”
(Laughter) Well, we told immediate and close family and friends, but we pretty much kept it from everyone else (like bands we were friends with). It was just kind of nuts before it all came out, our video only had a couple thousand views, and what not, which was cool. Within the first month that cover had like 500,000 views on it. It was like shock and awe for everybody, not just us.
Are you all huge Taylor Swift fans?
Our drummer Lee Runstead was more of the big Taylor Swift aficionado out of the bunch. As a newer band, it’s hard to get people to listen to you. We were working on putting something on the Punk Goes Pop that Fearless puts out every year, covering songs that kind of get quick exposure. We were looking for song that had lyrics that could transfer to rock music. Lee had a leaked 1989 Taylor Swift album, before it even came out, and we were listening to the songs, and “Blank Space” came on, we were like, “holy crap! That actually could transfer to a rock song!” So, we went into the studio, and magic kind of happened!
So you all were in a bands prior to I Prevail?
Yeah, a couple of us were.
Where they similar in genre?
They were similar, but in a different direction than I wanted to go. I think for all of us, we kind of all felt that we weren’t getting to where we were aiming to be. When we all came together, we had a similar mind-set and what kind of music we wanted to put out. That’s why the music is so successful, because while we were writing it, everybody enjoyed what we were putting out.
Check out these great photos of I Prevail – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater – Aug 14th
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Photos by Terry White
You all have been labelled as a post-hard-core band Do you feel that an accurate statement? Is this where you saw yourself going prior to I Prevail?
Yeah, we don’t like to focus too much into one genre. Post-hard-core is probably the one we are labelled as the most. I think we are pretty spread out. We see everyone from 7 year olds to 60 year olds at our shows. I have people come up saying “You guys are like rock and roll,” and others are like, “it’s like hard-core music as opposed to post-hard-core.” We get labelled all sorts of things. Now we have an acoustic song on our EP. I like to think of ourselves as hard rock.
![I Prevail - Heart vs. Mind [EP] (2014)](http://rockrevoltmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/I-Prevail-Heart-vs.-Mind-EP-2014-300x300.jpg)
We all knew that the cover was going to do pretty well, because people were pretty familiar with the song, and I think we put a really good spin on it. So, we knew it would be the first thing that people would think when they came out to see us. It was going to either make or break it. The reaction on it was absolutely incredible when it first caught on. We were even more amazed that people would listen to the Taylor Swift cover and say, “Wow! This is good!” and then go listen to the EP, and that is when people say, “holy crap! I’m a fan of this band!” It’s been really cool, especially at all the shows. People are there yelling back the lyrics to “Blank Space”, but they are also yelling back the lyrics to the rest of the songs, which really makes all of us feel pretty good about ourselves.
That’s great affirmation. Upon release of Heart Vs. Mind, Jordan left the band. What happened there, if we may know?
It was a mutual thing, no bad blood. You know, for a while it kind of got crazy for everybody. He had a job and a girlfriend, and what not. We were two months in the dark and then it all went up on the web pretty quick. We mutually talked about it, and looked around and the things that were going on, and we both decided to part ways.
You added Tony and Dylan. So, it’s like you made a totally different band. How did this change I Prevail?
With five guys in my band, we are definitely better. I feel like we gained a huge bond with each other, especially being around each other every day. Once you spend morning and night with these guys, you get really comfortable around each other.
So, do you consider yourselves living in a dream now?
Yeah. Beyond anything that I could ask from Santa Claus, this is everything that I could have asked for! It’s nothing that would have expected initially. I mean, perhaps I would have expected it later, and worry about touring, and what not. The cover is almost at 15 million views, and our other videos have like over a million views on them. We’ve sold like 30 thousand EPs. If you would have told me that stuff, this time last year, I would have called you absolutely crazy!
You kicked off a tour a couple of months ago…
Yes. We started back out in March, and now we are finishing up the Crossroads tour, which is our third tour. We are coming off this tour and getting right back out there again with Hollywood Undead and Crown the Empire next month.
Very nice. I’m not going to ask the cliché questions about “how’s it going?” or “how are you holding up?” Tell me about what aspect of touring you feel you enjoy the most.
Getting to see fans come up to you and tell you how much your music has changed them. We have had someone tell us through someone how music has made a huge difference in their life. When you hear that, it hits you in a different way. That’s definitely one of the big ones. The aspect of large tours, and getting to tour America – I’ve been out of Michigan maybe twice in the last six years before we started the band and started touring. You can imagine the first tour, how that must have felt. Now it’s like “Holy crap!” Every day we wake up in a new city. It’s kind of funny, but the crowd is different just depending on the side of town you are on. On one end you might have a heavy hard-core scene, with a mosh pit, people hitting each other and on the other side of town, a crowd, but instead of moshing, they are jumping and doing stuff like that. It’s kind of cool to see the different aspects of America.
For your “Crossroads” song, I’ve read quotes that you wanted to deliver a positive message – specifically because some band members have dealt with the depression and anxiety. Is music how do you all cope with anxiety and depression?
Yeah. The moment when I am writing my song, when we want to put out a positive message, especially for Eric and I because we write a decent amount of our lyrics, we will go through all the stuff, especially with the depression. We just wanted to put a message out there that no matter what you are going through, you know you will be able to push through it. The lyrics aren’t written to mean nothing. We really want to put our hearts and souls into every word.
I mean as far as writing the lyrics is concerned , are you writing from personal experience or are you just putting out statements that are personal opinion?
Normally, when we get together in the studio, I bring an idea, we kind of experiment. It really works when you have multiple people that have feelings for the same subjects. Normally we will come out with an idea, and Eric will pitch it to everybody and we all come back and make a tweak here and a tweak there until it’s done. It always helps when multiple people in the band have had similar experiences, and can write about a similar story.
I Prevail – Crossroads (Official Music Video)
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Absolutely. Tell me about the “Crossroads” video. Did you have a hand in the concept for it?
Yeah. We really wanted to put out a positive video for that one. We didn’t want the fans to think that we are always out there drinking and partying, and just dicking around. (I mean, yeah, we are dicking around, having fun but we aren’t always drinking/partying. That’s just not us.) We want to make sure that people can see another side of us. We want them to see guys that six months ago were off for a couple of months, Brian was working at Dominos, Eric was working at IHOP. We don’t like to put out the rock star persona. We wanted our music and our video to reach as many fans as possible. Every night, unless the venue kick us out, we try to talk to every fan that is in there. So yeah, the concept of the lyrics on “Crossroads” is about keeping your head up. We are really happy with the way it turned out.
