I Prevail faced skepticism from industry gatekeepers who refused to book them for shows because they dismissed the band as merely a cover act and a passing trend, Eric Vanlerberghe told Kerrang. The band responded by writing original material to prove their critics wrong.
Vanlerberghe explained how the dismissal affected the band in those early days and what they did to move forward.
“We struggled with people calling us ‘just a cover band’,” Vanlerberghe said. “We knew people in the industry who didn’t want to put us on a show because [they thought we were] just a flash in the pan.”
The guitarist pointed out the difference in how the band spent their time. “But we wrote an EP over the course of a year, and created that cover over the course of a weekend.”
After the EP came a larger goal. “Then we spent the next year writing a full-length record. A lot of the band’s sentiment was to prove everyone wrong. We put everything we had back into the live show and are actually writing better music than we’ve ever written before.”
The comments come as I Prevail worked to establish themselves as serious musicians with original work rather than the novelty act some had dismissed them as.
I Prevail formed in 2013 in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and initially gained attention through a viral metal cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in 2014. The cover became a Top 40 hit on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart and eventually reached platinum status in the US, but the success came with an industry perception that the band was defined by that single track. The guitarist’s comments reflect the struggle the band faced in moving beyond that initial viral moment and proving themselves as original artists.
The band released their first EP, Heart vs. Mind, on December 17, 2014, as their first chance to showcase original material following the cover’s success. Their debut studio album, Lifelines, arrived on October 21, 2016, with the single “Scars” leading the way. The album reached number 15 on the Billboard 200 and sold 19,500 copies in its first week, demonstrating that the band had built a real fanbase.
By 2019, I Prevail had developed a stronger sense of creative control. The band’s second studio album, Trauma, was released on March 29, 2019, and the group had taken a more independent approach to its sound and direction compared to their work on Lifelines. Vanlerberghe has described how the band felt more empowered in steering the album’s creative vision without outside interference. Trauma debuted as the fourth best-selling album of the week in the US upon its release, showing continued growth and audience support for the band’s original work.
