Nothing screams the origin story of a metal band more than… Taylor Swift? Michigan formed I Prevail saw their success catapulted after a 2014 cover of “Blank Space” went viral, and has since been certified Platinum. Now, they have a record deal, multiple Grammy nominations, headline tours around the world, and a new album is in the works.
Playboy sat down with Eric Vanlerberghe (Lead Vocalist) and Steve Menoian (Lead Guitarist) to talk about the new album. Plus, we learned the one video game that almost broke up the band, and discovered one of the best green room requests we have ever heard.
Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity—watch the video clips to see more detail!
Playboy: How many card packs did you buy to try and get the one ring for Magic: The Gathering?
Eric Vanlerberghe: That set? Lord of the Rings is cool, but I think I bought a box or two and that was really it.
Playboy: Saving your bank account, huh?
Steve Menoian: At this point in the tour, Eric’s getting gifted hundreds of cards a day, so I feel like he doesn’t even need to buy them anymore.
Playboy: A lot of the guys in the band are gamers—do you all play Mario Party together or would that immediately break you guys up?
Eric: No, what almost broke up the band was NHL!
Steve: We’re more sports video game guys and we went through a really dark period with NHL. It brings out the absolutely most toxic side of all of us and we had some really iffy nights. I was really good, at one point I was ranked in the top 20 of all online players so it was just a very toxic time for me. I’m retired now—I won’t touch it. I’m clean. I won’t do that to the fans.
Playboy: This is the first time you guys are writing while on the road. Does that tiny tour bus space remind you of that trailer where you did the Fearless showcase back in 2015?
Eric: That’s a great question. This is the first time where we’ve started writing instead of taking a whole year off to work on a record. On off days we’ll just meet in a hotel room and start something. For me personally, I’ve really enjoyed it because I’m in the flow of touring and I’m in the flow of performing, so when we’re we’re demoing vocals, I feel like “oh I’ve been doing this live” and I’m in tune with that what how I could pull off each song. It’s opened me up a little bit more creatively.
Steve: I feel like nowadays, to stay competitive, you have to release so much more music and you can’t do the old tour for two years and then go make a record for a year. I feel like that doesn’t work anymore. A funny tidbit from probably not even a week ago: we were at a really old, shitty hotel in Jersey and ended up in what felt like a conference room or business boardroom. We were there writing and talking analytically about the songs. It felt like the lamest cliché of what people think labels do—sitting around and wondering what kids are listening to. We write in many weird places: tour buses, hotels, venues, a lot of stuff internationally. It’s inspiring to be in new environments.
How did you get a label to come and check you out in the first place?
Steve: I feel like we had it super easy, we just got… I don’t know if lucky is the right word but there was definitely some luck involved. Our cover of Blank Space just blew up on YouTube so we were getting a lot of phone calls.
There’s something about the grind that I feel is good for bands to go through that whole process and we had our own challenges [without going through that]. Sometimes I look at other bands and I’m kind of jealous of that early, really tough phase because I feel like it does a lot for you as an artist.
Playboy: You describe your album “Trauma” as open and raw, while “True Power” is a little more veiled and represents the band finding confidence in yourselves. What are you looking to explore next?
Eric: Oh that’s tough. I don’t think we’ve consciously put in a thought of what the record’s going to be about. It just kind of flowed and we were writing about things that we were dealing with at the time. When we went to do True Power, it was the same thing—we weren’t really expecting to write a record like we did, we just started writing demos. With this album, we’re slowly getting to the point of figuring out what this record is. We’re letting the music talk, as hippie as it sounds—“Let the music talk man, it’ll just tell you what it needs to be about”. I’m really excited to be diving into these demos and really figuring out what this this record’s going to really turn out to be. Everyone’s going to find out about it, we’re just going to find out first when the music tells us.
Playboy: Your amazing PR agent told me that you guys have gotten really into working out. Are you all chasing six packs or what?
Eric: Oh yeah, I’m ripped—I’m just hiding it under this fabric, but I’ll let the muscle guy talk.
Steve: You’re the “Magic” guy and I’m the high school jock who wants to stuff you in a locker. Anyways, myself and our drummer Gabe, we work out every day. We’ve always done it, I don’t know what we’re chasing. Good question, maybe I need some therapy for that, can you help me figure it out, can we get into this?
Playboy: We can dive in, but we don’t have a couch and you really need a couch for something like this.
Steve: True, I don’t feel very opened up right now. [Working out] is kind of tied into performing to some degree. It’s weird as we get older, I do feel the wear and tear and fatigue. We just had three days off and sometimes when you stop you actually realize how tired you are. Plus it’s cool to look good on stage.
Playboy: We’ve all heard the rider stories of all one color M&M’s in the green room. What’s your weirdest thing on your rider?
Eric: Every couple days I want a different bottle of whiskey, that’s not really weird though. Actually though, I’ve got one. I remember a few years back, one of our old crew guys left his laptop unattended and the rider was open and one of the other crew guys put… um… a very large sex toy, and uh that sex toy showed up one day without anyone realizing that it had been on the rider for a while. Of course that guy started laughing when a giant dildo shows up. No wonder I didn’t get my whiskey that show, they blew the budget on the $75 dildo.
Playboy: I love my job. Moving on… what is your dream collab outside of the metalcore genre?
Eric: There’s one I don’t want to speak into existence and jinx it, but aside from that I think the obvious one is Post Malone. He’s done hip hop and R&B and then country now— don’t skip over Rock, come do a rock song!
Steve: For me, M. Shadows. That’d be sick.
Playboy: What did the collab with Halestorm and Lzzy look like on the new song “can u see me in the dark”?
Eric: We started with a demo, sent it over, and had a lot of back and forth sending demos across the country over the internet. I feel like that situation is set up for failure because you’re not in the same room. You can do a Zoom call, but you can’t work on the little details together. There was a lot of back and forth and faith that they’ll see what you’re doing and vice versa. Our longtime producer Tyler Smith did the track and has worked with them before, so we had this common touchpoint. Without that, I don’t think we would have been able to do it.
Steve: They were awesome to work with, super open creatively, and I think Lzzy felt like she had something to say, which was awesome. I think the Creative Energy from Lzzy and Joe and and the whole band was so strong that we connected with that.
Read more: Grammy-winning Musician Lzzy Hale is Coming Into Her Power
Playboy: What would you do next to step up your live show to the next level?
Eric: More fire. Yeah, it’s blowing shit up. Fire, explosives, cryo, waterfalls, all of it. [Steve] you’ll figure out the budget on that one, right? You’re the money guy!
Steve: Yeah, we’ll figure it out.
Playboy: What are different crowds like around the world?
Eric: The Midwest goes the hardest.
Playboy: You’re biased!
Eric: I absolutely am but I’ve traveled enough and played enough shows across the country to reaffirm that the Midwest does it the best.
Playboy: You don’t like getting nailed with a shoe when you’re in Australia?
Eric: Okay yeah, that’s fun drinking out of shoes over there. I think I’m 14 for 14 right now for shoes per show.
Steve: Don’t you think Germany gave it a run? Then remember the Paris show? Some of the European crowds give the Midwest a run for their money.
Eric: In Europe, especially in Germany, the appreciation and love for metal is just another level. Those metal festivals are insane. Australia is the same the same way, you’ve got metal bands over there that are selling out arenas like Parkway Drive. Hopefully all you reading this out there will check out some metal bands and you’ll start repping them and we can get sold out arenas in the US too.
Playboy: The easiest gateway for people to get into metal is usually working out. What is an essential gym song for each of you? I want one of your songs, and one from someone else.
Eric: For our song, I’d go “Self Destruction”, and I am a metal head through and through so I’m going to give you something that 95% of y’all are going to be like uh…? Peeling Flesh—“Face F*cked With a Shovel.”
Steve: You like a brand of heavy that kids don’t even know exist. For our own song, I’d probably be such a cliche and say “Gasoline” because how could you go wrong with that. Then some Slipknot, going with the classics for me.
Playboy: Any last shoutouts?
Eric: Thanks for having us. I know we’re not that hot but we appreciate all the love for everyone reading and listening to our music. We’re always going to keep trying to top ourselves and hopefully you’re there along for the ride.
Editor’s note: I Prevail are about to head out on tour in Australia. You can stay up to date with all their releases and shows on their website.