Brian Burkheiser from I Prevail shared how covering a hit pop song changed the band’s career entirely in a recent Instagram post. He said:
“How one song changed our lives forever… You may have heard this cover before. My band, I Prevail, released this song eight years ago, and things haven’t been the same since.”
The vocalist then continued by sharing how the idea of turning a hit pop song into metal came, as he stated:
“In 2014, we were a group of kids with a dream to make it in music. The only problem [we had was]: We had no idea what we were doing. Then, I thought, what if we made a metal version of a Taylor Swift song? So, we picked a random song of hers and recorded it in our dingy basement.”
How Their Lives Changed Forever
Although the band recorded the songs with wishes for it to succeed, apparently, the way it went viral was a shock. The rocker shared:
“[We] didn’t expect anything to happen. We were wrong. We posted it to our following of about ten people, and it blew up. We went from being nobodies in a basement to having one of the most songs in the world at the time.”
The song they covered was Swift’s hit, ‘Blank Space,’ and Burkheiser pointed out how the cover’s popularity helped their own EP, ‘Heart vs Mind’ dominate the charts:
“Our EP ‘Heart vs. Mind’ was in the chamber, and just weeks later, it quickly topped the charts. We weren’t expecting any of this to happen, at least not like this. We were all still working normal everyday jobs; our lives essentially changed overnight. In an instant, I went from delivering pizzas at Domino’s to touring all over the world.”
From Covering Pop Songs To Receiving Grammy Nominations
Burkheiser then explained how I Prevail went from a garage band to having multiple gold records and critical acclaim and how it all felt:
“Before I knew it, I had an agent, label, management. It was honestly a blur. Never in my life did I think this silly song would lead us to multiple gold and platinum plaques, Grammy nominations, and sold-out tours all across the world.”
You can check out the video here.