Yesterday, I Prevail frontman Brian Burkhiser posted a long Facebook status calling out everyone who claims I Prevail "paid" their way to the top:
I love when people talk shit about I Prevail and say we "paid" our way to the top.
So many assholes have no clue how much we have busted our ass to get where we are. After going to college for a semester I decided it wasn't for me and took a leap of faith by forming my own band. I was lucky enough to come across some great fucking dudes and musicians and we decided we would spend the next year writing, recording, and putting together all the pieces it takes to form a successful band.
I worked at Dominos as a delivery driver for 2 years before I Prevail officially launched to pay off studio time, music videos, and gear. A lot of people thought I was crazy at the time, but I didn't care. I spent every single day working on the project and gave up tons of relationships because I wanted it that bad and I knew in order to make my dreams a reality I would have to work on it 24/7 and never stray from the path.
So to anyone who thinks we haven't put in the work, you are highly misinformed. I Prevail is my baby, and it just gets really old seeing the same old people calling us out and saying this whole thing happened due to luck. Sure there was some luck along the way, but don't for a second ever tell me that we haven't worked our asses off to be in the position we are in.
When you were going out and partying, I was sitting in my room writing melodies. When you were lounging playing video games, I was working a 10 hour shift and immediately going to our storage unit to practice afterwards. When you were surfing the web watching pointless youtube videos , I was spending 5 hours a day messaging kids on facebook and twitter asking if they would check out our music.
So instead of talking shit about my band, maybe you should spend some time looking in the mirror and really think about your own endeavors and how much work you've put into it.
EDIT: Fronzilla shared this post and two of the top comments were #1 "They would still be a local band if it weren't for the Taylor Swift cover" and #2 "Didn't pay their way to the top? All I see is your videos marketed on Facebook"
To comment #1...
Never once said the cover didn't help launch us into success.
But so many fucking bands have had covers blow up and then fallen off.
If we had covered 20 songs, I could understand being labeled a "cover band" but we have 1 cover and 20 orginal songs.
Obviously a lot of people like our orginal music. Sure, plenty have found us through the cover, but if they didn't like the music we write we wouldn't be on an almost completely sold out headliner and have a top 5 selling rock album this year.
Keep in mind, our 1st year of touring(when blank space was at it's peak) we were drawing maybe 200 kids a show... 2 years later that number has skyrocketed. I would say thats due to our most recent album, not a cover we released almost 3 years ago.
To comment #2...
Yes because we have reinvested our own money that we've made off this instead of blowing it on dumb stuff.
Most every single band that has made it in the music industry has spent money on marketing their band, whether its for radio campaigns, support tours, or social media advertising. Because in the day and age where there are literally 1000's of bands, it's very difficult to get your music heard.
But for some reason we are always the ones who get called out. At the end of the day, all that matters is if someone likes your music and connects with it, and luckily enough for us, a lot of people have and I'm so grateful for that.
As you can see, he wasn't pleased.
We interviewed Brian over the summer shortly before the bands debut album Lifelines came out. The show was sold out and had some of the best energy we've ever witnessed. Anyone who claims I Prevail paid their way to the top has clearly never seen them live or talked to them in person. They are some of the hardest working guys in the industry. Remember when they were on tour with Neck Deep and their tour bus caught on fire? They didn't call it quits, in fact, they played later that night.
It's all about hustle. If you sit on your ass, nothing's going happen. Success doesn't come in the form of a handout and I Prevail are a prime example of that.
Pick up their album Lifelines today. You won't regret it.