I Prevail Singer Brian Burkheiser Tells Us His 5 Favourite Songs On 'True Power'

  • I Prevail Singer Brian Burkheiser Tells Us His 5 Favourite Songs On 'True Power'
    POSTED
    By Brenton Harris

    A photo of I Prevail standing against a charcoal background
    Photo credit: Adam Elmakias

    Platinum-certified and twice Grammy-nominated Michigan rock powerhouse I Prevail released their highly anticipated third full-length True Power today.

    Produced by Tyler Smith, True Power features the sort of stadium-sized riffs that will rattle your teeth loose from your gums and unforgettable, supremely catchy melodies that will camp out in your brain for weeks at a time. Mixing screamed vocals that sound as though they crawled from the depths of hell with soaring, emotional vocals and heartfelt, intimate lyrics that go so deep, they hit marrow. The end result is an album that resonates with the listener in the most personal way. 

    To celebrate the release of True Power, I Prevail's singer Brian Burkheiser shared his personal favourite songs on True Power giving us great insight into the artistic intention, meaning and composition of five of the album's key tracks.

    My Five Favourite Songs On True Power - Brian Burkheiser

    There's Fear In Letting Go

    "The first one for me would be There’s Fear In Letting Go. Technically it's the second track on the record, but it's really the first song on the record, just because it's a little intro track before that. I love that song so much because it really does embody everything that True Power’s about, I feel like the lyric specifically “there’s fear in letting go” is kind of a mantra we had going into this record where we kind of wanted to say “everything in the past is great and whatnot, but in order to achieve this true power, in order to have this record be what it's gonna be - we need to let go of everything we used to know,  and whether it's people telling us: “hey, you gotta write the song this way or that way” or “hey, don't put this many tracks on a record”…for us going into that song, it kind of built off what the entire record was, which was really just getting outside the box and being able to be free with things and to show ourselves that in order to find this true power, you gotta let go of fear, and you can't be afraid to embrace things that may scare you or things that you think you can't get through."



    FWYTYK

    "For the next one I'll go with kind of an outside the box one, and Fuck What You Think You Know, or the acronym FWYTYK. I would love to put that one on the list just because it really shows the diversity on this record and that we were very open to getting weird with things where I think we wanted to show that: hey, as much as this is a rock and a metal album, we can show the fanbase that different genres can be mixed in and still keep a song heavy, where a song can have hip hop elements and electronic elements and still be one of the heaviest songs on the record. Not only do I just love how musically that track came together, but literally it's one that is just a fun track, and kind of a song where that I think everybody has those people in their life who has preconceived notions of them. And I think it's a track just to throw on whenever you're heated or whenever you feel like someone just isn't respecting you the way you want to be. It's a track that you can just blast and be able to work out at the gym or be able to drive crazy in your car and just let loose.

    Bad Things

    "Next, I'll go with Bad Things and there’s kind of a cool story with this one that I always look back on really fondly. When we went to go in to write this record, Bad Things was the first track that ever came to existence. A lot of bands, I feel like when they first dive into the studio, they have a lot of duds come out, and we've had that happen too previously. But with this record, it was so cool, just instantly I had a little melody prepared that I honestly had from the Trauma cycle. I started humming that on the day, and before you knew it, Steve started going on guitar and then Tyler started messing with the production and little did we know it, in that one night it already had really come together. Bad Things is one that's really fun to look back on and be like: it was a track we worked on over two years ago, yet it's one of the ones that ended up being one of the first singles on the record."



    "And I think too, just lyrically, it’s a song that really kind of touches on what I think a lot of people are dealing with right now. I'm not gonna say the song's just based on one thing, but whether it's social media or whether it's the news or TV or drugs or alcohol or whatever anybody's vice may be…I think a lot of people can relate to having that one thing in life where whatever they do to try to fight it off, they just can't shake. I think it was right for us on this record to show that because, again, true power is sometimes just even identifying that there are bad things in your life, and being able to embrace those things where it's not always saying: hey, I'm in this hunky dory position now where life's grand. But true power can be showing: hey, I am now realizing that I have to work on this problem."

    Closure

    For my fourth one, I'm gonna go with Closure which is the breakup track. It's one that was written from a relationship perspective, both Eric and I dated previous people in our past life that contributed to what was written about on this track. But I feel like it's a song that honestly can go forth and not even just be about a relationship like that, it could just straight up be a mother, father, or a daughter to their father relationship, a co-worker to their boss type thing where sometimes there are relationships in life that just aren't good for you anymore, and you kind of gotta get rid of it.

    Going into Closure, we wanted to write a track then really touched on being around somebody who, as much as you wanna be with them, they just bring out the worst in you and they constantly drag you down, and like I said, Eric and I came from true experience. Closure talks about being in a car and has a whole lyric that's like: “get out the car”, you know, “that it's over”. And that was actually based on a real-life event where I had had an ex who had cheated on me with my best friend and my roommate at the time. And she had cheated on me with him while they were in my apartment while I was gone one Christmas. A lot of craziness had happened from then, and I ended up figuring out a couple months later. And when she told me, I'll never forget, I drove her home and I basically that was kind of the goodbye of, like: I don't want anything to do with you anymore. 

    Closure is really personal, but I'm now married and have been in a relationship for like seven or eight years after that, so I've definitely come out on the better side. But even Eric too, who recently just went through a relationship that had him going through some pretty dark stuff with someone who he really wished he could have stayed with…but he just knew that, at the end of the day, it wasn't right for either person and just brought him so many negative thoughts. So sorry about the long-winded answer. It’s a very personal song for us, but I can't complain. Sometimes life hits you in funny ways.

    Fake

    "For number five I'll go with Fake. Lyrically, we had a couple people in mind who I won't get really into specifically, but a couple of people, particularly some people from the music industry…when we wrote that track, there were some people who really just had been very two-faced to us throughout our existence as a band, and whether they were label people or just music industry, or even previous musicians who had worked with…honestly, as much as I hate to say this, because it's not fun to say, but there have been other bands out there who really have rooted for our success and really are nice to us. And some will be so nice to our faces, but then behind the scenes, we’ve had a band who we’re are really good friends with come up and be like: those dudes talk mad shit about you. So, it was really fun to just go into a song and just write about how fake people can be and how people can be two-sided. There’s nothing lyrically too crazy on the track, it’s a simpler track that's meant to let you get out some aggression and really be a focus kind of song."



    "It’s like FWYTYK where you can focus on one or two people who have done you wrong and just show them that: hey, I see behind your facade and I can tell that you're wearing a mask and you're not the same person in person. I hear about you outside of things. Not only that, but also the fact that Steve got his first real guitar solo on an I Prevail song on Fake! We’ve always been a band that really will hit you with big breakdowns and stuff, but we’ve never have quite had a song with a straight-up guitar solo like that. It was really cool to see him be able to shine and have a moment to show the fans: I'm here and I get to get up on front of the stage and solo out for y’all!"

    The album artwork for True Power by I Prevail
    True Power is out now via Fearless Records.

    Listen to I Prevail - True Power

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A photo of I Prevail standing against a charcoal background
Photo credit: Adam Elmakias

Platinum-certified and twice Grammy-nominated Michigan rock powerhouse I Prevail released their highly anticipated third full-length True Power today.

Produced by Tyler Smith, True Power features the sort of stadium-sized riffs that will rattle your teeth loose from your gums and unforgettable, supremely catchy melodies that will camp out in your brain for weeks at a time. Mixing screamed vocals that sound as though they crawled from the depths of hell with soaring, emotional vocals and heartfelt, intimate lyrics that go so deep, they hit marrow. The end result is an album that resonates with the listener in the most personal way. 

To celebrate the release of True Power, I Prevail's singer Brian Burkheiser shared his personal favourite songs on True Power giving us great insight into the artistic intention, meaning and composition of five of the album's key tracks.

My Five Favourite Songs On True Power - Brian Burkheiser

There's Fear In Letting Go

"The first one for me would be There’s Fear In Letting Go. Technically it's the second track on the record, but it's really the first song on the record, just because it's a little intro track before that. I love that song so much because it really does embody everything that True Power’s about, I feel like the lyric specifically “there’s fear in letting go” is kind of a mantra we had going into this record where we kind of wanted to say “everything in the past is great and whatnot, but in order to achieve this true power, in order to have this record be what it's gonna be - we need to let go of everything we used to know,  and whether it's people telling us: “hey, you gotta write the song this way or that way” or “hey, don't put this many tracks on a record”…for us going into that song, it kind of built off what the entire record was, which was really just getting outside the box and being able to be free with things and to show ourselves that in order to find this true power, you gotta let go of fear, and you can't be afraid to embrace things that may scare you or things that you think you can't get through."



FWYTYK

"For the next one I'll go with kind of an outside the box one, and Fuck What You Think You Know, or the acronym FWYTYK. I would love to put that one on the list just because it really shows the diversity on this record and that we were very open to getting weird with things where I think we wanted to show that: hey, as much as this is a rock and a metal album, we can show the fanbase that different genres can be mixed in and still keep a song heavy, where a song can have hip hop elements and electronic elements and still be one of the heaviest songs on the record. Not only do I just love how musically that track came together, but literally it's one that is just a fun track, and kind of a song where that I think everybody has those people in their life who has preconceived notions of them. And I think it's a track just to throw on whenever you're heated or whenever you feel like someone just isn't respecting you the way you want to be. It's a track that you can just blast and be able to work out at the gym or be able to drive crazy in your car and just let loose.

Bad Things

"Next, I'll go with Bad Things and there’s kind of a cool story with this one that I always look back on really fondly. When we went to go in to write this record, Bad Things was the first track that ever came to existence. A lot of bands, I feel like when they first dive into the studio, they have a lot of duds come out, and we've had that happen too previously. But with this record, it was so cool, just instantly I had a little melody prepared that I honestly had from the Trauma cycle. I started humming that on the day, and before you knew it, Steve started going on guitar and then Tyler started messing with the production and little did we know it, in that one night it already had really come together. Bad Things is one that's really fun to look back on and be like: it was a track we worked on over two years ago, yet it's one of the ones that ended up being one of the first singles on the record."



"And I think too, just lyrically, it’s a song that really kind of touches on what I think a lot of people are dealing with right now. I'm not gonna say the song's just based on one thing, but whether it's social media or whether it's the news or TV or drugs or alcohol or whatever anybody's vice may be…I think a lot of people can relate to having that one thing in life where whatever they do to try to fight it off, they just can't shake. I think it was right for us on this record to show that because, again, true power is sometimes just even identifying that there are bad things in your life, and being able to embrace those things where it's not always saying: hey, I'm in this hunky dory position now where life's grand. But true power can be showing: hey, I am now realizing that I have to work on this problem."

Closure

For my fourth one, I'm gonna go with Closure which is the breakup track. It's one that was written from a relationship perspective, both Eric and I dated previous people in our past life that contributed to what was written about on this track. But I feel like it's a song that honestly can go forth and not even just be about a relationship like that, it could just straight up be a mother, father, or a daughter to their father relationship, a co-worker to their boss type thing where sometimes there are relationships in life that just aren't good for you anymore, and you kind of gotta get rid of it.

Going into Closure, we wanted to write a track then really touched on being around somebody who, as much as you wanna be with them, they just bring out the worst in you and they constantly drag you down, and like I said, Eric and I came from true experience. Closure talks about being in a car and has a whole lyric that's like: “get out the car”, you know, “that it's over”. And that was actually based on a real-life event where I had had an ex who had cheated on me with my best friend and my roommate at the time. And she had cheated on me with him while they were in my apartment while I was gone one Christmas. A lot of craziness had happened from then, and I ended up figuring out a couple months later. And when she told me, I'll never forget, I drove her home and I basically that was kind of the goodbye of, like: I don't want anything to do with you anymore. 

Closure is really personal, but I'm now married and have been in a relationship for like seven or eight years after that, so I've definitely come out on the better side. But even Eric too, who recently just went through a relationship that had him going through some pretty dark stuff with someone who he really wished he could have stayed with…but he just knew that, at the end of the day, it wasn't right for either person and just brought him so many negative thoughts. So sorry about the long-winded answer. It’s a very personal song for us, but I can't complain. Sometimes life hits you in funny ways.

Fake

"For number five I'll go with Fake. Lyrically, we had a couple people in mind who I won't get really into specifically, but a couple of people, particularly some people from the music industry…when we wrote that track, there were some people who really just had been very two-faced to us throughout our existence as a band, and whether they were label people or just music industry, or even previous musicians who had worked with…honestly, as much as I hate to say this, because it's not fun to say, but there have been other bands out there who really have rooted for our success and really are nice to us. And some will be so nice to our faces, but then behind the scenes, we’ve had a band who we’re are really good friends with come up and be like: those dudes talk mad shit about you. So, it was really fun to just go into a song and just write about how fake people can be and how people can be two-sided. There’s nothing lyrically too crazy on the track, it’s a simpler track that's meant to let you get out some aggression and really be a focus kind of song."



"It’s like FWYTYK where you can focus on one or two people who have done you wrong and just show them that: hey, I see behind your facade and I can tell that you're wearing a mask and you're not the same person in person. I hear about you outside of things. Not only that, but also the fact that Steve got his first real guitar solo on an I Prevail song on Fake! We’ve always been a band that really will hit you with big breakdowns and stuff, but we’ve never have quite had a song with a straight-up guitar solo like that. It was really cool to see him be able to shine and have a moment to show the fans: I'm here and I get to get up on front of the stage and solo out for y’all!"

The album artwork for True Power by I Prevail
True Power is out now via Fearless Records.

Listen to I Prevail - True Power

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