Eric Vanlerberghe - I Prevail 'I'm Trying to Hold My Excitement In'
On Tuesday, we received a brilliant gift in the form of a new single from I Prevail, ‘Hate This Song’, a collaboration with pop-punk powerhouses, All Time Low.
To celebrate the release of this single, we were was lucky enough to grab some time with I Prevail screamer, Eric Vanlerberghe, to chat about the track, the five-piece’s current Australian tour with Parkway Drive (our Brisbane review here), and the possibility of a collab EP for the metalcore giants.
First off, how’s the Brisbane weather treating you?
The weather is beautiful! I packed poorly. I’m like, it’s Australia, it’s gonna be warm! I have one hoodie, and one pair of pants! I have shorts and t-shirts, and thank god Brisbane is nice and warm! I hear Adelaide and Melbourne aren’t going to be kind to me.
Yeah, you tend to get four season in one day in Melbourne, and it’s sunny today but not particularly warm. At least you have merch you can put on if you get cold right?
Oh well I’ll be buying probably pretty much every piece of Parkway merch too, so I’ll be fine.
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Photos by Charlyn Cameron. Insta: @chuck_stuff
It’s a pretty quick turnaround for you guys this tour, right? You’re not here for long.
I mean, in the past, I think this is our fifth time. In the past its been we get in, the first couple times we had flight issues, and then our travels got screwed up a little bit. This is the first time we have a couple of days to adjust, and I’m never going back. We gotta do this every single time now.
How’s the jetlag treating you?
I’m on day 3 now, so it’s starting to get better. I feel like I can make it til about 10 o’clock tonight before I start getting tired.
That’s a fair effort! I don’t know if it actually works, but apparently if you fast for 18 hours and then sleep, it resets the jetlag.
Oh, I might have to try that when I go back home!
You guys are here with Parkway Drive, have you toured together before?
No! We’ve played a festival or two together and I’ve gotten to watch them, but never had the chance to meet them or tour with them, just been lucky to catch a set or two.
And now you get to tour with them and hang out, are you excited?
I am trying to hold my excitement in. I don’t know if I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing if it wasn’t for bands like Parkway. When I first started off in local bands, my parents were like, doing it for fun is one thing but don’t, for a career this screaming music. I remember pulling up Parkway Drive 9, 10 years ago when they were headlining festivals and showing them videos of the crowd and being like that’s all screaming and look what they’re doing! I’ve been listening to them for the better part of two decades now. It’s honestly so fuckin cool to be playing, celebrating twenty years in their home country. Yeah I’m fangirling man, it’s awesome.
So sound desk, or side stage for every show?
I think the first show I’ll be front of house, I’ve heard what their set design, parts of it. We were actually rehearsing next door of the same building, and I accidentally walked into their space and I was like ‘oh shit, oh no, I don’t wanna see!’ I’m excited, it’s gonna be a surprise and I’ve heard some rumours and everyone is gonna be in for the night of their lives I’m sure.
So I’ve been jamming the song you guys just dropped with All Time Low for the better part of 2 hours and it’s sick man! How did that come about?
Our manager reached out to us and was like, we got hit up by this person and they wanted to know if you guys were interested. The track was pretty much done, the bridge was different and the second verse was different. This chorus is awesome, like 10 out of 10, but the song is pretty much done what do they want us to do? So, after a bit of back and forth they were like ‘No we want you to put I Prevail into it’. So it was cool to take this track, and me and Steve [Menoian, guitarist] were talking and we were saying that if they’re reaching out to us we can’t just put the poppier side of I Prevail into it, they know who they’re dealing with so lets write something insane and lets make it heavy. Worst case is they can say no! They were actually playing our home town in Detroit a few weeks later, we finished up the track and I went to the show and went backstage and showed them the track. I remember, they were all banging their heads, that bit came in, the freaked out and were like ‘play it again, play it again!’ It was really exciting and cool and I’m super stoked that it’s finally out since we’ve been sitting on it for a little bit.
So, could we see an I Prevail/All Time Low tour sometime in the future?
I think that’d be sick, I think that’d be a lot of fun! Even if it wasn’t a tour, maybe if they come back to Detroit I might have to hop up and do that with them.
I mean, you could bring Halestorm out too seeing as you just did a collab with them too!
Yeah that was a lot of fun. We did a co-headline in the States and we’d sing it together every night. First time really doing a big collab like that and not just having someone feature on a song.
You’ve done a collab with Halestorm, and a collab with All Time Low, am I sensing that there’s maybe an I Prevail collab EP coming, any plans for more? [We shared a laugh before Eric answered].
No EP of collabs. There’s a couple of, what’s been fun is that I Prevail, we try a lot of different stuff, we have acoustic stuff, we have piano ballads, we have the heaviest stuff we’ve ever done, we have metal stuff, we have rock ballad-y kind of stuff and some hip hop influence stuff, nu-metal stuff. We cover a lot of ground with our sound. What’s been fun with these collabs, writing with the mindset of writing for a different band, or writing something that’s not typically I Prevail sound, it’s a good creative exercise flexing that muscle. We’re just demoing and having fun on the road, and trying stuff with the mindset of ‘it’d be cool if this person was on it, or maybe this band’. There’s one other band, I won’t say who, I’m trying to put something together to send to them and see if anything comes from it. Our ears are open, and if anything comes by that’s intriguing or enticing or seems fun at the very least, we’re definitely going to test it out.
Who’s kind of at the top of that list of who you’d love to do a song with?
Oh I see what you’re doing, trying to coax it out of me!
I held my hands up in surrender at that point, and we laughed while I told Eric that I was honestly not trying to do anything, before he answered the question.
Oh man, there’s a long list of artists I’d like to work with, or feature or write a song with. I think like, Post Malone is at the top of the list. Teddy Swims is a beautiful soul and an insanely talented human being. Those are kind of the more melodic, poppier, less expected sides.
Oh dude, a Post Malone/I Prevail track would be sick!
I think so to! There’s some heavy bands I’ve been jamming a lot that I’m like it’d be sick to have them on a track, but we’ll have to see!
Well, I look forward to paying close attention to your social media this tour, because I feel like it’s going to have the best Parkway content! Would you get up on stage with Winston [McCall] if he asked you?
Yeah! If that came across, absolutely! He’s a monster of a vocalist and if that opportunity was ever to arise, it’d be an easy absolutely!
Well, fingers crossed it happens, and fingers crossed for that I Prevail/Post Malone collab, and hopefully we get to hear this mystery collab you’ve been working on.
There’s some red tape and some fine lines to walk along, but hopefully we can get this working.
I hope you guys have the best time while you’re here and you get to enjoy Australia and the weather holds out for you!
I hope so too, regardless though it’s gonna be awesome. I am like a kid on Christmas, this tour is probably going to best the best tour we’ve ever done, just as a fan and as a, arenas for metal I mean come on, that doesn’t happen, that never happens. I’m just going to soak it up and just live in the moment and I’m really excited.
I think Australia has one of the best alternative music scenes and I think Parkway Drive have a lot to do with that. People are saying festivals are dying, but you just have to look at the metal/rock/alternative scene to see that it’s thriving.
I think you’re right. Australia and Germany are the two that really push-up the metal. The scene is, y’all have the best festivals, y’all got some kickass metal bands from all over, Alpha Wolf, Windwaker, Thy Art Is Murder, Parkway Drive, the list goes on, Northlane. I’m sure there’s so many more I’m just not thinking of. Y’all are doing metal right, you’re carrying the torch. We’ll keep coming back and partying and we’re here to hang.
Well congratulations on the new track and I hope you guys have the best time on tour!
Thank you so much. I’ll make sure I keep up on the socials for you guys on Instagram!
Interview by Kelsey Trevan
Last chance tickets to see I Prevail with Parkway Drive in Melbourne and Perth can be found here.
Parkway Drive – 20th Anniversary Tour
with I Prevail, The Ghost Inside and Void of Vision
SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER – JOHN CAIN ARENA, MELBOURNE – SOLD OUT
TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER – JOHN CAIN ARENA, MELBOURNE – FINAL TICKETS
FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER – AEC ARENA, ADELAIDE – SOLD OUT
SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER – RAC ARENA, PERTH – FINAL TICKETS
