Interview: Lee Runestad from I Prevail

Detroit rockers I Prevail have erupted onto the scene and are on the verge of releasing their debut album ‘Lifelines’. With their cover of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space sky rocketing them into the spotlight, they were quickly snapped up by Fearless Records and have never looked back. In the early hours of the morning, we had a chat to drummer Lee Runestad about the album, social media, and how the band deals with their rollercoaster ride career so far.

Thanks for taking the time to have a chat to me man! Straight off the bat, the singles we’ve heard so far from you guys have been completely killer! ‘Lifelines’ drops soon, what’s the feeling like in the band knowing you’ve just finished your debut album?

Yeah, it’s kind of a relief that we finally got it done! We put a lot of hard work into it, so there’s this massive feeling of relief that we’ve got this thing that we’re proud of ready to go. Overall, we’re just excited…we can’t wait to get it out there and get all our fans and music lovers to take a listen!

On the album, do you guys get anxious before putting new material out into the world or is it just excitement to finally be able to unveil all the hard work?

You know I don’t think I get too anxious necessarily, I get pretty pumped for the fans to hear something new from us! I guess we’re not quite doing a full 180 and changing our sound altogether so I think it’s going to be something our fans are able to digest cause it’s in our spectrum of sound.

Since your first EP in 2014 your songs have become tighter and more polished, do you feel as though you’ve found your sound or is it something you constantly want to evolve over time?

I think we’ll definitely want to keep evolving, I do think we’ve found our sound but none of us want to get too comfortable. We never want to put something out that’s a recycled sound either.

You have a very active online presence as a band, your cover of Blank Space went viral and seemed to shoot you guys into the limelight almost instantly. Is the online activity something you consciously decided to explore and push to try and build a bigger fanbase or did it all just come about naturally?

We work really hard to sharpen the axe on social media. On and off tour we’re always hammering away on our laptops or cell phones and just talking to fans online and using social media to get them to shows and to listen to all our new content whether it’s a new song or some type of call to action. So we’re always really mindful to keep a presence online!

On that, do you think that online self-promotion is the only real way you can survive in the music industry now that streaming and social media is so prominent and more traditional promotion tools are less relevant and effective?

Yeah, y’know, I guess when you look back at how older bands used to do it, they used a lot of radio or plastering posters saying “come to my show” etc. and a lot of those tactics still work and it has worked for us. But our strongest point is definitely social media. I think that (promotion) is definitely going in that direction so it’s more important now to have a strong social media presence.

You’ve blown up rather quickly, have you had time to kind of step back and take in everything that’s been happening or has it all just been a bit of a rollercoaster?

Yeah (laughs), it’s funny ’cause at first all our heads were spinning as two years ago when we launched this thing I was still going to school…I was waiting tables and I never thought that music was going to be a full time career for me. I don’t think any of the guys anticipated that we’d be able to do this full time for a living so it’s something that I definitely try and take a step back from and be thankful that we get to do this. We try not to take it for granted!

Obviously the metalcore scene is very dense with bands competing for the spotlight, what do you guys try and do differently to ensure you stand out in the crowd?

I think we just try and be ourselves, we muck around and always play jokes on each other and include the fans in those sorts of things. So I guess that’s one thing we do that I personally don’t see a lot of other bands do which is just completely not take themselves too seriously and really just joke around a lot.

Lastly, can we expect to see I Prevail in Australia anytime soon or is it all still remaining a mystery for a little while longer?

Umm, I think I’m supposed to say it will remain a mystery (laughs), but we do finally have some things in motion with a clear plan to get to Australia. I can’t say when or into any details but there’s a clear plan to get over there and that’s all I can really say! (laughs)