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When Eric Vanlerberghe isn’t screaming or growling as frontman of I Prevail, chances are he can be found backstage playing a round of Magic: The Gathering with a bunch of other band dudes.
“It’s fun and crazy to think some death metal fan is probably like, ‘Oh, I Prevail suck. They’re just weak shit!’” he laughs. “Well, I’m actually good friends with your favourite bands and we’re playing trading card games!”
Ahead of I Prevail’s Violent Nature tour hitting the UK this autumn, Eric tackles your toughest questions…
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If you have one fully cooked lasagna, and then stack a second fully cooked lasagna on top of the first one, how many lasagnas do you have? The_Wurdalak, Instagram
“I have an answer that is a question: Do you count a lasagna by how many layers? Is it like, after nine layers or six layers, that’s it? If you don’t, then if you put another lasagna on top of a lasagna and bake it together, I’d say it’s one lasagna. But, if you just take this precooked lasagna and this other cooked lasagna, you stack it on top, it’s two separate lasagnas. A lasagna sandwich.”
What’s your favourite word to scream or growl? Mike O’Neill, Facebook
“There’s a line in Bad Things where I scream ‘fun!’ And anything with the ‘e’ sound is a fun sound to scream… it’s the most metal of the syllables.”
Hammer: When did you first try screaming or growling?
“After I found Metallica in eighth grade. I went from a private school to a public school and, as I was making friends, someone gave me a Ride The Lightning CD. After that, I was searching for heavier bands and came across Slipknot. When I realised it was just one guy doing the singing, screaming and shouting, I was like, ‘How do they do that?’ Whenever I was riding with my friends to school or driving myself, I’d have that 10-minute drive to try to figure it out.”
What’s the closest you’ve ever come to being arrested?
Andy May, email
“In Prague. I had a neck issue and had some medication. I usually have a backpack for tour and I left that bag sitting in my room with the medication for eight months or so. Right before I left for that tour, I dumped my bag and saw the pills, and I was like, ‘Oh, toss them. I don’t need them.’
We’re in the Prague airport… Dylan [Bowman, guitarist/vocalist] and I are boarding, and the dogs sniff and paw our bags, so the cops pull us aside. We almost missed our flight and ended up in a Prague prison, but they let us go. I guess it turned out the dogs smelled the pills on the bag that had been in there. We were like, ‘Oh shit, we’re going to prison in Europe. This is not good!’”
What’s your musical guilty pleasure? Thrashmemetal, Instagram
“I don’t think any of my musical pleasures are guilty; I’ll own up to them all! I mean, it used to be cool to hate Nickelback, but I never stopped listening to Nickelback. There’s some Japanese pop artists that I really like and some K-pop I’ve come across. I’ll play it in my truck, coming out of Whitechapel and going into something pop or country.”
Who’d be your dream collaboration, no limits?
Mae Samson, email
“I recently became acquainted with my new friend, Teddy Swims, and I think that would be an insane collaboration. I know he comes from the rock and not metal world, but man, he’s got such a unique and beautiful voice. I think that would be a really cool way to make an I Prevail song with some R’n’Bvibes to it… I know he can scream.”
When are you gonna collab with Lzzy Hale again? JeremyWilliams81574, Instagram
“I don’t know if we’ll do another original song together. It’s hard to catch lightning in a bottle twice, as they say. But it’d be cool next time if Halestorm come through Detroit and I’m home, or vice versa, or we’re on tour near them and Lzzy can come out. Maybe the stars will align and we can perform Can U See Me In The Dark? again.”
What’s the greatest challenge you’ve prevailed over?
James Vernon, email
“We’ve had quite a few over the last decade in the band. One that we’re still trying to navigate is the death of our manager, Dave Shapiro; that was very difficult. We released our first song on the new record, Violent Nature, the day after we found out that Dave passed.
Getting ready for the tours, the announcements and all the things that are involved in releasing a new record, we were just ghosts walking through that release because we didn’t have our best friend with us. He was huge in the rollout and the plans for world takeover. To go through everything, missing him, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through.”
Hammer: How did it impact the band?
“To come together through that loss and grief, and continue pushing forward and get back out on the road and tour… it really made our bond between the five of us stronger. The emotional walls came down, and we’re able to communicate more deeply and effectively with each other through this year-long grieving. Wherever he is, floating in the sky right now, whatever you believe in, he’s got his hands on things. He’s looking out for us.”
What are your favourite albums of all time (metal and non-metal)?
Niamh_Honor, Instagram
“I’d have to say Slipknot’s Iowa is up there. The Artist In The Ambulanceby Thrice is one of my favourite records of all time. Some of the riffs, the vocals and the writing, I think, set the stage for the new age, MySpace metalcore era. Nothing But Thieves’ Dead Club City has been one of my favourite records since it came out.And I’ll give a shoutout to Citizen’s Youth. I absolutely love that record; it’s timeless.”
Where would you take us if we came to visit Southfield, Michigan?
Smileybones, email
“I grew up in the St Clair Shores area, so I’d take you to Lake St Clair – but it’s not one of the Great Lakes, so I’d have to take you to one. I just opened a trading card shop, Black Vault Gaming, with some friends in St Clair Shore, so if you’re a nerd, I’d have to show you there. There’s a bunch of breweries and new restaurants too, and they’re all right off the water. It feels like a coastal town, but you’re in the Midwest.”
Hammer: What was the idea behind opening Black Vault Gaming?
“In lockdown, I’d invite friends over to hang out, listen to music and just have some connection. My buddy was like, ‘You want to learn how to play Magic: The Gathering?’ I was like, ‘Sure!’ I became obsessed with it: the whole aspect of building a deck, meeting new friends that played and having this new language to speak with them. Then, once we got to tour again, I started making friends with bands on the road, ‘Oh, you play Magic, too? Dude, I brought a deck. Do you want to play?’
Like Fit For A King; I became really good friends with those guys through playing Magic after shows. We started a group chat and added Josh [Moore] from We Came As Romans, and now we have 40 people in that chat, all from different bands. We’d go to MagicCon, and, through that, I made friends with these guys that owned a card shop in my hometown, and they were going to start a new store. I said, ‘That sounds awesome. I’d love to be involved.’”
Your birth name is Richard, but you go by Eric. Do you hate all Richards?
Richard Dudfield, email
“No, I don’t! I went to a small private school [as a kid] and my last name’s Vanlerberghe, so I was one of the last to get called on the first day of school. Every year it would be: ‘Richard Vanlerberghe?’ All the kids would laugh, make fun of me and call me ‘Dick’. I didn’t like it. I was like, ‘It’s actually Eric.’
The story I got growing up was, my mom’s got 15 brothers and sisters, and the brothers were into sports and Air Jordan. My dad’s name is Richard; he goes by Rick, so they started calling me ‘Little Rick’ and ‘Ricky’, and I think there’s a baby card somewhere that they signed ‘Air-Rick’. The other story I heard is, my mom was like, ‘I was looking at a baby book and it said Eric and Richard were synonymous.’ So they just started calling me Eric. Sometimes I forget my real name’s Richard!”
Violent Nature is out now via Fearless. I Prevail’s UK tour starts on September 19.
