The First Album I Ever Bought: Brian Burkheiser, I Prevail

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I Prevail's Brian Burkheiser on Disciple's Scars Remain

I Prevail's Brian Burkheiser on Disciple's album Scars Remain
(Image credit: Lindsey Byrnes)

The first album I ever bought was Scars Remain from a band called Disciple. They’re a little bit of an older band; they’re a hard rock band but they threw in southern elements and some metal influence into their music. They had that nu metal vibe, too: really beefy guitars, really powerful riffs, and they were always really good at giving you a super powerful chorus with a catchy melody to go along with it. Disciple were actually the first ever concert I went to.

Disciple are actually a band I discovered through a couple of friends. This must have been in middle school for me, so I probably would have been like twelve or thirteen, something like that. It’s funny, but I was more into hip hop when I was young. Anyway, a couple of my buddies introduced me to rock music and Disciple were one of the first bands they showed me. I got to hear a couple of songs off the good ol’ iPod, back in the day! I liked it and they said, “Oh, you like it? These guys are playing a show tonight, so you’ve gotta stop by.” But yeah, I was super young and it was kinda funny how it happened, but I’m glad that Scars Remain was my first ever album.

Not only did the music really resonate with me and, y’know, I really hit it off with Disciple on that level, but what I really appreciate about them is that they’re such genuine guys. When I went to the live show, they put their all into their stage presence and performance; watching those guys go up there and give it everything really made me respect them even more. So their CD just hadto be my first one, I had to buy it.

I still go back and listen to Scars Remain today. There’s elements in their music that I try to draw influence from and whatnot, and I think going back and retaining a wide and varied music taste can really help when it comes to the writing side of things.

I Prevail’s new album Lifelines is out now. Brian was speaking to Alec Chillingworth.

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