In an era where success is often measured by streaming stats and Instagram followers, Pennsylvania’s rising alt-metal band If Not For Me is rewriting the rules that they want to follow. For them, it’s not about how many people are in the room, it’s about how many stick around. “We can go play a huge room somewhere, and if the crowd isn’t hype, it doesn’t feel like we did that much,” says frontman Patrick Glover. “But if we play a tiny packed room and the crowd’s just climbing over each other and singing every word, that’s way more of a success than playing a huge room to people that might not seem like they care about your band.”
Since the band’s first release in 2018, If Not For Me — made up of Glover (vocals), Hayden Calhoun (guitar), Zac Allen (bass) and Cody Frain (drums) — has been building a name for themselves with their blend of metalcore, post-hardcore and accessible alt-pop. Their 2022 full-length LP Eulogy proved to be a breakthrough moment for the band, securing them a rising spot to their label InVogue’s big sister, Thriller Records. With blistering singles like “Blameless” and “Demons,” the record threaded heavy riffs with emotional lyricism, helping the band carve out a distinct place in the modern alternative scene.
Since signing with Thriller Records, If Not For Me has only accelerated. “Thriller taught us how to use social media a lot better than we were using it before, specifically TikTok and Instagram Reels,” Glover says. “That was a huge learning curve for us…and it helped us tremendously.” Their most recent album Everything You Wanted landed at No. 6 on Billboard’s Current Hard Rock Albums chart, and featured the standout single “Feel Me Now” which surpassed 13 million streams.
Coinciding with their debut release via Thriller in 2024, the band embarked on their first headlining tour, but not before first supporting label mates and fellow metalcore artist, Catch Your Breath. Following these two tours, If Not For Me traveled to Europe for the first time as a band to support progressive metalcore artist, Make Them Suffer. These experiences have built the band’s confidence and their fanbase. “When we return to different markets, there’s all these people like, ‘Yeah, I saw you there and I couldn’t miss you,’ which is just so sick. I’m excited to do another tour and see the growth continue,” Glover says.
Their most recent tour, which ended in May, took them through Germany, Eastern Europe, and the U.K. “Germany shows were crazy…the Eastern European shows like Poland and the Czech Republic, those crowds were bonkers,” Glover says. “But the further west we went, it was less like that. And then the U.K. kind of just stands there. Doesn’t mean they don’t like you, they just kind of do that.”
The tour marked a major milestone for a band that’s long dreamed of connecting with fans around the world. “It was definitely a big learning curve for us,” Glover says. “There’s so much about European and U.K. touring that’s just different from how it operates in America, which we knew going in, but we didn’t really know the extent of it. It was a bit of a culture shock. But just getting to meet all these people from the other side of the world that care about the band…it meant the absolute world to us. It was honestly like a life-changing experience.”
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