The current reality Nevertel is shaping for themselves was once nothing but a dream. Jeremy Michael (Vocalist), Raul Lopez (Vocalist/Guitarist/Producer), and Alec Davis (Guitarist) first began what would become Nevertel as a project called Living Fiction in 2014. As three childhood friends from Tampa, FL, their relationship developed through afternoons spent connecting through video games as much as they did through studying songwriting. Without cosmic inspiration and persistence, Nevertel may not have happened at all. Lopez, Michael, and Davis had drifted apart since graduating high school, and the three were living in different cities and states.
It wasn’t until Raul saw Linkin Park perform on their Carnivores tour that he was struck with new feelings of purpose and drive; these feelings created an opportunity to rekindle his relationships with Jeremy and Alec by making music influenced by a band the three had always loved. The distance and time apart were nothing; once Raul laid out his plan to Jeremy and Alec, it was just a matter of execution. Nevertel’s monstrous hooks and songwriting blur the lines between nu-metal, rap, and alt-rock the same way that Linkin Park did, but their subject matter and sound are entirely their own. Now, Nevertel are ready to release Start Again on September 12, 2025 with Epitaph Records, an album the band has been working on for years.
Start Again is Nevertel’s tabula rasa, produced by a creative process much different from their norm. Previously, they used to come to an agreement on a predetermined amount of tracks, finish writing, and record them, song by song. Throughout 2023 to 2025, while Nevertel was writing, they weren’t consciously assembling songs for an album. These were songs crafted for expression, not a deadline. During this time, songs would get scrapped, revisited, and reworked multiple times. Writing sessions with producer/guitarist Raul Lopez and vocalist Jeremy Michael often began with conversations instead of music, an approach that allowed for a lyrical growth that enabled the two to address deeper themes than ever. As the two reflected on their triumphs and failures, their personal experiences, their shared childhood, and their chance at a new beginning alongside guitarist Alec Davis, the songs that would be Start Again grew to reflect their personal growth and shared self-improvement journey. The album’s themes of self-destruction, rebuilding, and second chances are central to the expression of Nevertel’s most recent experiences, and Start Again, for all its sonic exploration, couldn’t be more straightforward when it comes to the relativity between title and content.
Start Again, like most Nevertel records, was almost exclusively recorded and engineered by Raul Lopez and Jeremy Michael, with mixing done by Dan Lancaster, and mastering by Ted Jensen. Beginning at home in Florida at Cleartrack Studios in Clearwater, FL in 2023, it wasn’t until January of 2025 that Nevertel started recording the majority of the record. Nevertel recorded most songs at Lopez’ house in Tampa, one song in Memphis with David Cowell (Sleep Theory), one song from a house in Australia, and several in Los Angeles. Their first record to feature outside collaborators, namely songwriter/producer Gianni Taylor, the change presented quite the learning curve since previously coming from an entirely DIY approach. These
collaborations helped Nevertel take new risks with a fresh perspective on their collective voice. Nevertel was also forced to stare down the dark side of these risks, though; at one point during recording Michael lost his voice and was put on temporary vocal rest after consulting a coach.
“Starting Over,” the aptly named first single on Start Again, is an explosive hard rock song with shimmering synths and crystal clear production that comes paired with a video of the band performing directly in front of an erupting volcano. The symmetry with Nevertel’s phoenix-like rebirth emphasizes a creative visual sophistication that the band has been achieving in their videos since “Sacrifice,” their first single with Epitaph in 2024. “Criminal,” the next single from Nevertel, is similar to “Starting Over” in that it didn’t come to completion until the end of the process. “Criminal,” vocalist Jeremy Michael explains, “is a glimpse into how stress, anxiety, and unresolved feelings can change a person over time, making them act in ways they never expected and turning them into someone they don’t recognize.” Now, however, the infectious chorus of “It started in my heart, now it’s going to my head/All of my composure hanging by a thread/Still I can’t remember anything you said/Feeling the chemicals/make a criminal instead,” feels like a definitive moment on the album that will stay with listeners. “Break The Silence,” and “Some Things,” feature the Drake and Kendrick-influenced raps and syncopated vocals that Lopez and Michael bring to Nevertel songs to balance out the adventurous melodies that have gotten the band to the point of currently sustaining over 124 Million catalog streams(1.4M weekly) and continue to build on their online community of over 600K social media followers.
On their social media ascendancy, Nevertel says, “We really started getting into TikTok and what it could do for upcoming artists. After posting many, many videos of us rehearsing in our storage unit, one of them actually went viral in 2023. The video performed so well that SiriusXM Octane added the song, “Everything In My Mind,” into their rotation. This definitely caught the attention of a lot of record labels and it felt like we were finally reaching the right audience.” Now with Start Again, Nevertel is on a mission to inspire other people to make the same great changes in their lives.
Start Again drops on Epitaph Records September 12th, 2025.
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