Interview with Michael Felker of Convictions
Michael Felker - Convictions
December 5, 2025
For years, Convictions have existed in the space where grief, faith, and survival collide. Their music does not just speak about pain, it sits with it, carries it, and refuses to let listeners face it alone. At the center of that weight is vocalist Michael Felker, whose writing and delivery have become a lifeline for fans navigating loss, doubt, and the slow work of healing.
Rather than treating vulnerability as a moment or a marketing angle, Felker approaches it as a responsibility. His lyrics feel less like performances and more like conversations sometimes with himself, sometimes with the listener, and sometimes with stories entrusted to him by others. As Convictions continue to grow within the metalcore landscape, their purpose remains rooted in something deeper than visibility, creating space for honesty, belief, and survival in places where those things are often hardest to find.
In this interview, Michael Felker reflects on turning personal pain into communal healing, protecting his mental space while writing heavy material, and why certain words like “You deserve to survive” carry more weight than he ever anticipated
1. You have always had this way of turning personal pain into something communal and healing. Do you remember the first time you realized music could actually carry someone else through their grief?
A) When I was younger, I mostly wrote about myself, and it was not until I started working on I Wont Survive that I realized people were connecting with our music on a deeper level. That was the first time I saw our songs carry someone else through their grief instead of just being an outlet for my own.
2. Convictions deal with extremely heavy emotional and spiritual themes. How do you personally protect your mental space while still being honest and vulnerable in the writing process?
A) When I am performing, a certain part of my mind has to turn off. I still feel the emotion of the song, but it becomes more muted because I am focused on technique and execution. The best way to describe it is like playing a video game and fighting the final boss. You are focused on landing every strike and finishing the mission, not on how overwhelming the moment might be. That focus protects my mental space while still allowing the honesty to come through.
3. Your vocal delivery often feels like a conversation with yourself. When you are recording or writing, do you picture someone specific in your head, or is it more like you are working through your own inner dialogue?
A) It really depends on the song. Different songs come from different perspectives. I made a lot of progress in my writing when I started interviewing people and approaching their stories with empathy. Understanding their experiences helped me step into different roles. Sometimes I am talking to myself, and other times I am speaking from the viewpoint of someone whose story I have taken time to understand.
4. There is a very cinematic quality in how Convictions build atmosphere. Are there non-musical influences such as films, art, or personal rituals that shape how you approach a track’s emotional tone?
A) The cinematic tone fits our band naturally, but a lot of that influence comes from outside of music. Film, storytelling, and scripture all shape how I build emotional tone. Movies especially inspire me. The pacing, the tension, and the way scenes are constructed all influence how I approach our songs.
5. A lot of fans say they found Convictions during the darkest moments of their lives. Has there ever been a fan story that changed the way you view your own music?
A) Not long ago, I met a fan at one of our shows who immediately stood out to me. He kept his distance, and something about his presence felt different. After the set, he told me that he and one of his close friends had bonded over our music while they were both in a mental health facility. He also shared that his friend, who had passed away, was buried in one of our band shirts. I think about that often. It changed the way I view what our music can mean to someone.
6. Some of your lyrics feel like open letters. When you are writing something incredibly personal, how do you decide what stays private and what becomes part of a record?
A) If I am writing about someone else, I always give them the option to decide what stays in the song and what remains private. Whether I am interviewing them or simply having a conversation, they have the freedom to choose what they are comfortable sharing. Most of the people whose stories I have written about have been very open and helpful in the process.
7. Your vocal style has this raw, tearing edge to it. Is that a conscious technique, or is it more about tapping into a head space where the emotion dictates the sound?
A) I have been exploring different techniques, including some influenced by deathcore, but at my core I always lean toward that raw and punchy sound that sits right at the front of the mix. I want it to feel primal, like tapping into something deeper than technique alone. Even as I grow, I try to hold on to the instinctive way I screamed when I was a kid first learning how to do this. There is something honest in that approach that I do not want to lose.
8. Convictions’ songs often feel like emotional snapshots. If someone asked you to describe where you are right now compared to when you wrote your last release, what has changed for you personally?
A) For this next record, I am pushing myself to write differently. Instead of leaning as heavily into storytelling, I am building songs around broader themes and ideas that can reach many people, both spiritually and secularly. It has been challenging to step away from deep metaphors and poetic analogies. I am focusing more on face value, real life, conversational lines. Those lines are hard to find, but I think they will connect with a wider audience.
9. There is a lot of honesty in your breakdowns, almost like emotional punctuation. Do those moments come last in the writing process, or do you build songs around them?
A) Those big taglines or intense moments usually show up at the most random and inconvenient times, like sitting at a red light, in the shower, during a workout, or even in the middle of a set. They just appear in my mind out of nowhere. Many times I have written an entire song around one line that came to me in a moment like that.
10. Faith is obviously part of the band’s identity, but never in a preachy way. How do you walk that balance of expressing belief without feeling like you are forcing it on listeners?
A) That can be a challenge because we face criticism for being too preachy or not preachy enough. At the heart of it, I want to write songs that are honest and bear convictions. Pun intended.
11. Touring can be both exhausting and therapeutic. Is there a specific town or venue where you have felt an unexpected emotional breakthrough on stage?
A) A big one that comes to mind was a show we played somewhere in the deep south in a swamp area. We were performing in what was essentially a satanic biker bar with statues and imagery everywhere. It was intense, but they were incredibly kind to us. At the end of the night, one of the biker guys came up to us in tears and said he wanted to move closer to Jesus. As dark as that place felt, it made me realize we were exactly where we needed to be. It was powerful.
12. When you look at the current metalcore landscape, what do you feel Convictions contributes that is not being talked about enough?
A) I feel like we are finally starting to inch our way toward the center of the larger metalcore world, but we still have a long way to go. This past year has been huge for us. We have grown a lot, built an amazing team, and played incredible festivals like DWP events, Incarceration, Louder Than Life, and Aftershock. Being welcomed into the larger metal community has been overwhelming in a great way. Even with that progress, I still feel like there is much more ahead of us, and I am excited for what is next.
13. Is there a lyric of yours that hit you harder after it was released, something you did not fully understand the weight of at the time?
A) In our song The Price of Grace, the line “You deserve to survive” has almost become a mission statement. Fans have it tattooed, they wear it on shirts, and they shout it back at us at shows. We never expected that kind of response in the studio, but we knew it was an important song. Seeing how that line has impacted people has been incredibly encouraging.
14. What is a question you wish interviewers asked you about your music, but never do?
A) I wish people asked more about the technical side, like vocal technique and lyrical decision making. Those are the things I work on behind the scenes every day, but they rarely come up. Interviews usually focus on the big moments and accomplishments, which are great, but I would love to talk more about the craft itself.
15. If you could play one Convictions song to a version of yourself from five years ago, which would it be, and what do you think that past version of you would hear in it?
A) I would choose Metanoia. I wrote it about a childhood bully who pushed me to want to become a frontman and do something meaningful with my life. Reconnecting with him years later and seeing how much he has changed, and how his faith has grown, was powerful. He helped me shape the song, and I am proud of everything about it, from the vocal performance to the direction. It feels like my new cornerstone.
