Want to own Ten Year Vamp? Too damned late. The shares have been sold, the album is on and off the shelves, and the thousands of fan/investors are raking in the dividends. (Okay, raking is a strong word, but they are reaping the rewards of their faith in 10YV. )
Calling it “The Album Project”, their release Don’t Act Like You Know Me was funded by the band selling shares on the album for as little twenty five bucks. This caught them the the eyes of Forbes, CNBC, Entrepreneur.com, and enough fans to bank over $30,000 toward the production of the album. Now, fan/owners are entitled to shares of the proceeds of album sales, as well having participated in decision including album art work and even which songs would make the cut.
According to Entrepreneur, Ten Year Vamp is “completely reinventing the way records are recorded, marketed and sold.”
Beyond their unique plan for eluding label control, the business savvy pop rockers have the outstanding characteristics of a dynamic female lead and an openness rarely owned by artists of their popularity.
What was your inspiration for your debut LP Don’t Act Like You Know Me?
Lyrically, the album was primarily inspired by relationships and relationship dynamics. The songs give a voice to confident, sexual, female perspective, rather then the typical submissive, obedient, objectified role women are often put into in songs. The music itself was inspired by such artists as Foo Fighters, No Doubt and Greenday. All the songs on the album, as well as album art, producer, mastering company, etc., were inspired by the opinions of our fans. …Our fans/friends/”owners” were a HUGE inspiration for us.
You were credited in Forbes, CNBC, and Yahoo for inviting your fans to become your record company; what sparked that idea?
The idea was conceived in a car ride. Because we do so much touring, we spend a lot of time in the van. We often run out of things to talk about and you can only sleep for so long. So we were talking about how we could record and produce our own album without the help of a label, and we realized the only thing they could offer us that we didn’t have was money. We didn’t want to take donations or ask for hand outs, so that wasn’t an option. We didn’t want to be part of those websites where rich people (you’ve never met before who are often in different states or continents) give you large sums of money and become owners, because we felt it’s the same thing as singing to a record label. In that situation, it’s not the label who owns you, but its 3 or 4 wealthy individuals. Still, they have the decision-making power and can wave it over you if and when they choose. Also, we didn’t want to have to solicit people and convince strangers to invest in us. We didn’t want to be owned by someone who didn’t know us, didn’t understand what we wanted to do, and wouldn’t have any reason to have faith in us rather then any other band who came along and solicited their attention. So we figured if we had to be “owned” by anyone, we’d want it to be our fans. We figured we’d sell shares to them at $25 each, and keep our fingers crossed that we had enough fans who believed in us to fund an album. Turns out we did.
How has being a female fronted band affected you in today’s music Industry?
I can’t say that it’s been a huge factor. There are certainly situations that it sets us apart from the majority, but it doesn’t seem to either help or hurt us. When we get on stage and play our set, we can make a fan out of anyone, regardless as to how they feel about female fronted bands. We’ve really never used the female card to solicit attention and we let our performance speak for itself. We feel there’s definitely a market of consumers who are waiting for a high energy female fronted band who can go head to head with any male fronted band and come out on top. We think we’re that band.
Do you feel like your music and image is a good role model for young women?
I feel as though I offer an alternative the female image that’s out there. Right now, young woman can look up to female artists who wear high heels, short skirts, dance on poles, hump the air, and sing about pleasing and attracting men. I’m more comfortable in jeans, a tee shirt and sneakers…so that’s what I wear to perform in. I don’t degrade or objectify myself. I believe that any sex appeal I have is a result of my confidence, not my ability to dance in 3 inch heels. I believe I’m still able to convey my passion about music and my emotions without gyrating on a pole. I sing about confidence and knowing what I want, and not settling, and being a strong woman. I hope the message my lyrics send to young women is that they should respect themselves and embrace whoever they are and whatever they value.
Off the stage (in my personal life), I am confident I am a good role model for young women. I have a Masters Degree, I have a Certification in Rehabilitation Counselor and I’m working on getting my License in Mental Health Counseling. I work full time counseling disabled students, and I go to graduate school in the evenings (for my License credits). I’ve always been very grounded and I believe hard work pays off.
What would you consider your biggest achievement to date as Ten Year Vamp ?
That’s a tough one because we’ve had so many accomplishments that we’re proud of. We’ve been fortunate enough to open for some amazing national acts, like Simple Plan, Lifehouse, Fuel, Sum 41, Natasha Beddingfield, Gavin Degraw, David Archuletta, Jessie McCartney, Finger Eleven, etc.. We’ve played some amazing venues like the 30,000 capacity Saratoga Performing Arts Center or the famous CBGB’s (prior to its closing), Knitting Factory Main Stage, Blender Theatre, etc..
We’ve been fortunate to have earned many amazing experiences.
I think our biggest achievement was self releasing our album. We’d previous spoken with labels and management companies who had offered to help us with the album, but we believed we had the ability (and could garner up the resources) to do it on our own. It took about a year, but we ended up with a high quality album that is up to par with any album a label would have funded for us. It was produced by a producer who has worked with Atlantic Records, Roadrunner Records, etc. It was Mastered by the guy who did the Beastie Boys, Uncle Kracker, David Bowie, etc.. It took a lot of hard work, time and money, but we did it on our own, and didn’t have to compromise on anything.
Debbie, you have mentioned that you grew up listening to 50’s music, Broadway show tunes and Italian music. What elements, if any, have you borrowed to influence your music?
I don’t believe it’s influenced my writing much. I wrote the lyrics to all the songs on the album and the music to about half. I’m pretty sure you can’t figure out which one’s I wrote. All of us in the band have very different influences. We recognize that Ten Year Vamp is a pop rock band, and given the fact that this is the genre we want to be in, we have to stick to the formula within that genre. We try to stop our influences from shaping our song writing. There are guys in 10YV who love thrash metal, punk, jazz and rap. There really aren’t any of those elements in our music. Although, if you listened with a scrutinizing ear, you may be able to hear tiny traces of our influences. But nothing significant
I think my early influences affect my on stage performance rather then my writing. The music I grew up on had personality, and it was performed with dynamics and expression and movement and smiles. I’m not a dark performer and I don’t say in a small space. I’m not intimated by the stage, and I have a great time performing… so just go with it. There’s a message in the song and I try to express it through every dimension possible.
Do you have any advice for any new and upcoming bands?
Absolutely. Firstly, you need more then talent. You need to put in hard work to get attention. You need to be seen and heard by the right people. There are AMAZING bands playing in tiny bars on little dirt roads in places like Johnstown, NY….but if they don’t get seen and heard by the right people…they’ll never make it. Unfortunately, money talks. There are artists who aren’t so much talented, but they have the money (and connections) to purchase a song (rather then write it) and pay people to make it sound good.
Also, it costs money to travel to shows, to purchase equipment, to make the album, etc. Having a plan for funding is a must.
Finally, you can do everything yourself if you have the time and the focus. You need to be more then a Rockstar. You can’t just make music, you’ve got to be a business person. Most of the work is done off the stage.
Do you have any shameless plugs that you would like to promote?
We’re always looking to expand our ‘team’. We’re not a band who thinks we’re “the coolest thing since sliced bread”, or that we can do this on our own. We need help. We love when people want to get involved, whether you’re someone we’ve never met before but you fell in love with a song, or whether you’ve seen us 42 times live. We need all the help we can get; whether by telling us about a great venue we should be playing in your area, booking us a gig (we’ll give you 20% of what we make that night), hooking us up with a ‘music industry connection’ who could help us, or even just offer us a great idea on how to take Ten Year Vamp to the next step or get some visibility. We’re very accessible. Our e mail addresses are on our website and we run our own myspace and facebook pages. We’ve come this far because of creativity and because of our fans, and we have complete faith that those two things will take us all the way.
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