Interview With Ten Year Vamp’s front-woman Debbie Gabrione

About Ten Year Vamp

Ten Year Vamp is a female-fronted, contemporary rock band.  Many say they are the next No Doubt. They have sold thousands of CD’s and have been on the Billboard charts since 2004. Get to know this group…now.

What’s up with the new project?
Our latest project is our 5-track release entitled, ‘Lust. We released it 3 months ago and it’s been doing very well with physical and digital sales.  It has some big shoes to fill from our last album (Don’t Act Like You Know Me) which was featured on CNBC, Forbes.com and many other TV/news/music publications from around the world. Songs from the album were used by FOX Sports, TLC, The Speed Channel, The Versus Channel, Dockers Jeans, The Adobe Corporation, and many others.  Songs from the album were also featured on ABC FAMILY’s, Switched At Birth, and several of MTV’s prime time shows including The Real World.
The feedback we’ve been getting from the new album suggests it will be equally as successful. We just started radio promotion and our PR campaign and we have our expectations set high.
The new album was funded through Kickstarter.com (which accepts money from ‘fans’ who believe in your project, and in return, they get various “rewards” for their investment).

If you had the opportunity to change something about the music industry what would it be?
I guess control over FM (mass listened to) radio. It’s true that artists can do pretty much everything on their own due to technological advancements. Artists can keep costs low by recording and producing their own albums, releasing tracks digitally (instead of physically), get new fans through Social Networking Sites, get seen and heard on line, get songs placed on TV shows and commercials, etc.. The one thing that still remains out of reach is getting play on FM radio. While internet radio and podcasts (and even college radio) spin unsigned indie artists, popular FM stations still do not. It feels like there are so many National artists who have songs on FM stations that just get shoved down our throats and are in such a heavy rotation that you hear them every 20 minutes.

Where did you meet your group and how long have you been together now?
Ten Year Vamp has been together since 2004 (so 7 years). I had been in another band, singing back up. I was approached by a guy (Mark) who said he saw “star power” in me and asked if I was interested in starting a new project with him, where I’d sing lead. I said ’hells yea’. So Mark (who plays rhythm guitar for 10YV) and I held auditions and found 3 other musicians who shared the same vision as us.

How do you rate your live performance ability?
Live performance is what we do best…so 10 out of 10. No doubt. While everyone in the band is extremely talented on their instrument, it’s our energy, our personality and our stage show that makes us stand out from all the other bands. We’ve also toured non stop since 2004 and we’ve played 682 shows (as of today – 10/25/11)
Our live performance is so strong that we’ve been able to directly open for Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Fuel, Gin Blossoms, Lifehouse, Simple Plan, Sum 41 and more then 50 National Artists to crowds in the thousands.

Do you feel better performing live or in the studio?
Hands down live. Although, I don’t want to short change our studio performance. We’re solid in the studio as well, however, with so much time and practice on stage, it’s become home to us.

What would you like to change or improve?
The economy : )   It seems like people don’t’ seem to be going out as much as they used to to see bands and concerts. Trying to book a show has become very difficult. Venues are very hesitant to take a chance on out of town bands, no matter how good you are or how strong your resume is.  A few years back, all we had to do was send a press kit and a venue would give us a shot. Now, they don’t seem to care what you look or sounds like, simply if you can bring in at least 25 people.

Tags: featured

Category: Alternative