PureVolume

“While I’m a ‘girly girl’ in the sense that I like to do my hair and wear makeup and look pretty, I never degrade myself. My sex appeal is a result of the raw confidence I have inside—and I’ve earned that.” Debbie Gabrione says with a self-assuredness that you have to admire. She’s the bold lead singer of Ten Year Vamp, a power pop band with energy to spare. Imagine Foo Fighters meets Green Day with Gwen Stefani on vocals and you have an idea of their sound.

Ten Year Vamp have beaten the odds and found an incredibly loyal following and tremendous success all without a record company backing them. In fact, when they wanted to put out their latest release, they went to their fans to get funding.

Guitarist Mark Rose explains, “We had a crazy idea. We thought why not have our fans become the record company? We had 60 people give us anywhere from $25. to $2,000. We then put 80 songs up on a website and let our fans choose the 12 songs that would go on the album.” Their crazy idea worked and their fans are now more motivated than ever to help Ten Year Vamp become the Next Big Thing. "Each owner will receive their fair percentage of album sales based on how much they invested," says Rose. Owners also voted on which photos should be used for the album, including the cover. The group has been credited by Forbes, CNBC, Yahoo!, AOL Money and Finance, Columbia's School of Journalism and countless other news sites as completely reinventing the way records are recorded, marketed and sold.

Ten Year Vamp is based in Albany, NY, where they’ve been voted best Rock Band in the Metroland Reader’s Poll for the 5th year in a row. Metroland is the New York Capital District’s weekly entertainment magazine and it reaches over 100,000 readers. Ten Year Vamp is: Debbie Gabrione, Vocals and Guitars, Mark Rose, Rhythm Guitars, Tim Keenan, Bass, Andrew Foster, Lead Guitars, Gregory Nash, Drums and Bill Ketzer on Vocals, Percussion, Keyboards.

Lead singer Debbie Gabrione may be the only rocker in history to admit to having a happy childhood. She recalls, “My family was close. We had dinner together every night. We washed the dishes together. We laughed all the time and just did things as a family.”

It wasn’t until college that both Debbie and guitarist Mark Rose stated getting interested in being in a band. Debbie says, “Believe it or not, I really never had any exposure to rock music before college. I grew up on 50’s music, Broadway show tunes, and Italian music like Jerry Vale and Connie Francis. The heaviest music I heard before college was Neil Diamond and Rod Stewart” she laughs, almost embarrassed to admit this.

Mark is 10 years older than Debbie and that age gap became the inspiration behind the band’s name. Mark explains, “The word Vamp means female seductress and Debbie definitely has that seductive power over the audience—but it also means an improvised musical piece, so we thought that Ten Year Vamp was the perfect way to explain who we are and what our sound is.”

Ten Year Vamp is known for delivering a top-tier, high octane performance at their live shows and their reputation has fueled interest in their latest release. They’ve been featured on CNBC, Forbes.com and in a long list of music publications from around the world. They’ve played for thousands of fans at festivals and at prestigious venues from CBGB’s to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Their new album, “Don’t Act Like You Know Me” is Ten Year Vamp’s most polished work to date. The single “Never Know” has the intensity of Foo Fighter’s “Everlong” combined with the female angst of No Doubt’s “Just A Girl.” Ten Year Vamp wants to create music for a large, diverse audience. “Never Know” also features an MTV quality video that showcases Debbie’s “girl next door” sexiness. When asked if Debbie feels she’s a role model for young women, she says, “I definitely think I’m a positive role model for young women. I was raised to value myself and to set goals and work hard to achieve them.”

The song “I Don’t Need” examines the sometimes passive/aggressive roles that women can find themselves playing in relationships. The lyrics, “I don’t want you to scold me, I don’t need you to hold me” are an attempt for the song’s protagonist to find her own voice in a demanding relationship. In other words, this modern woman can do things herself in her own way. She doesn’t need a man to tell her what to do.

The song “Pleasures (that I call mine)” might just be the most exciting pro-female sexuality song since the Divinyls “I Touch Myself” from 1991. Debbie declares, “It’s a song about knowing what I like and owning it. It’s not about making myself into someone else’s fantasies. I think it’s a new version of feminism; being sexy because you want to be rather than because someone else wants you to be.”

Ten Year Vamp has shared the bill with bands like, Lifehouse, Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, and Spin Doctors, just to name a few. With the sure-fire power pop songs on “Don’t Act Like You Know Me” and die hard fans willing to shell out their hard earned cash to help their favorite local band get a shot at the big time, Ten Year Vamp will soon be headlining on the main festival stages. As guitarist Mark Rose says, “We wanted to make a record that would hold up to everything you hear on the radio.” With “Don’t Act Like You Know Me” Ten Year Vamp surpasses many of the songs that are played on the radio these days. Here’s hoping that modern day radio, and maybe even some of the record companies, catch up to Ten Year Vamp.