10 Years

Interview: Brian Vodinh of 10 Years

Since their beginning in 1999, 10 years have been creating a musical buzz that has been stuck in the ears of listeners for over…well just about ten years. With more hype around their upcoming release,’Feeding the Wolves’ the band is getting to be bigger than ever and will surely be a name to remember. I recently took up the opportunity to ask long time member and drummer/guitarist, Brian Vodinh a few questions concerning “Feeding the Wolves.

To begin, how did the Carnival of Madness tour go?

Carnival of Madness is exactly what it sounds like…madness!  We are friends with all the bands on the bill so it is just a rock & roll summer camp.  Another great thing is that we have made a lot of new fans on the Carnival of Madness tour.

Did you guys play any songs from ‘Feeding the Wolves’ and how did they go over?

Yes we did.  We played 3 songs.  The songs are a bit more energetic than some of our older stuff, so they went over great live.

Where did you guys record ‘Feeding the Wolves’?

We recorded the album with Howard Benson in Los Angeles at Bay 7 Studios.

What was it like working with Howard Benson?

Howard was a very insightful producer and did a great job of pushing us to write better songs.  We went to L.A. with a ton of material and he was basically like, “I like a few of these songs, but spend the next couple of weeks writing your asses off and then lets hit the studio.”  That’s exactly what we did and we managed to write about half of the album in the couple of weeks right before recording.

After listening to the album, I found it to be a lot heavier than your older records; did you guys go into the studio wanting to make a heavier record?

We absolutely did.  Before we even wrote a single melody for this album, we knew that we wanted to make a more aggressive album.

Where did the lyrics come from? Does any of it have to do with current events or is it just thoughts on your mind?

Lyrics come from anywhere and everywhere.  Life in general is the greatest influence on our lyrics, but we definitely touch on more specific events that happen in our lives.  During the process of making Feeding the Wolves, we would sit around and just share stories and ended up writing about a lot of these.

What was one thing you wanted to make sure came out through on the album?

We want people to know that we are a band that is here to stay.  We are a band that will continue to make music that we love and that comes from our hearts.  We are not trying to latch on to all the bullshit fads that happen in our industry, we are just trying to create music that means something to us and to our fans.

Did you guys have all of the songs you wanted on the record already written before you entered the studio?

We pretty much did.  We made a lot of tweaks to these songs once we were in the studio, but we walked in there the first day with a very clear vision.

When did you begin writing the material for ‘Feeding the Wolves’?

The first song that was written for Feeding the Wolves was ‘Shoot it Out’, and this happened right when we got off the road from touring in support of Division.  I can’t really remember exactly when it was written, but we started working on new material immediately after we stopped touring.

What music were you listening to at the time that had an influence on ‘Feeding the Wolves’?

We were listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine and Deftones.  Those bands are a couple of my favourites, so zoning in on the energy that those bands exude really helped influence us.

Were there any songs that you wanted to be on the album but didn’t make it?

Yes, but certain songs just sometimes don’t really fit with an album.  There is a song that did make it on this album, but was written for Division.  We worked so hard to get that song on Division, but it just didn’t come together.  After revisiting it a few years later, we knocked it out of the park.

Any tours coming up that you are particularly excited about?

We are about to hit the road with Sevendust again.  Those guys are like our big brothers.  That’s going to be an amazing tour.

What is your favourite song off of the new album?

The answer to this changes quite often, but for now it’s a song entitled ‘Fade Into (The Ocean)’

What kind of equipment did you guys use in the studio?

We used so many different pieces of gear I don’t even know where to start.  We basically used every amp we could get our hands on at some point during the recording process.  Our main heavy guitar tones were a lot of Bogner and Marshall, while our clean tones were Roland JC-120 and Tophat.

What city has given you guys the bet response to, ‘Shoot it Out’?

I’m not really sure.  We have had a great response in a lot of places with that song.  We are so used to the crowd being most familiar with “Wasteland”, but recently someone that we met said, “oh, you are in 10 Years, don’t you guys do that “Shoot it Out” song?”  That was awesome to hear that the song is becoming an identifiable track for us.


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2 Responses to “Interview: Brian Vodinh of 10 Years”

  1. Justin Lamkin 26/08/2010 at 8:04 pm

    Have heard three of the new songs so far and they are awesome! Cool story. Here in Denver our rock station has a thing they do every first Friday of the month it is called flush the format Friday. It means listeners can call and request songs that are not in the normal rotation. I was driving to work and listening and the D.J. came on and said that he hadn’t any request that were knocking it out of the park so they took the next ten request and they would pick the best one. I called and requested Shoot It Out and it won! It was an awesome Friday. I would love if I could get 10 Years to sponsor my motorcycle roadracing team. Please let me know if you are interested.

  2. You would need to contact the band and their management for any chance of that happening.