Promising rock band back from brink of despair
By Christa Titus
NEW YORK (Billboard) - The title of 10 Years' new album, "Division" wasn't chosen lightly.
According to drummer Brian Vodinh, the Tennessee alternative band nearly broke up while recording its latest effort in Seattle.
"It got to the point where Jesse (Hasek), our singer, was literally online looking at flights to come home," Vodinh recalls. "He was done. I was right there with him. We all had just kind of had enough."
What led a young band off to a promising start -- selling 392,000 copies of its 2005 major-label debut, "The Autumn Effect," according to Nielsen SoundScan, and landing a No. 1 Modern Rock radio hit with "Wasteland" -- to almost bail out when the stars were aligned for a well-received follow-up?
Vodinh attributes it to pressure to perform, both internal (among the band) and external (from its advisers and Universal Republic label).
"We've crossed the line between doing it for fun before we had a record deal and now all of a sudden it's our profession, it's our career and it's our living," he says. "We do want songs on the radio and we do want to produce things that are commercially viable . . . But we don't want to be 'that Fall Out Boy band' and we don't want to be 'that Panic at the Disco.' We want to do it on our terms."
Once the bandmates began listening to and respecting each other's opinions again, the mending began -- with "Beautiful" results. The lead single from "Division," released in February, currently sits at No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 15 on Modern Rock. Both are determined by radio airplay. The album is due in stores May 13.
10 Years will join Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour, which opens July 23 in Cincinnati. The lineup also includes Chris Cornell, Ashes Divide and Atreyu.
"Linkin Park does kind of straddle alternative rock and even get into the pop crowd too," says Frank Arigo, Universal Republic's senior director of marketing. "It's going to be a great opportunity for these guys to get in front of a whole new audience."
Reuters/Billboard
