Here it is, the interview you guys have been waiting for. The interview, which I – honestly – waited for! That’s right guys; I finally got to Skype and chat with Anthony Vincent from the famous Ten Second Songs. He drove everyone crazy with his cover version of Dark Horse by Katy Perry in 20 different styles! I had the chance to talk and ask him everything you guys wanted to know. We even Skyped with him on his birthday! Happy belated birthday man!
Lets’ start with the backgrounds; tell us about the longhaired dude that decided to put videos on YouTube?
Hey! My name is Anthony and I’m a native New Yorker. I’ve wanted to play music since an early age and picked up Bass guitar by eleven. I started singing in 2005, that was when I knew I could sing, haha. I went to community college, couldn’t stand it. I wanted to study Audio Production, couldn’t survive 2 minutes in it.
I originally come from a family who listens to a lot of music, so I grew up on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Disco music, you name it! A wide range of music.
I started an Internet radio with my brother and my best friend, and we named it Zeldaza New York; you can listen to it on ZenLive.tv every Tuesday and Thursday at 9 pm EST. It then developed into a studio, which developed into a production facility to promote my business, which triggered the Ten Second Songs idea.
Exactly what I was going to ask about next, how did this start the Ten Second Songs idea?
Well, it initiated with me doing custom videos that cost 5$ for all genres, (to do songs with different styles). I started in November 2013 when I wanted to advertise and promote my custom songs and my studio; mainly, it was a way to advertise things out of the box. I wanted to start with something different, and I wanted to start with ‘Wrecking Ball’ because it was a hit at the time, but when I heard ‘Dark Horse’ I thought this was it!
From your first video ‘Dark Horse’ and the number of viewers and subscribers hit the sky. Why did you think that happened?
Hmm, I won’t say it’s an entirely original idea, but it was implemented in a new way and I guess people didn’t expect the variety of genres and including big bands. So, it kinda blew up! As well as I take my time in putting a video up so people wait for it, I guess.
Oh, and being online is a plus! People went sharing it like crazy.
How did that make you feel?
Whoa, man! It was completely overwhelming. I knew it would happen, but it was too fast, and when it did, it felt surreal. I’m just a random dude who represents Rock and Metal, but hey! It was actually very scary at first, the fact that my video was all over the Internet. Then it became really fun. The fact that some bands asked me to tour with them, it just whoa!
Why does it take time to upload songs in 20 styles?
Yea, it does take around 2 months to upload a video, but that’s because it’s a one-man project. Basically, I do everything myself; I list the artists, I preform, I edit, I master, I mix and so on. I want to execute it the right way and it takes lots of time and effort.
We knew that you have a band. Tell us more about them.
My band is called Set the Charge. It started in 2007, and yes it took that long to get the members of the bands. Mainly, I focus on the writing and the singing. We’ve been steady for less than a year now and I’m hoping that people would know the band through Ten Second Songs.
How did you know you could sing and do all of these voices?
It’s a pretty embarrassing story; I started singing with N’sync ‘Tearin’ up my Heart’, and I found out that, hey… I could sing? My friends later on would ask me to do a rap song. Mostly, I like Rock music, so I thought let’s try other things out. Also, one of my biggest inspirations was Metallica’s ‘S&M’. Through the years it was a lot of trial and error. Trial and errors. I sucked at first and got better and better, and then I sucked again and tried again. It was never over night.
Tell us the process of your Ten Second Song videos?
I start with listing down all the artists – some of them could be requested – of course not all artists are picked for the song. I then decide what artist sings what line. I then start laying out the instruments, such as the skeleton of the drums, then the guitars and finally the vocals. I usually do them in segments, by bands until the whole thing is done. Then of course, you know, the usual, editing the video, mixing it, then ta-da you have it online.
You mentioned earlier that it’s a one-man project, but in one of your videos on Youtube you showed a whole team. Who are they?
They are the team behind the radio and the Internet TV. They have nothing to with Ten Second Song or the bands.
Thank you for this fun interview!
Thank you. It was a pleasure to know I reached all the way to Egypt! You guys kick ass!
Edited by: Nehal Ali
