iRock: Thirteen Yards To Victory

posted in: Features

Many of us have faced obstacles that stand between us and our wildest dreams, sometimes when they’re just yards away ” so close you can taste them.

Thirteen Yards To Victory (Saugus, Massachusetts) brings a positive message to the table through their music, and not to mention band name. With inspirational lyrics that back their album American Dreamers, 13YTV expresses the urge to push forward no matter what stands in your way. As the track title “American Dreamers” on their MySpace page shows, these young musicians sound mature with solid song structure, hooky guitar riffs and vocal melodies that’ll keep you humming for days. Breaking out in the local scene, these 5 best friends moved from the garage to the spotlight with 3 independent national tours under their belt and a stop at the Boston Vans Warped Tour date in 2007.

Below is an iRock Q &A with Thirteen Yards to Victory!

IW: First off, how did you guys come up with the name?
13YTV: In the beginning there wasn’t a big story behind the name. We were just 5 young, fickle teenagers who needed to come up with something. But since that time the name has grown, much like we have, and we think of it as a positive name ” one that can encourage people who are close to a goal, or who are on the path to achieving a dream. Thirteen Yards To Victory has become a positive, inspirational name that means many things to many people.

IW: Give us a little background on how the band came to be.
13YTV: It was definitely fate that brought us together! We all grew up in the same area, and for awhile, we were all in different local bands playing shows together every weekend. Vinny and Ryan were in a band called Same Old Story, Tom and Anthony were in The Commonwealth Tragedy, and Dave was in Feeling Brave. After awhile, it seemed like all our bands started breaking up at the same time! In the end, it seemed that everyone who took their music seriously came together to form Thirteen Yards To Victory (13 YTV). Tom also had a recording studio and recorded me (Vinny) and Ryan’s first band, so we knew him very well. Along came Anthony and Dave, and Thirteen Yards To Victory was born!

IW: With your album American Dreamers, produced by Ken Lewis, what do you hope this album will do for the future of 13YTV?
13YTV: We hope to reach out to as many people as possible, and to do something positive for not only our community, but for everyone. We want to empower people to achieve something, no matter what, through our music. This album is really an excellent example of how we’ve developed over the past 5 years we’ve been together. Working with Ken Lewis continues to be such a remarkable learning experience for us. This whole project has made us more serious and focused on our music.

IW: Your management team seems to be working quite well for you guys. Are you looking to keep yourself down this path or move onto a label to handle all of your needs?
13YTV: You know the old expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” As the music business continues to evolve, things have become very chaotic in the industry. We’ve been able to connect with some amazing industry professionals like Ken Lewis and have been able to partner with so many people and organizations, like The White House, that almost certainly would not have been possible as a starting band on a major label. We’ve even made history in the United States Congress! We’d like to keep it this way!

IW: Talk about some experiences you’ll never forget from touring.
13YTV: I (Vinny) don’t drive the van and trailer when we tour, so pretty much I just sleep all the time! We had a show cancelled on our way from Chicago to Georgia, so after our Chicago show we drove straight to Georgia. I closed my eyes in the Windy City and woke up in the deep South! During another tour, our drummer Ryan, who was 15 at the time, slept in the middle of a Wal-Mart parking lot on an air mattress until cars full of shoppers started showing up at 7 A.M. We also got real worried about Anthony one time because he spent 8 consecutive hours in a hotel bedroom playing a flight simulator game with headphones on and didn’t speak to anyone!

IW: As of now, have you achieved some of the goals you put together as a band when you first began, or have you moved the bar to higher expectations for yourselves?
13YTV: The answer is both. As a band, we got to work with Kenny Aronoff (Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Ethridge) very early in our careers, and that was a very big deal for us, and then getting to work with a multi Grammy Award winner such as Ken Lewis (Mariah Carey, Fall Out Boy, Jay-Z), we’ve certainly gotten to do some very astounding things. Tom’s goal has always been to develop his talent in the recording arts, while creating some of the most epic music possible, I have always been interested in the business end of music, all while developing my guitar and vocal skills. Every day we all strive to become better musicians ” becoming more skilled is very important to us.

IW: You seem to have a great following on the Internet. What were some ways you achieved this?
13YTV: We built our fan base by keeping in CONSTANT communication with our fans online. We do our very best to answer every comment, every message, every email, everyday. We are always looking for new social media sites to interact on. We’ve recently added OurStage.com to our list, so we hope to continue to grow a fan base here as well. We think touring has definitely helped us. We’d meet tons of people everyday whether promoting our show, at a show or selling CD’s at a local mall. We just like connecting with people.

IW: I read that Vinny Prezioso and Dave Rossi are currently working on an Internet-based talk show. How did you two come about this?
13YTV: We basically fell into this role. Our manager is affiliated with CBS and basically created a concept to showcase some of the synergistic talent on his roster. He really likes the way Dave and I interact with each other and thought us being part of the show would be a great learning experience by helping us become better verbal communicators. It’s been a great experience and we can’t wait for the show to launch on the CBS Digital Radio Network this spring!

IW: Last but not least, go ahead and shout out to anyone or talk about anything that you’d like listeners to know about 13 YTV.
13YTV: Our shout out is to ANYONE and EVERYONE who has given our music a chance by listening and for those who have supported us in ANY way! We’d like people to know that we’re really thankful for EVERYTHING, and that we want to make a difference through our music and through our community service efforts. A big THANK YOU to OurStage for giving us this opportunity, and for providing independent artists like ourselves such a great platform to expose our music and tell our stories to the world!