INDUSTRY PROFILE - Vicki Blankenship
- Indiegrrl CEO/Indie Music For Life Executive Director
by Mark E. Waterbury
When you are five years old and your grandfather puts drumsticks in your
hands, then your great grandfather gives you a guitar, it is probably pre-ordained
that your life is going to involve music, That is the way it was for Vicki
Blankenship, who culled influences from the jazz, bluegrass and rock music
she grew up with. After graduating from high school in Rocky Mount, Virginia,
Vicki attended Elon University in Burlington, North Carolina where she earned
degrees in English, journalism, and communications. Vicki also performed
in various bands and groups throughout her schooling, and around the end
of her college years, she joined the Carolina Cowboys. She spent several
years working with the Carolina Cowboys, who toured extensively and opened
for Conway Twitty, George Jones and James Taylor among others. Vicki actually
left the music business for a number of years, pursuing other careers including
owning her own restaurant.
In 1998, Vicki was diagnosed with bladder cancer. This actually energized
her into an even further pursuit of her musical dreams. Getting back into
recording and performing, Vicki founded Indie Music For Life, a non-profit
organization who along with Indiegrrl and its other entity Laughs For Life,
raises money for cancer research and education through live performances,
compilation CDs, and other events. She became involved with Indiegrrl which
supports women's involvement with all mediums of art, and, in 2005, she
took over as CEO, placing Indiegrrl under the umbrella of Indie Music For
Life. She also runs Spotted Kiva Productions, helping indie bands and musicians
create web sites and produce various promotional materials to help further
their careers, and belongs to Outmusic, promoting music in the GLBT communities.
Vicki is a person very dedicated to independent artists and the causes she
holds dear, and an inspiration to anyone trying to make it in today’s
music climate.
MM: How did you originally get involved with Indiegrrl?
VB: I originally signed on with them as a member. I got to know Holly "Figueroa" O'Reilly
who was the CEO and was helping her as a volunteer with some marketing and
doing their web site. It ended up where Holly needed a much deserved rest,
so we met face-to-face at the final Rockrgirl conference and we decided
there that I would take it over. Holly always dreamed that it would be organized
as a non-profit, and since I had already founded a non-profit with Indie
Music For Life, we just folded that into the existing non-profit.
MM: What was the impetus behind Indie Music For Life when you started
it?
VB: I performed for a couple different Relay For Life events in North
Carolina, and I decided that some way or another, we had to incorporate
music into these type of events. Music has been important to me in my fight
against cancer, and I just thought there was some way that we could work
with music. So we produced three concerts in North Carolina in 2004 and
the proceeds went to the Relay For Life chapters in those counties. They
were a big success and we wanted to make sure that the money went into cancer
research directly, and we also wanted to put money into the educational
programs we were trying to establish to promote musical therapy for cancer
patients.
MM: Explain a little bit about this music therapy for cancer patients.
VB: What we are doing is putting together educational materials about
the benefits of musical therapy for cancer patients. We will be helping
promote the American Music Therapist Association. Many cancer treatment
facilities have now incorporated musical therapy as part of the treatment.
It has been proven to help ease nausea, ease pain, and gives people a focal
point. It is soothing and relaxing. Our first big project is geared towards
pediatric cancer patients, and the material in the package will explain
about what musical therapy is, and if your center does not offer it, how
you can get in touch with music therapists across the United States who
can implement a program. We are also going to put some fun items in there
for the kids, such as CD compilations of children's music, and a read-along
story with music set in the background - some other things like stickers
and maybe flutes or kazoos, because one of the first things you lose with
chemotherapy is the strength in your lungs. So the kids can blow on the
flutes or kazoos to exercise their lungs. It’s an ongoing project
right now as we are trying to put together 15,000 packets and distribute
them to different pediatric cancer facilities.
MM: What are some of the things you are trying to do to raise funds and
get musicians involved with it?
VB: The number one thing we have focused on the past are different events.
We put on benefit concerts and have had a few that involved dinner theater
type shows. Some were in coffee houses with acoustic musicians, some were
in bars and were more band-oriented. We would take the door proceeds from
those events and then we started incorporating raffles as we gathered donations
from various businesses. This week we just hired a consulting firm to help
us with grant research and writing. We’re also trying to pull in corporate
donations and sponsors, and it is not that easy because, as you know, the
economy is not that great right now. We’re still getting our name
out there, and we are dedicated and trudging along.
MM: Are you finding that musicians, bands and club owners are willing
to help out with this for the most part?
VB: The performers and entertainers have really stepped behind it. We
have a waiting list of performers wanting to get involved, so the main thing
now is trying to get the events booked. We are working with another company
who is helping us book and promote these events. With venues, on one aspect
they want to reach out to you, on the other hand they want to have some
guarantees coming in the door. We have to pull at their heartstrings to
get them to give up one night for our cause. That’s not a lot we are
asking for - one night out of a year at each club. We are also working on
more of a national campaign to really get it pushed out there this year.
We have named the tour Indie Nation Fights Cancer, and that is also what
the CD is going to be called. It will be two disc compilation of various
artists, and we will also be producing a comedy CD and children's music
CD.
MM: Tell me us little more about Indiegrrl and what that is about?
VB: It started out mainly with female singer/songwriters, but we have
since opened it up to include all women in the arts because we have such
a big cross-tie with the other parts of the non-profit that we wanted to
open up the doors and start expanding the networking with women in various
parts of the entertainment industry. I think that is going to help the organization
itself in the next level. All the arts sort of go hand in hand, and we set
up events that feature our artists with some of the proceeds going to the
cancer research side. Last year we produced a two day festival in Virginia,
and we have the Indiegrrl Conference coming up this year in August. We hope
a good part of the proceeds that come in from that can go to the cancer
fund.
MM: Do you feel that Indiegrrl is doing what it is supposed to be doing,
that people are really being helped by its existence?
VB: It can be a mixed blessing because it depends on what the membership
wants to contribute to the organization. It’s not all what we are
doing for them. We look for members to help set up events, help us set up
showcases and volunteer for various duties to help us out. This year is
the first year we produced the conference, and it is really geared to workshops
that will be very good educational tools for their careers. Even for basic
aspects like web design, photoshop, video editing, and how to create wav
files. It is several different basic workshops along with some industry
professionals who are coming in to talk about information that they can
glean from this conference so it can help the artists to develop. The artists
showcasing will all be members of Indiegrrl, but anyone can come to the
conference. It will be a higher fee for non-members, but anyone can attend,
even males, because we are trying to open this up to the songwriter and
artist communities in general.
MM: What do you enjoy the most about what you are doing?
VB: I really like meeting the performers, getting to know people all
around the United States, the networking involved. It’s hard work
and some serious volunteer time. For me personally, I hardly listen to mainstream
radio anymore. My office and house are filled with independent artists.
That is what I listen to. I can name artists from about every state that
most people have never heard on the radio. I’m just a big indie buff.
MM: What sort of advice do you have for independent musicians just to
get their name out there?
VB: First, they have to realize they can’t just have a starving artist
mentality. It is work, and the music industry has gone through major shifts.
It is very hard to get signed to a major label, and if you want to do this,
you have to learn the business side. You have to learn to be a business
person, not just a creative person. Don’t expect everything is going
to happen over night. Be prepared to get into the trenches and work hard
to get yourself built up. Learn how to do your own bookings and promotions.
and then when you get a bit bigger, you can afford to bring in companies
or people to do those things for you.
MM: Do you think some bands focus too hard on getting signed to a major
label and as a result they are not being realistic about their careers?
VB: There are hundreds and thousands of artists out there. The way technology
is right now, people can record music in their bedroom or their basement
fairly easily with equipment they can pick up at stores. If you have any
kind of technical savvy at all, you can produce something that is really
good. The niche out there is getting harder and harder to find, so you really
have to be dedicated and put a large amount of time into working the business
part of it - working your bookings and your promotions. If you are not strong
in that. you are going to suffer no matter how talented you are.
http://www.indiegrrl.com
http://www.indiemusicforlife.com
http://www.indiegrrl.com/2008conference.html
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