Vintage Trouble Interview
We had a chance to catch up with our favourite “live-wired, straight-shootin, dirty-mouth’d pelvis-pushin’ juke” four-man blues band, Vintage Trouble, to talk all things rhythm and soul…
1.) Who/what inspired you to become a musician(s)? NALLE
My grandmother Anna-Stina, she was so passionate about music and piano. When I was just a little baby I used to lay underneath her piano and just listen. Then I knew I had to be part of it somehow. I got attracted to the guitar thru Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Rory Gallagher. I love listen to blues and what it express. It was a life choice. I am addicted to it.
2.) Where did you come up with the name for the band? TY
The band name found us when I was explaining to a friend that my father was vintage trouble meaning old school trouble when one was trying to be bad ass but it just was in your blood. Marinated in trouble for twenty years or more. The real trouble deal. The when I was writing the lyrics for “blues hand me down” I wrote, “I come from Vintage Trouble. Look of out if I’m the the one you found.” And there it was.
3.) How would you describe yourself as a band and the music you make? RICK
“Primitive Soul” is an easy description. Equal parts Rock & Roll, Soul and Rhythm & Blues.
4.) You’ve supported some pretty huge bands – do you have a favourite show? RICHARD
AC/DC in Austria comes to mind. Over 100,000 eager fans awaited them. This show apparently broke the previous attendance records of both U2 and Pink Floyd. The AC/DC boys greeted us side stage and pretty much let us know it was kind of a big deal. But having their support went a long way. We killed it! It truly felt like a VT concert when we went on. That is how the response felt.And then, it wasn’t more than a half hour after our set that we were informed we’d just secured the second leg of the tour. Needless to say we were riding high that day.
5.) Since your debut album, ‘The Bomb Shelter Sessions’, how has your music progressed? RICK
We’ve had the great fortune of getting to travel all over the world several times and play together so much. All the while we have grown and keep trying to expand and open ourselves up to all kinds of new music. It can’t help but to get into our process. If you’re not growing you’re dying. :
6.) What would you say your biggest achievement in the music industry is so far? NALLE
To still be a band! All jokes a side that is an accomplishment. Not sure if there is one , there is so many and we are still looking at the horizon for more opportunities. One that will always stay with me is recording with Booker T Jones from Booker T & MG’s . We ended up writing two songs in a couple of hours that ended up on his album Sound The Alarm. We have been very fortunate to share the stage with some of the greatest and I hope life will keep on giving.
7.) What makes the blues so special to you, and where did your passion for it come from? TY
The blues is so special to me because it a a form of music that is joyous based on the release of sorrow. You feel the transformation of the emotion through every note.
8.) What advice would you give to aspiring rhythm and blues musicians? RICHARD
Well, I guess first one would have to define just what Rhythm and Blues really is. For us, we pay homage and have great respect for the artists in this genre that came before us, which is mostly 1950’s and 1960’s. Anyone wanting to have a handle on this music needs to go back and listen to the greats, which stand up to today’s standards, and even surpass it in so many ways. A lot of this has to do with the way the music was both conceived and recorded back then. It had a purity to it. It was recorded mostly live with musicians in a room together. That’s why it feels so good—why so much of it is Timeless. It’s got an undeniable soul to it. So the best advice would be to feel deeply and be felt even deeper when you play with others. That has a lot to do with it. And simplicity goes a long way as well. Also, for the record, Rhythm and Blues is not R&B. The music industry seems to think it is and labels it as such. But R&B is closer to pop. Rhythm and Blues is more primal, has far more soul to it. So, in a nutshell, play with your Soul—not your head. That’s what turns on your listener more than anything.
9.) What does the future hold for Vintage Trouble? BAND
Hopefully more opportunities to play in front of more people where we continue trying to connect to as many souls as possible and the ability and trust it takes to truly grow as artists, allowing ourselves to be free from labels. Besides that, we’ll surely be doing a lot more of what we seem to do best, which is get before people and give them our all. That seems to be our drug of choice.
You can check out the guys in action below, performing a personal favourite of ours exclusively for SPGtv…
