When ‘50s and ‘60s inspired soul’n’roll revivalists Vintage Trouble surfaced in 2010, records were simply merch desk fillers. Electrified by the verve ofostentatious frontman Ty Taylor, rehearsals fixated practices of energy, togetherness and repetition rather than musical experimentation or deviation.
Speaking with Taylor and guitarist Nalle Colt, the band’s initiation replicated a young child’s excitement at getting their first electric guitar. Nevertheless, notoriety humbled them into the studio where an ulterior intellect was unearthed.
“We started out as a live act – it was all we were ever thinking about,” Colt says. “We even had a saying when it came to the studio that we’d walk in and bang it out but as you change, you evolve – songs become more intricate and more important as you go.
“With 1 Hopeful Rd. it was the first time we truly worked with an industry producer – we worked with Peter McCabe on The Bomb Shelter Sessions and we produced some of our records on our own – but our second album with Don was coming in, we had a more serious look at the songs.”
1 Hopeful Rd. was Vintage Trouble’s follow-up album to their debut demo piece The Bomb Shelter Sessions – a portrait of how minimalism doesn’t impede success – the long player was recorded in two and a half days and culminated just three months after the band’s establishment.
“We needed something we could sell at shows and right away people caught onto it and then out of nowhere our record was topping charts,” Taylor says. “This little record that we did for less than $1000 and we toured on it for a few years. There wasn’t even a conscious transition between live and recording because we recorded those records live – we just got the audience in and clicked record.”
When Vintage Trouble arrived, the genre of rhythm and blues wasn’t as buoyantly perched as it was in the prime eras of Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, nonetheless, a number of artists had commenced a rebirth just before they emerged.
“We had this vantage of people right before us releasing records like Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Joss Stone,” Taylor says. “There were people that were bridging 1950s and ‘60s with today and already having success from it so we didn’t have to knock down doors to have the concept.”
Through the eyes of legendary band manager Doc McGhee (KISS, Bon Jovi), the band had a terrific platform to broadcast themselves across the world. McGhee picked up the phone and suddenly they had a slot on British late night music program Later… with Jools Holland. Soon followed performances on Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Vintage Trouble became the band no one knew but needed to see.
Six years have passed, but the desire to pummel the stage with their pelvis-pushing dynamism remains. “Lately, we’ve been going deeper and deeper into songwriting but then we go on stage and it’s like a whirlwind,” Colt says. “Richard (Danielson) counts off the first song and we go the whole show without even really knowing what happens but it’s cool and we’ve become addicted to it.”
Speaking of songwriting, the greater mental investments on 1 Hopeful Rd. produced a more contained, ballad-sprawled album dispersing the weight Taylor carried on their previous releases. It’s now two years on and album talk is inevitable albeit a different philosophy channels Taylor’s brain. “We’re on the fringe about what to do now – being a band that’s in sync with album culture where an album was part of such a big movement, it wasn’t a song, it was a whole story and you love that. However, it is today and people can’t maintain the same amount of concentration.
“It’s a singles world now and there have been a couple of great artists recently, like John Mayer and a few others, that have done this thing where you release single after single. You let them accumulate and see what your fans like more than others and then they’re helping you dictate the album – once you’ve released enough singles, just add a few more and then you have an album.”
A daring premise poised to guide them into obscurity or deeper into hearts. Having solved the arithmetic of audience liaison, I’d say Vintage Trouble are entitled to engage in whatever romantic notions kindle their mind. After all, vanquishing the songwriting beast is all that stands between them and a post alongside the greats.
By Tom Parker
