Over the last four years, Vintage Trouble has been criss crossing the globe in support of their LP, “The Bomb Shelter Sessions” and are currently out on support of their newest offering, “The Swing House Acoustic Sessions.” Their sound is a throwback to this Staxx/Muscle Shoals sound. The joyful explosion they create is reminiscent of Little Richard meets James Brown with a side of Sam and Dave thrown in for free. Tonight they will be performing at The Bijou Theater in Knoxville, Tennessee at 8pm. We suggest wearing something flame retardant to keep you from burning up when the music hits you and singer Ty Taylor’s dance moves set the stage for an all-out dance party. Recently we caught up with the guys to talk about the motivation behind their songs, the history of dance and what can happen when “Total Strangers” decide to get involved.
On a bus somewhere in Indiana, the guys from Vintage Trouble drop me a line. They are in the most jovial of moods, and oh so talkative. Their positive nature is infectious and soon we are all bantering like old friends. Most recently, their song “Pelvis Pusher” has been a subject of much discussion and consideration in my traveling circle. While covering a festival in Virginia, I noticed a lot of upper half dancing. What I mean to say, is that people were rocking, but not rolling. Nothing below the hips came into play. Upon finding people who were there to get down, we quickly saw the dancing become contagious. “Pelvis Pusher” covers that territory nicely and without a doubt, will force your hips to swing. (Nalle Colt – Guitar) “As to inspiration, we stated off in a blues club in Los Angeles and we were playing there every week. We’d been really into early and mid 50’s kind of music. It has that kind of certain energy to it.” (Rick Dill – Bass) “I remember being in a rehearsal room talking about calling people out. There have been some songs that have done that before, but we wanted to do our song that did the same thing. Why do you want to sit still when the groove is moving? You know you like it; don’t be afraid to let yourself go. It’s such and EDM world and our stuff comes along and people are used to dancing the way they do to the EDM stuff, which can be a little rigid and we’re trying to ask them to figure out how to dance a little bit more.” (Richard Danielson –Drums) “I was listening to a lot of Little Richard, and the drummer for Little Richard (Earl Palmer) threw the eighth notes on the high hat and the snare and it has a certain swing, between straight time and Jazz. With “Pelvis Pusher,” I just took that concept and put it on the bass drum.” (Ty Taylor – Singer/Dance Master) “A lot of times, in the world right now, people are so heady, and try to solve all of the problems by thinking so much, but we also want to have lyric content that would just make people shake their body in their lower region, where the root chakra is, because that’s where life begins. Then you can just shake a lot of sense into your body and a lot of nonsense out of your body. That’s where it came from, asking people to get out of their heads and into their butt.”
When you lay down the beat that sets the party to moving, sometimes you get to see some funky moves from those affected, that clings to your memory and become part of the long term experience. (Taylor) “We did this thing at Loufest, the other day, in St. Louis. There was this guy with a bandana in the third row, and I’m so glad someone got YouTube of him. This guy was dancing as if it was Woodstock, and the best combination of all his drugs had just kicked in, or either he was on the moon and Parliament Funkadelic was playing. I don’t know what was happening, but this guy was dancing so hard that he had to be seeing rays of light and color spectrum and his body was shaking so hard, that I think when he stepped away; the ground had a small hole in it… Sometimes people will jump on stage and go crazy and that’s a wild thing to me. It’s one thing to be invited onto a stage, but when someone is going to jump onto a stage and go crazy, it’s frightening… and also, it’s lovely. For me, I don’t have that much to worry about, but for the other guys, at any moment; someone could hit a guitar out of tune, knock a bass out of someone’s hand, or fall into a drum set. We were just in Japan, and these two girls were dancing so hard that we had to pull them up on stage during “Total Strangers,” which has lines like, “let’s make it/let’s get naked.” I’m saving the biggest detail for the end. These women were in traditional geisha outfits. So we’ve got these traditional geisha women rocking their bodies and going “WOO” to “Total Strangers.” Besides that, I don’t think that some people think some times. They forget that we are actually playing the music while we are doing this. Girls will take their scarves off and try wrapping it around one of the guy’s necks while we’re trying to play. People go crazy! People lose their mind… and we are so glad that we are the person that gets them out of their strait jackets for an evening.”
Speaking of “Total Strangers,” a song about jumping into a wild time with someone you know nothing about and taking the ride with them. Lots of craziness has ensued over the last several years and the stories are all full of silliness. (Taylor) “Speaking of “Total Strangers,” people should google a video called “Total Strangers Round Two” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtW6dbnf48I). It’s pretty sexy. Besides the dancing in it, the video is so sexy that they almost didn’t want to release it. I think the hardest part of being on the road and doing what we do, is there are a lot of people who have become very crafty. A lot of “Total Strangers” are very crafty. They find ways of seeming overly cool. We invite these people on the tour bus and they’re really great, and then people do go crazy. But for us, when someone is going to lose their mind and say something off the cuff or get a little freakish, where most people think that’s a bad thing, we like it, because nothing about “Total Strangers” odd acts is going to feel abnormal to us. If anything, it actually makes us feel a little more normal.”
Music was made to move us and make us move, both internally and externally. Coming from a slightly more rigid background, where we just did not dance, not because it was bad, but I was simply never placed in the situations to dance. Self-confidence also played a major role. However, those days are far behind and long ago. There is freedom in movement and Vintage Trouble will make you move. “(Dill) I think Staxx is the main thing that we connected with. We all come from different backgrounds. When we all met up, there was something about that music that fired us all up, something to communicate in a whole other way as a band. We started playing live shows quickly, after three weeks together. There was something about that music; it worked effortlessly with us, to make that kind of music. It feels good. That’s the rule. Keep it easy.” (Danielson) “I don’t think fans are chasing that Staxx sound per say. I think some of it is the way things are recorded. It makes it feel like they are back in an older era. What that is, is back to The Staxx stage, where musicians played live in the studio and didn’t use click tracks. There was not a lot of overdub. Everything was organic and real and in the moment. The music was living and breathing. We don’t have a keyboard player, so we have a sensibility about us and that is soul and rhythm and blues.” (Taylor) “I think what ends up happening too, is when you’re choosing what to do, if you choose music that is great. There are so many people today who are inhibited in their actions. You can even look around at people walking and people seem a little tight sometimes, and it’s just because there’s not enough people dancing. We do consciously think, let’s get people moving. Let’s get people shaking. If little kids, at a young age, are taught to dance, then maybe they aren’t as shy when they go to jr high school. The more dance you can put into the world, the better. We are lucky to do it through the form of music.”
Vintage Trouble is a strong band because it is made of strong, talented individuals that desire to play together, to work as a unit. The joy of chasing their dreams is still very much a part of who they are. (Colt) “It is Vintage Trouble. It is being in bands all your life. There is a moment when you meet a couple of other guys and you connect. For me, it’s just Vintage Trouble on its own. It is a whole amazing journey. We are so grateful for being a part of this. You start a band and you think, this is going to be the coolest band in the world and you make a cd and your mom gets it and that’s about it. She gives it to grandma. Suddenly we clicked on something that works. It is unbelievable. We have so many friends that are musicians, probably way better musicians than we have ever been or are going to be, but they’re home and not working. We want to bring it out there, keep playing and in joy and happiness, because there are people out there who want to hear live music. We have seen it. We have gone all over the world. That record we made, in a couple of days, for $1,200 dollars, we have been touring on that album for four years, which is incredible! This joy of making music and people come listen, for me, I wake up every day, and I can’t believe it.”
