Vintage Trouble | All should expect to have their hearts pulsing and their souls shaking.

Vintage Trouble is coming to A38 to once again shake the boat and the souls of the audience on the 6th of July. But before the show we had some questions about the new album, Heavy Hymnal, the pivotal moments of their career and their show in Budapest. 

Your new album „Heavy Hymnal” was released on June 23. Tell us a little about it! How is this different from the others? Do you have any concept? Which track is your personal favorite?

It’s been so exciting to see that people have been responding to it so well. These songs are really important to us in the messaging.  The songs have to do with what we were all going through during the beginning of the pandemic and how we were able to live our lives with agitation upon us. We are loved differently and feel differently and communicate differently, and these songs are all about that experience of how to love in the heat of the time. So I’m excited that people are really grooving to it.
People have already been singing the words. I see them singing the words at the live shows, and that is really important to us.
Did we have a concept when we wrote the album? No, we didn’t. We just wrote about the time for ourselves, and because of wanting to be honest and authentic and go deeper as far as a vulnerability in the lyric, and also vulnerability and the grooves on the concept is for the cells at the end of an egg just felt like it was a hymnal of modern day pandemic, spirituals, anthems, and love songs.
The concept found us we did not find it.
My favorite song to sing is The Love That Once Lingered. My favorite song to have inside of my body is „Who I Am” because of the punch of it and because of the Agro energy of it, and then my favorite song as a listener is probably „I’m not the One”.

What is the process of writing an album like for you? Who writes the basics? Who writes the lyrics? Do you already have any established habits to make it more fluid?

The process of an album is different every time. For this one, we were separated, and because of Covid, we had to stay separated.
When it was time to record, we were each required to get our home studios up to a professional level, and then our producer, Chris Seefried, would conduct from a few different studios. We would send sections of our songs, and he would cut them up and put them together. Looking back on this time period, I think it’s been the best record-making process we’ve ever had.
I (Ty) write the lyrics and the melody. The band will come together, and we talk about grooves and the stories behind each song, and from there, the song is born.
I’ve gotta tell the story most convincingly I guess, so the lyrics and melodies come for me.

The band was formed in 2010. Could you summarize the most memorable and significant moments during this time? What was the most challenging period or happening?

The moment with the most impact would be Jules Holland.
Although, some of the most important moments happened before we even left the United States to come to Europe.
I think all of us will remember having residencies across Los Angeles and every night I would think about how people would come to our shows well dressed, looking sharp, with hair up, and leaving messy, down, and dirty.
That’s kind of what formed our energy toward live performances….. those early days.
Some highlights will definitely be the Jules Holland show, our tour supporting AC/DC, and all of the touring with Jon Bon Jovi.
Touring with Lenny Kravitz, and without a doubt, opening for the Rolling Stones.
Monumental television moments would be, The David Letterman Show, and being the first band ever to play the Tonight Show four times in one year which was really exciting.
Some pivotal points would be hearing thousands of people saying my mother’s name as we did Nancy Lee. That’s big for me. Winning the classic rock award as a new band.
We just had so many things that are monumental for us, and some of them are really small. I think recording this album was monumental. I say that because there was a need to feel each other while we’ve been separated so that caused extra vibration I think you hear that in the songs.

You already knew each other and were on good terms before the formation of the band. What was the point when you decided to found Vintage Trouble, how did it happen?

How did we become a band?
I knew Rick because he was playing bass in this rock ‘n’ roll circus.  I believed it was called the zodiac show.
Richard, I knew because we would see each other at jam sessions at a friend’s house in LA.
Nalle, I knew because we were in a few different bands in LA that were kind of in parallel with each other.
Eventually, while talking time and time again, Nalle and I discussed how we didn’t want to just do blues rock anymore. We wanted to be inspired more by early rhythm & blues. So, we brought in Rick and Richard, and we just clicked right away.

The last time you played in Hungary was at our venue the A38 in 2017. What did you think of the club and Budapest? Did you have any memorable moments here? How does it feel to be back here?

Yes, I definitely remember the club that we played last time in 2017. It was so exciting for me to play on the ship, but what I think I remember the most was, I went to the balcony and decided to hang over the edge. This was during a song, it was a decent distance to the top of the crowd, not to mention the floor.  I decided to let go and dead drop into the crowd. Our fans, as they do, caught me from the drop. It was a moment of great energy.
That is what I remember the most.

Your summer will be very busy because of the new album tour. Do you write songs when you’re on tour and traveling all the time? Do you have time for that or do you only focus on the tour and the concerts? Do you have some “tour tactics”?

For us, writing is just a part of what we do. It’s like breathing, standing, or eating.
We are writing all the time. We will be on the bus with our laptops open, jotting down ideas before and after each show. We discuss and perform new song ideas at soundcheck. We are writing throughout the tour, there is never a break. Writing has to happen, it is oxygen to us.

What are your favorite songs to play live?

Right now, my favorite song to play live happens to be Who I Am. There’s something about who I am that makes me feel so today, and also so my past that is performing in there is an energy that happens in my body that makes me feel more powerful than most moments of my life.

What can the audience expect at the concert on July 6? Are you prepared with any surprises?

Our show on July 6th is going to be a hot, pulsating, sweaty celebration.
It’s gonna be merciless. We are very demanding of our audiences because we require them to be just as much of a part of the show as we are.  All should expect to have their hearts pulsing and their souls shaking. They can expect to have their pelvis pushing and hope to have their hearts caressed.