Interview by Anne-Cécile L.
Thanks to Maxime from Call Me Max for the help!
Crédit Photos: Gaëlle Ghesquière

Cliquez ici pour la version française.

Just before their show at Le Trianon, in Paris, I met Vintage Trouble‘s guitarist, Nalle Colt to ask him a few questions…

I know you were playing at The Hellfest yesterday, how was it?
Nalle: It was pretty amazing! We were pretty stressed out before, especially me. I think I was even more so than the other guys in the band… I don’t know why… I was worried that we wouldn’t fit in, that it would be odd or that the audience wouldn’t like it. So, I told the band that we should change the setlist to do all our rock’n roll songs. Ty (Taylor), our lead singer, told me « No, it will be fine ! » And then it was incredible ! We have a slow song called Not alright by me that has nothing to do with heavy metal, hard rock or anything… When we started playing it, everybody started singing along. It was incredible ! There were like 40 000 people there… It was an unbelievable experience !

You guys played in Paris last December… Are you happy to be back here tonight ?
Nalle: We are very happy ! I know you guys go through so much turmoil here. There has been so much madness and, now, we have madness in the States as well. It’s coming on everywhere. And it’s wild to experience it here because for us… I mean, we always think of France and Paris as a place where no bad can happen… And now you are going through so much stuff, so we are happy to come here and share some joy! 
We are fortunate enough to travel all around the world. Just this year we have been to so many places, but as much as I love visiting new places, it always feels good to come back to places where we’ve been before… Obviously, we have connections, friends like you that we get to see again ! 
We have been here a bunch of times with AC/DC, Lenny Kravitz, The Who, and done our own shows, but it felt very special last year because it was a sensitive time… We were worried, because we didn’t know whether people would go out, be part of that night life or not. And it was so good ! Everybody came… It brought tears to our eyes. I know you were there. It was great we had a good time !

Your second album, 1 Hopeful Road, was released a few months ago, you toured and are still touring all over the world. What do you feel about that? 
Nalle: Obviously we’ve been waiting for so long to put a new album out and everybody has been asking about it. We toured five years on our first record, and which I would say was just a record that we made on our own, it cost about 1200 dollars. And now, we’ve released this record on a big record label and all the stuff that comes with it. We’ve learnt a lot since we have been out with it.
It’s a beautiful record. We try to play as many songs from the album as we can and we have a lot of songs that we’ve never put on a record, that our fans heard and liked, so we are mixing up our set a lot. It’s a good experience ! We are blessed to get to do this, I don’t know how long we can do it… I’m just happy that we are still doing it and, as a band, we are under a lot of pressure of staying together : we live with each other as a band and crew all the time. So you can understand that sometimes there are frictions. Every night, we’ve got to go on stage and, obviously, all four of us want to give 200% and make sure that everyone who paid to come loves it. So it’s an intense part of our lives and I love it, I hope it lasts as long as possible.

And, do you feel any difference in the audience’s reactions to your show/music from one country to another ?
Nalle: Yeah, I mean, Ty is incredible at connecting with an audience. You’ve got to have a front person. We all have instruments, we deal with a lot of stuff on stage and he is the connective that glues it all together. I do feel it’s different from one country to another, for sure. We have just spent a lot of time in Japan for instance, they have a very different culture but in the end, midway through the set, it just seem to be all mold together. That is the beauty of the language of music I guess. In Japan, they don’t understand a lot of the lyrics and same here in France… Since we are communicating and singing in English, it is not the easiest thing but I love that the rhythm and the music make it all come together. That’s a beautiful thing. So yeah, it definitely feels different in each country but I would say, halfway through the set, everything just comes together.

You were opening for huge bands like AC/DC or The Who in really big venues, can you tell more about these experiences ?
Nalle: We’ve been amazingly fortunate as a band, we started six years ago and we have a great manager called Doc McGhee. He’s kind of a legendary old manager that worked with Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Guns & Roses. So when we started working with him, he had old connections with Bon Jovi and it was our first big thing.
We had only played in little clubs – 200/300 people… And we received a call from Jon Bon Jovi who said « I want you guys to come and join me on the tour ». So, suddenly, from playing at small places, we drove up to Scotland and walked up on stage and there were about 75000 people! Obviously, we are playing music and we get to see people everyday but when you walk on a stage like that, you DO get stage fright. It’s incredible ! It’s so huge ! The energy of so many people… It’s an unbelievable feeling! They’re looking at you and they’re waiting, they want to hear something. They have never seen you before so you have to prove yourself. We started with that, and then it has been a crazy journey !
We went on tour with Lenny Kravitz for a long time and did fifty-two dates with The Who…You know, I grew up listening to The Who and suddenly, we are hanging out with them backstage like friends, and just talking about guitars… It is crazy ! They were so kind to us, they took us in like a little family, we ended up spending so much time with them… And their fans were incredible! We did arena shows with them, so there were about ten to twelve thousands people every night…
And then, as you said earlier, we received a call from Angus Young asking us to join AC/DC on their world tour. I think when I’m old I will still be telling that story to my kids. Bands like us, that are new now, don’t sell records anymore… You don’t sell albums like AC/DC did, so I don’t know if new bands can ever get to the level where they are at. I hope so because it’s unbelievable! And it was a carrot for us to look for in the future and be able to do something like that on our own.
The biggest show that we did was in Imola, Italy, with AC/DC, 132 000 people… It almost felt fake, like a fairy tale. Before the AC/DC tour, they sent us an email which said « We apologize because we have a really rough fanbase, our fans don’t like anyone else than AC/DC. So usually when we have support bands, they throw things at you and heckle you! » So that’s how we walked into the tour, we didn’t know what to expect and we were really scared. Then, they were amazing ! All the AC/DC fans were incredible, they are our friends now. They are coming to all of our shows all around the world. They are so supportive of us and I can understand it in a way, because we come from the same roots even if AC/DC does it in a lot harder way, but we listen to the same music. It was an incredible journey ! We had so much fun !

I was at your show at Le Trabendo last December, and it was the first time I saw you. You guys seem really close on stage, aren’t you?
Nalle: Like I said before, for the past six years we have pretty much seen each other in the band more than anyone else in our lives. We are very close, but that obviously comes also with a lot of tension because we are four very head-strong guys and everybody wants to do it their way. We love each other, and obviously, travelling like this is very intense but one thing I know at the outcome of it is we all want to do good music and perform for our fans and give them everything we have. So for us, the stage is a place where we have to make amends and come together no matter what happens in life because it’s a special moment. And I know every night when we play, we try to talk to our fans and hear about what they are doing. A lot of people are travelling and travelling so far to come to see us play, and stay in hotels, so obviously we want to give them everything we have. And our personal lives can not come in the way.

How did you start playing together ? I know you & Ty played in a band together, but how did Vintage Trouble start ?
Nalle: Yes, we played in a band called Ghost Hounds for a few years… We wrote a lot of music and had a great time. It was a big band, a lot of people were involved in it. We wanted to make it a small unit, four people, easy to move around and travel. Ty had met Rick (Barrio Dill), and played with him before in a band, so he came and started playing on demos and stuff like that. Ty mentioned he had been out one time and in some late night jam session, played with this drummer called Richard (Danielson). We met up, nothing really much got said, we just kind of started playing and right away it felt special. It felt like there was an opportunity to do something. All four of us in the band had been performing and playing music for a long time, since we were kids. And I think it is like a relationship, you know when you meet someone special… There was something there. So we didn’t really talk about it very much, we just went for it. So that’s it and we never looked back. 
Sometimes now we do, because you know, as times go by and everything changes around you… As a band, when you get bigger and everything around you obviously expects more : your record label, your management and everybody wants to take it higher and higher… One thing for us that means a lot is to think back and in the end you should be simple it’s easy to get entwined in everything around. Everybody wants some « You guys should to this and you guys should do that… », so you have got to stay above water, make sure you remember everything that is good about it.

And how would you define your music in a few words?
Nalle: It’s simple rock’n roll music. It’s very soul inspired, that’s how we connected as a band. We all come from different backgrounds. I think it’s hard to explain it in a few words… I would say, we are trying to share some joy. Ty is a great storyteller and we are trying to create music that changes people and brings happiness. I feel there is so much sadness, we live in a dark world where music should be uplifting. We always read books about old juke joints from the US during the prohibition, when they made alcohol illegal. They would have these underground clubs and it would be jazz bands and it was really up-tempo. People just had a great time. And joy, we just want to bring some joy to people. It brings us so much joy to connect with them and see it happen.

I read you started playing the guitar at twelve, what made you want to start playing music?
Nalle: I listened to a few opera records. My big brother, who is a couple of years older than me, was the first one to get a turntable and some records. It sounds goofy now and all but when I first heard a Beatles record, it was She Loves You, I couldn’t believe it. It got into me like a sexual urge. I was so young but I felt something I had never felt before. And then you start having friends who buy records…
I heard Van Halen, I heard electric guitar and there was something about it that was SO cool ! I just knew I wanted one, I didn’t even think about it, but it took me a long time to get a guitar. I kept asking my mom for Christmas, you know, and nothing… I was just skateboarding. I skated a lot and I ended up trading one of my skateboards for a guitar. It was all messed up but I got an amp and I plugged it in and it was just… I never left my room! I just stayed there for years. I went to school of course but I just rushed home. I didn’t know what to do with it. I even picked it up the wrong way – I’m a lefty, I picked up the guitar upside down because no one taught me. My brother’s friends were playing the guitar, one of them said « If you turn the guitar around, I will show you how to do it. » That’s why I started playing the right-handed guitar. I learnt a few chords, how to tune the guitar. And I just sat in my room and dreamt about playing the guitar.
So really quickly, I wanted to start a band and a classmate of mine was playing the drums so we played in his mom office every Sunday. We set up his drums and my guitar and we just went for it… We made little tapes that we gave out to our classmates. It was insane ! It was not even songs, it was just noise but it was cool as fuck !

Did you had any role models when you were kid ?
Nalle: I think it was my brother because my dad wasn’t really around. He is now, but when I grew up my parents got divorced early on. So my role model was my brother. He was four years older, he was the cool guy… He played  the drums and got really involved in music. I just tried to hang around, you know, I was the really annoying little brother that he never could get rid of ! And I loved it, and I think I looked up to him so much ! When he did bad things like drinking, then I wanted to do it as well. I thought he was the coolest guy in the world, and I still do!

And who were the artists/musicians who have had a main influence in your life?
Nalle: A friend of mine owned a record store when I grew up, in my hometown. He had a lot of vinyl records, so I would go in and say « I love this, i love that. » He got me really hooked on a guy called Rory Gallagher – he is an Irish blues guitarist – I ended up getting all his records and I thought it was some really agressive Irish blues. He was really heavy set, he was some player. There was something raw about it that really inspired me.
I listened to that, I listened to Ted Nugent, I don’t know why because when I hear it I laugh about it, but at the time I thought it was really cool. Deep Purple… I love Deep Purple! I thought Richie Blackmore was amazing. They have some live records from Japan and I just remember listening to that, I thought something about it was magical. My mom started dating a guy who was listening to a lot of music. He didn’t really understand me, I was just sitting there, making noise in my room… And he introduced me to an old French gipsy guy called Django Reinhardt. I loved it, I thought it was like jazz guitar, like an old gipsy jazz. And I listen to that even today, it’s beautiful. There was something about it that was really punk rock to me at the time because… It’s like 50’s recordings, they are all live and you can hear going « Yeah ! Let’s do it ya ! » and then just playing, it’s unbelievable. That was really inspiring listening to that.

What do you listen to these days?
Nalle: These days are interesting because, now, we are a band that is getting bigger we are trying to find each other as a band everyday again. Six years go by and obviously people change. I talked to Ty and suddenly he loves this new record, you’ve got to listen to it and it’s like a pop record.
I think at least today, I probably listen to the largest variety of music I have ever done in my life because we have a lot of influence from other people. You know people go « You should listen to that, listen to that… » It’s something that I personally like. For example, I think Gary Clark Jr is fantastic because he found a way to connect with a younger audience and still keeping blues guitar alive. I’m a big blues lover, I love blues music and it has always been hard. In every music era, every like 10-15 years, blues becomes either popular or very unpopular. I feel we’re going to a time where it’s not very popular yet and I love that Clark figured out a way to put like hip hop music, dance music and then still keep blues guitars around him and created a certain energy. We met him and played in a few shows together. It’s really inspiring to me. I’m trying to find  what else that I really like…
There is an old record that I have found from Aretha Franklin called Live at Fillmore West. We tour so much, obviously we deal with a lot of live recordings and we would listen back to ourselves playing and « God! I was so rough on this, I can’t believe we can’t get this together! » or whatever. And sometimes it’s beautiful, but I go back to that record because it’s a live record from… I’m not sure… I think it’s 1970, it might be even earlier 68, or something. It’s incredible how good they are ! It’s such a live and it’s so good ! At the time, they just tracked it and to hear such quality… I look up to them ! One day I want to hear back a live recording of ours that’d be as good as Aretha Franklin – Live at Fillmore West. If it happened, I would be in heaven ! 
I do listen to some pop music. We are trying to find a way to merge our music, to find a way to connect with pop music. I’m not afraid of it, but as a guitar player in a small band with just guitar – we have no keyboards or fancy sounds and stuff like that, we don’t run with any backing tracks – so I listen to a lot of different music more to study it than to maybe enjoy it.
I find a lot of music I want to hear and I try to understand the connection with it as a songwriter and then as a musician and then, how do you hold on to your roots and what you believe in and merge into new music ? That’s the trick.

And if you’d have to pick up three albums and three movies, what would you choose ?
Nalle: Three albums, three movies… Ok!
I would say Jimi Hendrix – Axis Bold as Love, it is a beautiful record that had a big, big connection with me growing up.
Later on in life, I would say Led Zeppelin. It’s hard to pick an album by them because they are all good…. Maybe… Ah it’s tough! It’s either Physical Graffiti or the album II.  They made such an impact on me, I guess a good player like Jimmy Page… He can set on it so well and create with guitars in a magical way.
And the third album.. What would it be? I mean right at this moment, I would say that Aretha Franklin – Live at Fillmore West is really good and even if you are a rock’n’roller or a pop artist, just listen to that album and to how everything flows. All these musicians together, it’s incredible, it’s really rare to hear something like that today.
Movies… I think a movie that I have seen more than anything is probably Goodfellas. It’s filmed so well and it’s so intense. The actor, Ray Liotta, and everyone in it… It’s an incredible movie. I think I’ve seen it 30 times, so that’s one.
Other movies that really have… I’m from Sweden, I grew up and lived there for 21 years. We had a director called Ingmar Bergman who made a movie called Fanny and Alexander. It’s very old traditional Sweden. It had a big impact on me, it’s very dark but still there is something funny about it. It’s a special movie so that is something I always go back to.
Third movie, that really means something… One movie that I really liked was a Woody Allen movie called Sweet and Lowdown. It’s kind of a story about an « almost » Django Reinhardt. Sean Penn is playing an American guitarist who is really afraid of Django Reinhardt, so everytime he hears that Django’s gonna come to his show, he runs away and refuses to play. It’s a really funny movie and it’s amazingly done. It’s made like a documentary but it’s all fake. I think Woody Allen is such an amazing music lover and I know he loves jazz a lot and plays clarinet. It’s a great movie, it’s really funny. I haven’t seen it in a while now but I remember seeing it many times and loved it and always recommended it to my friends.
So that’s the three movies right now !

I’ve already said that but… I always ask this question… I started studying art/cinema because I love music, but don’t play it, and I wanted to take part of it through video/artwork. What importance do you give to image/artwork and also to your look in the band ? 
Nalle:  We always loved it black and white. In my home, I have only black and white vintage pictures of the 40’s-50’s, a lot of that old gangster photos or police pictures.
There is something about that I think we all kind of connect with in the band. Obviously when you deal with it as an artist, you’ve got to think about clothing and and the whole feel of it overall. We travel so much, we see so much different cultures, fashions, I love that too. I think we want to come out and be part of all the worlds. And I feel in a way that, as Vintage Trouble, we are in a changing phase now, as we should be, we’ve been, like I said, six years together and it’s moving.
Well, we are holding on to certain things though, like black and white images and as far as video is concerned we just want it to mean something. To me, it could be anything as long as there is something really said. How do you really tell a story, I mean, everything can look cool but it has to mean something and that, at the end of the day, is what matters the most to me as far as imaging, videos, style…
When we started the band, there was something about the suits and about dressing up for the audience. When I go and see bands, and they walk up on stage with a dirty tee shirt and their iPhone in their pocket… I’m just… « Come on ! You’re performing, people paid to see you ! » I think the visual part of a band is very important as well and you see it through times : any big artist… Look at Jimi Hendrix, he had a very amazing style and you could even just see a profile, you don’t even see his face but you know that was Jimi Hendrix. It’s very intense, you’ve got to say something and mean something, so that is what we are striving for in imaging. I hope I answered your question. 

Do you take part of the directing in your music videos / artwork ? 
Nalle: Yeah we do, we are very involved, I would say now I want to try to be less involved because I think, when we do videos or in the past when we were making videos, we have been too involved and we started arguing with each other what it should be or not be.I think we have so many amazing friends, people around us that are really good at it and can help us visualize what we want to say, what we want to do. We had a lot of fun making videos but it’s tough now. Obviously, bands 20 years ago could spend 3 million dollars making a music video. Today it’s more like, just make something that means something. We shot the first video we ever did on iPhones and it cost nothing. It was so much fun, it is one of my favorite videos still today ! We did it in one day, all together, and just had great time. It’s easy. Everything becomes too big of a production nowadays… Our most expensive video is Pelvis Pusher, I don’t know if you’ve seen it but, it cost quite a lot of money because we had a lot of actors, people involved… And it was fun, But music videos, to me, can be super simple. It could just be you standing in front of a camera, just doing it and we’ve done that sometimes. For some reason, we haven’t thought about it so much for the new album, we did Doing What You’re Doing, that was the song that we did a video for. It was ok, it was not my favorite, it feels kind of just « there ». We tried to work with a few producers in Los Angeles who had ideas about it. I think we were in the middle of touring, they sent us a few concepts and that was the one we landed on. It’s not one of my favorite videos but that proves that sometimes the most simple way is the best way!
You guys have a really special connection with your fans, on social medias and through your meet and greets after your shows… Is it something important for you ?
Nalle: It means everything. I could not do it without you. You are the reason why we can do all of this and be in Japan, Australia, South America, Paris… All these things, it is thanks to you. If you guys didn’t like the music and didn’t come to our shows, it wouldn’t be. The fact that we get to meet amazing people and hear their stories, why they love music, why they love our music, what it means to them, and how we can change something in their lives… It’s incredible ! We really cherish it.
I just talked to our tour manager about security because our show is getting bigger and bigger and we always have a thing : we jump off the stage out in the audience to hang out with our fans and I always want to do that ! You see, we are going to the UK now, after this, and we played there a lot, so our shows are a lot bigger there than anywhere else in the world. And he is telling us « I’m really worried about what we are going to do, you guys can’t keep on doing what you’re doing because it’s gonna end up badly…» I know there has been some bad stories lately, we’ve got a singer in the States who just got shot. We are not worried about that but we had moments in Glasgow where it got a little intense… But it means the world for us and I want to continue to do what we do !
And what is amazing, in today’s world, is obviously online media and social networks, which is awesome because we can stay in touch. We talk to a lot of people everyday, we are connected to our TroubleMakers in an awesome way and it feels like family! I mean, like yourself you know, we started talking like this, and now we are here and I feel like you are a good friend and it is awesome !
Touring is a strange life in a way that it could be very lonely. You are always on the run. We get to see all these beautiful things but I spend 90% of my time in hotel rooms, by myself…So thank God for social medias… All you guys, in a way, are supporting us, keeping our thing going. Sometimes when you are low and not feeling that great, you get a message from someone saying that it means the world to them and it changes your whole energy so it’s good !

And, that will be my last question: What’s next for you guys ?! I know you’re working on a new album… Can you talk about it ?
Nalle: I think it is going to be interesting. We are doing really well, we can tour and do fairly big rooms like tonight ! It’s a beautiful room, I’m so proud that we’re playing here.
The future is hard to tell, I hope we keep ourselves together, our brotherhood as a band. I hope that we keep standing on our feet and see the organic, the beautiful way that we are. Like I said earlier, when you get a bigger band, you have so many people around you: record labels, management, agents, everybody… You have to get bigger, you need a hit song… I’ve seen it before and I hope, I pray everyday that we stay together. We’ve been working a lot lately with different songwriters, we are meeting people who say this about songs, who say this about connecting.
The future is unknown, I just hope we stay on our feet because the journey we are on is a beautiful one. But everything has a beginning and everything has an end. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all I think we are in a changing phase, we are incorporating new music into our set, we gonna play some of our new songs tonight, you’re going to hear it.
You know, when there’s someone you love, or someone you don’t like… There is always a certain energy between two people,  it’s positive but really harsh and when there are four people… When it works, it’s such a beautiful circle of love and energy. How do you keep that ? Obviously everything changes from day to day and I hope for the future that we always know that because that’s gonna bring the best music to us. And that’s gonna bring our connection to you guys, TroubleMakers, and our fans out there to another level. We can not do it without you guys, and we can’t do it without each other in the band.
It’s been a turmoil in our band from working on so much new music because, how do you find it all? How do you bring it in to make it simple and easy ? So also, my advice for any other bands is just « always remember where you’re from, and look ahead, don’t be afraid of change. » Sometimes, I think it’s important in a band to let go of your own personal things and see the bigger picture. So I think it’s gonna be amazing, I think we are gonna create some really interesting music because of our experience as of seeing and meeting you guys and different cultures…
So maybe some French jazz music is coming through, I don’t know, we will see !