Vintage Nation, a soul stirring acoustic duo consisting of ‘Ink’ and ‘Jow,’ don’t fit into the Atlanta archetype for musicians. Ink is a quiet songbird with minimal glitz and glam, who remains soft-spoken until she opens her mouth to sing. Jow is equally as quiet, but like his partner in song, speaks volumes with his guitar. Describing themselves as “wild, young, free, soulful and respected,” Vintage Nation is set to battle it out in a city so saturated with talent, that the dissolution of an indie band is nothing out of the norm. While striving not to become that band, Ink, the songwriter and lead of the duo, sat down with rolling out to talk Vintage Nation’s unique beginnings and detail the talent she’s hoping will continue to keep them afloat. -danielle canada
How did Vintage Nation come together as a duo?
I moved to Atlanta to go to school. I taught myself how to play guitar and I was out and about one day and saw this guy. Everytime I see an artist, or creative or musician I go up and talk to them. So I said, ‘Yo do you suck?!’ Are you good?’ and he was [good]. And I asked him what he was doing tonight. I had a show down the street and I took him down the street and we performed the same day we met. The crowd went crazy and loved it. That’s how it started. Ever since then we’ve been on this grind together.
How would you describe your sound? You guys have the old school acoustic feel.
We’re the soundtrack to the streets. It’s acoustic but it has an old soul to it. It’s everything from Jimmie Hendrix, to Lauryn Hill to Nina Simone.
Are you planning to release a mixtape?
Our website is LoveVintageNation.com and we’re working on our EP right now. We have a single called “Broken Hearted Hero” that’s heavily in the streets. It’s definitley on Youtube and our SoundCloud.
What’s your definition of a broken hearted hero?
A broken hearted hero is one who does extraordinary things but is going through a painful situation. Whether it’s love, family issues or failing to reach your dreams. It means that you have a broken heart but you’re not broken yourself. You’re still a hero. One day in the studio I asked the question; “What do heros do when they’re broken hearted?” Do they fly away? Do they change their capes to escape? It’s real emotion.
I noticed that you all covered Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” what’s the next song you’re looking to cover?
That’s a good question. We definitely want to do an acoustic version of Outkast’s “Prototype.” We recently did an acoustic version of “N—– In Paris”, next we’ll probably do Big K.R.I.T.
In an ideal world, where do you see Vintage Nation in five years?
In an ideal world we’ll be abroad somewhere on stage showing our fans love. We want to be international, we want to have one of the top debut albums at least in our genre of music. We want to be a leading band of our generation.
