“I can’t exactly recall my first experience with vinyl. I can’t even recall the exact reason that drove me to spend hundreds of dollars on pieces of wax etched with the music of my favorite bands. Yes, I have spent more than 100 dollars on a single record. Fuck.”
“I do fondly remember gazing at my father’s Police and Steely Dan records on our shelves at home. At the time he owned a business in Princeton, New Jersey right down the street from The Princeton Record Exchange. I always ran there on days I went to work with him even though I was buying CDs at the time.
I’d have to say it wasn’t until I moved out on my own that I started my own collection of vinyl, but it has gotten really out of hand.
I’ve spent the last six years or so finding the records of the past that I cherish and buying new releases here and there. I can honestly say I am no audiophile, nor do I consider myself a collector of anything. I don’t consider vinyl an antique and I am not waiting for the value of my records to increase in order to sell them off and buy a yacht.
I simply love listening to records because they sound beautiful and they look gorgeous.
When I drop the needle on a chosen record, I am going to listen. I’ll usually set some things aside and simply sit there, paying attention to the music emitting from the record like I am trying to win my money back from the guy with the marble and three cups. (PS: you never win)
With any other option like a computer or in a car, I am likely to skip songs over and over or get tired of a song half way through. Not with vinyl. For some reason that I still can’t explain, I sit like an obedient dog, and listen.”
—Ryan Hands
Hands’ debut LP Synesthesia hits store shelves on April 30 via Kill Rock Stars.
