“I was born right at the end of the golden era of vinyl recordings but I remember, at an early age, sitting in my father’s bedroom listening to his vinyl records for hours on end. There were various artists like Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Mike Oldfield, Stevie Wonder, Cat Stevens, and of course The Beatles.”
“A few years later The Beatles would become a huge influence in my life but by then I was more interested in painting the cover of Tubular Bells and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as photo realistic as possible, without much success. However, I do remember vinyl sounding extremely good, a different kind of depth and warmth compared to CD. Might be an afterthought, perhaps. I think that was the beginning of my lifelong interest in analog recording.
Me and my best friend used to record a rhythm track to one cassette tape and then play and sing to that recording while recording to another tape recorder. Then back to the first tape recorder with more instruments and so forth. When I was ten I bought a multitrack cassette tape recorder with four tracks. A huge improvement. I made countless demos on that one. Today I use a 24 track Studer tape machine.
As I mentioned The Beatles later became a huge influence and part of my life. I got the “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work it Out” single on cassette tape when I was around seven years old. I learned to play the guitar trying to play the chords and I tuned my guitar to the first E note in ”Day Tripper.”
I didn’t have much money so I used to borrow Beatles records from the library and make mix tapes to cassette. The first time I heard the ending of ”Strawberry Fields Forever” I was so frightened I covered my ears and ran as fast as I could to the player to turn it off.
I remember buying my first vinyl player, it must have been in the late ’90s. I found one in a flea market for like $20. A very reasonable price. But on my way home I accidentally destroyed the pick up needle and I had to order a new one which took four weeks and cost me $50.
The music I found in my father’s vinyl collection as a kid still means a lot to me. Sometimes when I visit him I sit down on the floor in his bedroom listening to those old records again. Still very great depth and warmth.”
—Otto Niklasson Elmerås
Otto Niklasson Elmerås’ EP “We Fell Asleep When We Were Young” is in stores now via Birds Records.
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