Lovehoney, The TVD First Date

“Some of my happiest memories growing up were hanging out with my dad in his car listening to music. Smooth soul from the ’60s and ’70s along with jazz from the ’50s and ’60s got played on the regular.”

“One of the artists my Dad would play was Thelonious Monk, the jazz piano genius. It always resonated with me because his style of playing wasn’t like anything I had ever heard before. It was unique and almost abstract sounding to me how he played, and he looked really cool. The first vinyl I bought on my own was Thelonious Monk’s Work! featuring Sonny Rollins on tenor sax. I managed to find it in a thrift store for only 2 dollars and the bright green cover was eye-catching and boy did he look cool.

I immediately flashed back to being a kid riding shotgun in the car with my Dad while he played Monk, whose piano runs blew my mind and still do to this day. There’s nothing like picking up a record and immediately jumping back in time and rediscovering awesome memories. It has always been a goal of mine to create music that someone can listen to as kid, and then hear it in their later years and be brought right back to when they first heard it.”
—Tommy White, guitar

“I don’t really remember the first vinyl I got, I just remember as a kid there was a heavy rotation of Bob Marley and Tina Turner in the house.”

“Dad would come into the living room, turn on our record player, and it would be a night of dancing and sing-alongs. The first vinyl that caught my ear was the Bob Marley Legends album which had all the good songs on it. I always knew it was time to get busy soon as that first riff for “Is This Love” came on followed by his vocals “I wanna love ya, and treat you right.” Man, that was it. Legend was my first and favorite record. I didn’t realize at the time the message in his songs—I was just singing these beautiful words not understanding the meaning behind them.”
—Alysia Quinones, vocals

“Before I started playing drums I was an aspiring battle/party DJ.”

“The year was 2000-2001 and the first few records that came into my possession were breakbeat/scratch sample records. DJ Qbert, DJ Craze, DJ A-Trak, and DJ Shadow put out really cool records back then with obscure samples and beats. But it wasn’t till about 2003/2004 when I quit DJing and actually bought records to collect rather than scratch and beat up.

1970s and 1980s RnB/Soul/Funk records made up the bulk of my collection. A 45 single from Sade, “Hang on to Your Love,” an original mint condition Bitches Brew from Miles Davis, and The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup were special to me—it wasn’t just the music but the story behind them.

I actually found a love letter from 1975 still inside the Stones record sleeve when I bought it, a romantic time capsule from lost and forgotten lovers that ultimately landed in my collection”
—Tom Gehlhaus, drums

“I have terrible memory but my parents had a record player and this like kind of ridiculous ’90s SONY five-CD changer, so I’m having trouble remembering where I listened to what.”

“I remember the first time I realized that good music existed outside of TRL was probably this Diana Ross and the Supremes Greatest Hits LP that my parents had gathering dust, and the Allman Brothers Band 1971 Fillmore East Recordings. There was also a Cat Stevens record that I remember being blown away by, but I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly which one it was. I’m 95% sure it was Tea for the Tillerman. I don’t know why these three stood out but they all still strike me as being awesome.

The Allman Brothers were kind of a gateway for me into heavier rock bands from the ’60s and ’70s and I really only knew them from the Dickey Betts singles that I’d hear on classic rock radio stations, so it was cool to hear them live and a little more raw. Diana Ross and Cat Stevens; it was just the songwriting and realizing that some tracks are so beautifully written and performed they never get old. “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Wild World” are two of the first songs I can actually remember listening to as a kid.”
—Matt Saleh, bass