“My first experience with vinyl was when I was around 7 or 8 years old. My dad had this incredible room in our old house that was completely devoted to his record collection. He had been collecting vinyl since the ’60s and was a complete addict.”
“Whenever he was back in town, which wasn’t very often, we would all participate in this weird little ritual of his; every weekend, he would drag my brother and I around to garage sales looking for those old discarded records no one wanted anymore. He’d buy EVERYTHING. No matter what it was. At first I didn’t get it, but when I was 7 or 8 years old, he finally let me play my first record. We put on Billy Joel’s The Stranger—from the minute I lifted up that needle– “gently, gently…” my dad would remind me in his hushed, excited voice—I knew I was experiencing something holy.
From that day on, the record room became my refuge, my temple, my place of worship, my therapist’s couch, my home. Looking back on it now, I believe it was also a way for me to feel closer to my dad. For the past 30 years my dad has been working in the film business; the nature of that business requires you to be constantly on the road, so Casey and I didn’t get much of a chance to see him growing up. But when he was home, it was heaven. Being in that room, surrounded by all those records, helped me not to miss him so much.
By the time I graduated high school, my parents had already been divorced for about a year, so the next step was to sell the house Casey and I grew up in. I had to say goodbye to that special room that had given me so much solace and joy.
As a graduation gift to me, my dad gave me his entire collection of LPs and 45s. I couldn’t take all of them with me to New York, so I had to sort through those hundreds (maybe even thousands) of records, one by one, and pick out the ones I wanted. I wish I could have kept all of them. We ended up selling the remaining records at our own garage sale, passing them on to another lucky collector.
I like to imagine that whoever bought those records would someday sit at their turntable with their own kid, guide their hand over to the needle, tell them to (gently, gently) lay it on the wax, and let the music work its magic.”
—Sam Harris, lead vocals
X Ambassadors’ Love Songs Drug Songs is in stores now.
