“The memory of my first actual record is probably inaccurate, but my wider memories of being around vinyl from a very young age are vivid.”
“I feel incredibly grateful that I spent the single digit years of my life in a house that not just played music, but played records. I was present for, and involved in the ceremony of, putting vinyl on the platter. These were classics of the format too, Dark Side of the Moon, Rumours, Hotel California, and weirder stuff like Hawkwind.
My grandfather was a jazz musician. He died when I was very young, but I have misty recollections of sitting on his knee at the piano, or thumbing through his many acres of 78s, not really knowing what they were. I wish I knew what happened to them…
As a kid I had 45s and Queen albums. But I would liberate anything I liked the sound of, (mostly Hotel California) and any song I was into, I would hit hard, playing it over and over. However, the album that meant the most to me was Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds.
I still have that original pressing, and I can’t think of a more beautiful gatefold record that I have ever seen or owned. Turning each leaf of the book that is mounted inside reveals another gorgeously detailed, terrifying, and hypnotic painting. I shared hours with those amazing tunes and the artwork. In hindsight, the two were symbiotic. Experiences like that are pretty integral in developing a relationship with music.
Being an angsty teen in the early nineties brought alternative rock, hip hop, art rock, grunge, and the underground into my life. That meant that records were packed away in lofts and CDs (and even tapes) took over. Toward the end of the century, one of my first jobs was working in a “record store,” but we didn’t sell a single record, just racks and racks of CDs. I heard a lot of new music being played by my co-workers, and one of these albums was DJ Shadow …endtroducing. It has become an absolute milestone record in my life. Through his crate digging, I heard vinyl again, and became fascinated by it. It also got me into sampling, but that’s another story.
Throughout the past ten years I started buying records, but only in the last four or five have I really fallen back in love with vinyl. And this last year has been immersive. Re-buying albums on vinyl, buying new albums on vinyl, rinsing Discogs, following labels that thrive on vinyl like Italians Do It Better and Erased Tapes etc. Fortunately, there are many examples of these now.
CDs are great for the car, but I have no MP3 player, nor will I ever. Thing is, to me, vinyl is the truth. Playing a record is an overwhelmingly positive experience. It’s the first ever interactive musical format. People just didn’t realise at the time.
The digitization of our culture is great and convenient, but we’ve reached the point of saturation already, and humans, by their very nature, are being drawn to tangible formats. A kindle is cool for your holiday, but a book has a magic. Records cast their spell too. That kid clinging on to War of the Worlds for two hours needs to exist in the 21st century too. Vinyl is a way we can all play music, perform an operation and create a sound, without necessarily being a musician.
I turned this love of records into a radio show, The Vinyl Place, which goes out on The 405 and just finished its first series. It is just a way to celebrate the medium. As for me? I have managed to drop the needle on a dubplate of a tune I had just finished at the Ministry of Sound, but I’ve not had an actual pressing. The new Sunset Graves album Variant is the record for vinyl. There are two distinct sides, and the DNA of every track has vinyl samples running though them.
Only time is going to tell on that one…”
—Andy Fosberry
“Safe and Empty” is the new single from Sunset Graves.
