Kramies, The TVD First Date

“During adolescence, I was a bit self-isolated (a loner but happy) and I’ll be honest, musical talent / appreciation was non-existent in my family, thus, I was never exposed to music at a formative age. My earliest and only escape was retreating into my own imagination.”

“Around the age of 9, I unearthed my parents’ old record player. My father had a dearth of vinyl records, stored in a vintage-style cabinet. I recall the first time, back in the ‘70s, when I pulled a random album and placed those oversized-headphones on my undersized-head. I listened, really listened, to that record player. The first vinyl record I absorbed was European; an old relic called The Christmas Choir. My inaugural vinyl experience: a joyous assault of warmly expansive tones, which I credit to headphones and the analogue medium.

Deep listening became obsession. I devoted the lion’s share of my youth listening to vinyl (especially on headphones). I would lay supine on any floor as seconds became hours. Inhaling Christmas albums went autopilot after I discovered the lone Halloween record; the only Halloween vinyl I have heard to this very day.

The assembly of wax, it was hyper-limited, including (ballpark) seven Christmas albums. A (1964) Disney Halloween sound effects LP, a Bob Dylan album and Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush, and old European Christmas. This was my “Record Fair.”

Hearing stylus crackles through headphones blending with old choir-holiday-music inflamed my passion for analogue sound. The needle-drop purity. This became veritable meditation, until… the juncture arrived; my parents took away my headphones: “Out! Go play, outside!!!”

Today, I own a small turntable and lug some childhood, Christmas and Halloween vinyl with me. I have expanded my collection. I accrue albums that impact me in the same (ineffable) manner of my youth. I feed my own beast through revery-fuel.

Back to that nostalgic realm of imagery.”
—Kramies