Love at 45 Repetitions per Minute
PUBLISHED November 15th, 2013 02:40 am | UPDATED January 20th, 2016 03:43 pm
Not another article on vinyl, you might be saying. Aren’t there plenty out there already exploring every nook and cranny on the resurgence of this format we thought died along with Beatles bowl cuts and the lost mecca of music that was Woodstock?
Well hopefully this isn’t just ‘another’ article. Instead of looking at pie charts and numbers, we shall look at people and stories. This is why people still love vinyl in Singapore. This is the small and growing ecosystem that never really died when people thought it had. This is why more young people are getting into the fun of crate digging. At the centre of it all, a tiny vinyl hole that just began business at Burlington Square – HEAR Records.
THE STORE OWNER – HEAR RECORDS
Nick Tan, owner of HEAR Records
Why do you think there is a younger crowd of people buying vinyl records today? From what I can see, vinyl was really on its way to becoming extinct until something really sparked off in the past decade that ushered in a new crowd of people who love the format.
Firstly, new & Re-issued LPs are the engine behind the vinyl resurgence; the younger generation can actually buy the music that appeals to them instead of used 70’s-80’s music. To the younger generation, vinyl is not an obsolete format but a new format considering they have probably never encountered it growing up.
Second is locality (no freight and import tax). Because it was largely available there, the resurgence started well in the US & UK as vinyl was priced very competitively alongside CDs.
Third is a sense of ownership. The CD and MP3 eras have not exactly built a sense of owning one’s music. Vinyl records give listeners a better sense of appreciation through the music (sound), aesthetic (album art) and physical feel (ownership).
CDs now look like they are experiencing what they did to vinyl in the 80s by digital libraries and formats. Do you forsee a day where vinyl overtakes CDs in popularity once again?
In my opinion vinyl records will always a niche market. True, vinyl sales are increasing every year, but the stark reality is that vinyl sales stand at less than 5% of global music sales.
Also, in Singapore, there is a problem of the lack of exposure. Compared to Western countries that have seen a proliferation of accessible vinyl stores, in Asia vinyl record stores are usually tucked away at some malls that appeal only to audiophiles or in an isolated corner like in Singapore. So the West do have the advantage over exposure, vinyl selection, and prices.
What is it about vinyl that you like over other formats?
It is a format that ‘forces’ you listen through to it. Take Pink Floyd for example – Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here – they were great albums, but they only had one radio hit single. If they were made today in CD/digital formats, it is unlikely that they would be seen as great albums. A lot of people in the 70s realised how great these albums were because they sat through repeated listening cycles of the vinyl record and found out that there were great songs in each album apart from the hits.
How did your love affair with vinyl begin?
I actually started listening to vinyl in the late 70s. But I really relate to the sound of 80s because that was the time I was in my teens. The music of your time may not be the greatest, but it will be the music that you can most relate to. I started collecting vinyl a lot more in the 80s because that was the sound of my generation. When I got to the 90s, CDs became a lot more commonplace.
There was a time in my working career, where I found myself working from home for three years. I had a chat with my brother-in-law and he said ‘look, when a person changes his career path, he only does it for one of the two reasons, especially when his career is looking great. The first is to earn more money, and the second is for passion.’ I thought about it, and told my wife ‘I spent twenty years working for other people. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I spent the next twenty working for myself?’ Ultimately, it was going back to what made my life tick and my roots, and that was music.
I always felt that vinyl held special meaning for people because of the sense of ownership people get from it, so it was about re-introducing vinyl as a new music product to get people excited about music again.
THE COLLECTOR
Delfina Utomo, Editor at Bandwagon.sg
How did your love affair with vinyl begin?
I started appreciating vinyl myself when I was living in Melbourne and some friends found an old player, thrifted some records and then I was convinced that music sounded better via the medium of vinyl. Plus, it was really fun digging through piles of old cheap records in dusty shops. You’ll never know what you might find.
Why do you like collecting vinyl?
More than anything, I think I enjoy vinyl collecting because it is a sort of ‘take-your-time’ activity. When I started, my boyfriend and I sat down and made an Essential List. And you know, with not so awesome pay, it’s gonna be a one vinyl per month thing so I guess that’s exciting – slowly hunting down the records and discovering new stuff along the way. We’ve found rare stuff from these outings, more recently, a ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ single from an old shop in Manila!
Also, vinyl store owners here really know their music and sometimes we end up getting some of their recommendations. We went in to HEAR Records to check out a Bonobo record and ended up talking about the entire discography of Metallica with Nick, the owner. Good times.
Is vinyl making a comeback in Singapore like the rest of the world?
Well, a few years back, Record Store Day was merely a novelty event but this year, for example the turn out in Vinylicious (record store at Parklane) was pretty massive. The store also managed to stock the limited RSD releases that before, you’d probably have to find online. The Vinyl Of The Day (#vinyloftheday) community, started by a couple of music producers have also consistently kept up the vinyl hype.
There are a lot of starter vinyl players in the market that are affordable, speakers too! I’ve gotten second-hand vinyl from $5, and the most expensive I’ve paid for a record was probably $40. So, like I said some money is going into your hobby but I haven’t regretted anything since starting.
THE ARTIST
Eugene Chia, producer at The Loft Collective (an electronic music collective)
How did your love affair with vinyl begin?
I am pretty new for a vinyl collector, compared to Kevin’s collection (Kevin is a fellow producer in The Loft Collective). I think vinyl is purely a collector’s item for me. It’s not really about the fidelity, or the warm sound, though it is part of the reason. It’s something to do with playing that physical record…for example, when I listen to Spotify, it’s so fluid and seamless, that it has affected the way I pay attention to music. It recommends you music so easily that after a while you don’t really know what you are listening to – it becomes background music.
With CDs, I don’t feel a sense of wanting to own a CD, but with vinyl…maybe it’s because of the format, maybe because it’s bigger, but there’s a feel to it that gives me a sense of ownership…it has a… solemn feel.
Why do you like collecting vinyl?
With vinyl, I will actually sit down just to listen to it; it is a singular, uninterrupted, activity for me. And because it’s an activity, the music is not lost on me in a way that one might experience listening to Spotify or other music recommendation services. One might call it focussed listening.
You guys released a record solely on vinyl and digital format. Why did you do it and would you continue to release records on vinyl?
Vinyl was re-entering the music industry as a common format of distribution, so there was definitely a sense that we should hop on that bandwagon like how digital is a common distribution format.
Also, it’s easier to make the choice nowadays, whereas in the past it would be criminal not to release your music in CDs as an artist. I would definitely feel more proud of releasing my work on vinyl compared to CD.
CREDITS
HEAR Records is located at #01-39 Burlington Square, 175 Bencoolen Street, Singapore 189651. You can check out their Facebook for latest updates on incoming vinyl.
Also, thanks to Bandwagon, Singapore’s only gig-focussed listing website and editorial.
Music from The Loft Collective can be found here
