“We found a pool table on Craig’s List and put it in the living room of our band house.”
“We’d play pool and listen to music on our phones, but something was missing. One day I was walking by Som Records in DC and stopped in to look around. I pulled out Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen and a Whitney Houston record (it was just after she had died), and the guy at the register told me he was surprised no one had discovered the Whitney record before me.
The two records cost $5 and the Whitney record felt special. I spent the whole day biking around town trying to find a record player.
Once we had the record player set up, we’d listen to old records and play pool all night. Andrew, our keyboardist, brought in his parents’ old records, and I purchased a bunch more, and it was amazing the songs we were hearing for the first time! Suddenly, we’d listen to a whole Jimmy Cliff album, not just The Harder They Come, and deep cuts by Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, and everyone else we knew, yet didn’t really.
Long story short, a record player became an essential part of living in our house. All of us would listen to the whole side of one record, rather than listen to four different songs through headphones on 4 different phones. It made music communal.
Next week we’ll be listening to the test pressings of our new album Wildfire on vinyl. Hopefully someone else will put it on while they play pool with their friends, and the whole neighborhood will hear.”
—Ryan Bailey, vocals/guitar
The Riverbreaks’ brand new release, Wildfire is on store shelves right now.
