“I remember the musky music room at my parents’ house and two seemingly giant bookshelves filled with vinyl records.”
“I must have been 3 or 4, so I don’t remember the exact record to take a stroll across my brand new baby-sized ear canals, but I remember seeing the speakers—they looked like giants to me. There were two of them that were twice my size that continuously glued the vintage sound of vinyl to my head.
The first vinyl I distinctly remember listening to was Michael Jackson’s Thriller. My two older brothers used to hang out in that room everyday, and that record was always lying around somewhere. I would sit on the floor and play with my GI Joes making up action stories in my head. I recall the dusty, slow-pitch-warping sound playing in the background of those memories. It felt as if musicians were actually in the room performing, up-close and detailed in a way that today’s music just can’t replicate. It was intimate—not as bright or bass heavy as the massive sound and production on today’s CDs and MP3s.
Those records never sounded invasive, they were simple and the music felt like a loving mother’s hug. Speaking of mothers, my parents also played this very famous, albeit controversial, Latin American singer-songwriter, Silvio Rodriguez, in the music room. I would describe him as a Latin American version of Bob Dylan. His records were all acoustic guitar and vocals. It had a real wow factor, his voice seemed to be swimming around in the air in the room.
When I look back on my childhood that was one of the main soundtracks of my early days. Just thinking about that room, and all the great times I had in there listening to vinyl with my family makes me feel nostalgic.
I know that’s a huge part of the reason I fell in love with music.”
—Pavel Rivera
Twintapes will release a new single package, “Fast Forward” on January 28th. The package will also include a remix via Nashville producer Jon Estes.
