“Vinyl, to me, represents a ritual of home. It’s a tactile act of being stationary and being in a space you can call your own.”
“I grew up without much in the way of vinyl. We moved around a lot when I was young after my parents’ business fell apart for reasons beyond their control. The resulting transience in trying to move where the work was meant we had to keep our possessions limited and sparse. The frequent moves were an excellent practice in detachment from “things” and put a huge value in family for me and my siblings—when we moved out West when I was 15, we only brought enough to fill a half U-Haul between us and our parents. But certain little comforts and interests, like record players, became extraneous and impractical.
When I settled into my own place as an adult, I had a record player in my little Vancouver apartment. I started buying records—old records, new records, and (as I started to pursue a career in music) my friends’ records.
The ritual of putting a record on in a space I could call my own instilled in me a sense of warmth and staying put. However, in pursuing the aforementioned career in music came a period where touring became more and more frequent, a trend that continues to this day. In having to be mobile and transient, the record player had to go, and the record collection that I had started was relinquished to the hands of friends who could babysit them for the months while I was on the road.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I love touring and I have become a seasoned nomad over the course of my life. But there is still something about being stationary in a place that feels like home that calls to me every now and then. And sometimes when I’ve been rootless for a solid chunk of time, I really wish I had a record player.
I was really sad one day walking around Toronto and bought a vinyl of Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell for $7 to make myself feel better; it’s one of my favourite albums. I was between houses at the time after a tour, going through a break-up, and staying with friends. I kept the record in my guitar case (it fit squarely behind my acoustic). That was about 2 years ago now, and it’s still in there. While I do take it out sometimes, it has become a permanent resident, a weird square lucky charm that lives behind my instrument. And I’ve come to like it there.
While I’m still mobile and touring very frequently, I’ve just moved into a place in Roncesvalles in Toronto where I’ll call home for a solid year. And I’m finally going to buy another record player. And I’m going to play Bat Out Of Hell.”
—Skye Wallace
“Scarlet Fever,” the new single from Skye Wallace is in stores now—and our Single of the Week.
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PHOTO: CHET TILOKANI
