“Before I could even lift a needle, my relationship with vinyl was a visual one.”
“Our old record player had long since retired, so my dad’s records remained on the shelves next to the CDs, or in a musty box behind the old coats, or tucked under an old photo album. Still, I would shuffle through each one, running my tiny fingers over the covers, examining every little nuance. From Rush’s Moving Pictures to Steely Dan’s Aja, listening was not required to spark my fascination.
It wasn’t until high school, when I finally had some (small) income, that I finally bought a used record player off the internet. It arrived with a frayed wire in the back (which I still have to doctor with electrical tape), but I paid no mind and immediately got to work. I remember excitedly heading over to Bart’s Record Shop after school (in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado) and buying the first record of my own: The English Beat, I Just Can’t Stop It. Only $8? A steal.
High School Analise missed the 2-Tone train by a good twenty years and third wave Ska by nearly a decade, but neither of these facts stopped me from wearing a checkered vest over my white button down, peering rascally over my sunglasses. So much of that record’s influence can be heard throughout the music I make now: from the palm muted, reverb-laced guitars to the bright solo horns.
And while my record collection has grown in size and diversity in the ten plus years since I purchased it, I Just Can’t Stop It still peeks out a little more than the others on my shelf, knowing I’ll soon return.”
—Analise Nelson
Anabot’s newest EP, “Kiss Like A Knife” arrives December 2, 2014.
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