“My father was a musician growing up and he had accumulated a healthy record collection, but as a younger child of the ’90s I was caught in that strange time when CDs were so new and beautiful.”
“To my parents the thought of no longer dealing with warped vinyl, large audio units, and broken needles was a sweet sigh of relief. Because of this I was unaware of the amazing music that sat waiting for me in my dad’s attic. It wasn’t until years later that we brushed off the dusty late ’70s silver turntable that I was then introduced to the ritual of listening to a record.
I’m pretty sure that my first experience was the Jackson 5. I remember thinking the sound was so completely foreign to me. Because those early records were recorded all live, imperfections and human error were so apparent. I had this feeling of being in the room with the artist and it definitely left a serious impact on the way I approach music and writing today. That’s why in Blacktop Queen we record everything live, no click, with one or two takes. We are trying to recapture that magic that these precious recordings had.
Vinyl to me represents the humanity and physicality of music. Someone wrote the song, physically played it, physically recorded it to tape that was physically cut, and then physically engraved in vinyl. It’s art all the way around just like a physical painting.
I look at vinyl like more of a time capsule than some perfect clean recording. It’s a physical piece of history that carries with it a moment in time. With it comes physical imperfections and bumps and bruises along the way, just like an old traveler through the time and space of your dad’s attic.
It’s the time capsule element of vinyl that makes me fan of collecting vintage records. When you hear an Elvis or a Sam Cooke record you are given a window into what people were hearing when those artists were taking over the world. I love that we can instantly be transported to the formative days of our favorite music and be given the same experience the initial audience had.”
—Evan Ambrose
Blacktop Queen’s debut single, “Spiderbite” is in stores now.
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