“I started collecting vinyl when I was around 13.”
“I had a lot of older friends who were DJs and into all kinds of music. Some of them worked at record stores and would give me records out of their collections because I was so young. It got me hooked. I wouldn’t eat lunch some days so I could buy records with my lunch money. I got into collecting all kinds of genres, ambient, electronic, soul, rock. I loved hanging out at the stores.
My mom would drive me and sit in the car with a book while I was digging. I’m sure I became a little pest asking a million questions and always hanging around. But they were always cool about it and turned me on to music I would have never found on my own. That’s what I think is the saddest part about record stores closing. You don’t have the human interaction anymore.
I like walking into a store where the people know me, and getting a stack of records to listen to because they know what I’m into. You don’t get that with iTunes.
You miss out on a lot of music. Who wants to scroll through a thousand songs?”
—Mike Edge
Boardwalk’s self-titled debut album will be released this year on Stones Throw Records.
