“Vinyl has always been something we’ve viewed as just plain cool, and arguably the best way to listen to music.”
“That opinion started forming after watching movies like High Fidelity, Empire Records, and Pirate Radio, but really solidified when we learned about the level of time and care that goes into the process of manufacturing records. The feel of it—the size, the weight, the artwork, the sound—all demands a higher sense of respect that streaming music will never have.
But it wasn’t really until the first years of our marriage that we really experienced vinyl in the way we thought it ought to be experienced. That way being how we pictured hippies in the ’60s and ’70s listening—getting high, dancing and singing along, and fully submerging ourselves in the music.
My grandparents had just moved into a retirement community and their old console record player needed a home. Nicole and I lived in a basement apartment at the time and jumped on the opportunity to add it to our humble abode. Thankfully my grandparents kept it in such good condition all those years that it really worked like a charm, sounding warm and vintage and still so clear.
Along with it came a surprisingly good collection of records from our parents, ranging from Otis Redding, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and The Temptations to Chick Corea, Cat Stevens, and Steppenwolf, to Carole King, Simon and Garfunkel, and Neil Young to name a few.
Acquiring those records sparked a strong desire to grow our collection, to the point of going well out of our way on tour to stop at all the record stores we could find. I specifically remember buying a double LP from the ’70s of The Beatles’ Love Songs. When we got home from tour we listened, partied, and danced along in our underwear to it and the other records we scored along the way.
Truly some of our best memories are centered around living in that basement with vinyl records spinning. We were young and newly married then, with little responsibility and ample free time, but even as we grow older and times change, that love and desire for vinyl has stuck around.”
—Josh Johnson
Say I Don’t Scare You, the brand new full-length release from Elenowen is in stores now.
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PHOTO: BREE MARIE FISH
