“My introduction to music was listening to my parents’ records; the Beach Boys, Elton John, and Jim Croce were regular staples. Ever since then, vinyl has been my favorite way to experience music. There’s an intimate interaction that comes from cracking open a new record and analyzing every inch of the cover before placing the needle in the groove.”
“I discovered my parents copy of Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy when I was a young kid. The artwork on that album is burned into my memory. That Heironomous Bosch style imagery was dangerous, psychedelic, and naughty. My six-year-old brain was incapable of taking it all in, but I knew that I liked it. I’ve always felt like the artwork on larger formats like vinyl brings so much more to the music.
I am a visual artist, so having a substantial visual element to accompany the musical content is especially appealing to me. Before vinyl started making its current comeback, I began making these sculptures that referenced nostalgic objects like record players, headphones, and rotary telephones. I’ve always romanticized the physical interaction with analog technology that existed before the digital age.
I think in a time of people being tethered to their devices, we crave that kind of pure experience. It’s therapy. That’s why the recent resurgence of vinyl really comes as no surprise to me and I think there will always be a place for it.
While I am writing this, In the Airplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel is playing on my turntable in the background. It’s always been one of my favorite records. “Two Headed Boy” is my favorite song on that album. The whole package of that album is fantastic.
The insert for the record has this stream of consciousness poetry printed in a way that is so tiny that you have to work for it, “When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers…” The cover art has that same engaging feeling of the records I grew up with. It is exciting to me when a band pursues all of the artistic possibilities when they are releasing a record. A vinyl record album can be an amazing work of art. When it is done well, it can be transcendent.”
—Adam Caldwell
Fire in the Radio’s full length release, New Air is in stores now via Wednesday Records—on vinyl.
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PHOTO: ZACH WALLACE
