“When I think of my first recollections of vinyl, I think of my parents’ stack of records next to the stereo.”
“I would go through them as a kid – just looking at the pictures. What stood out to me were some records by a Belgian comedian by the name of Urbanus with crazy drawings on the cover. The records feature really funny skits and songs in Flemish. His are the only records I can clearly remember listening to when I was a kid even though my parents had a decent collection of vinyl.
When I got old enough to start listening to start exploring music by myself I used cassette tapes to record songs from the radio and exchange with friends.
After we got a CD player in my home I switched to CDs. I think the reason I got into vinyl and started buying vinyl was this amazing album No Flashlight by Mount Eerie. It’s stunning musically, but it’s also especially impressive packaging wise.
On his website Mount Eerie claims it holds the world record for the world’s largest record cover. And I can imagine it does, the cover of the album folds out into a huge poster. It charts the inspirations, lyrics, meaning and intentions and other info regarding the album/songs on the album. (See below.)
I’m not an audiophile at all, so when it comes to sound quality it doesn’t really make a difference to me if I listen to an album on CD or vinyl. But I like vinyl a lot more than CDs or mp3s, that’s why I try to release all of my I am Oak releases on vinyl along side the CD and mp3 format.
What I love about vinyl is the listening experience. I really like the size and weight of the product, when you have a new record in your hands it feels like you own something real. Then when you take out the big piece of vinyl, put it on your record player and carefully put down the needle and music starts playing it feels like you’re actively putting on some music.
It’s really hands-on and rewarding, as opposed to the abstract process of playing an Mp3. I used to buy a lot of CDs, but ever since I started buying vinyl records I have become less and less interested in CDs as an object to own, so I’ve been giving away and selling a big part of my CD collection and started expanding my vinyl collection instead.”
—Thijs Kuijken
That Urbanus cover:
