“It wasn’t until about six years ago that I became interested in vinyl. My family always had two record players in the basement, but neither one of them had functioning needles; so, I usually just fooled around with them, pretending to be a DJ.”
“My parents’ records sat there collecting dust, eclipsed by the new era of the cassette tape, soon to become the compact disc. Even back then, I couldn’t keep up with the changing formats; my friends were all getting these new things called CDs and I was still buying my Backstreet Boys albums on cassette, and damn proud of it. But, I eventually caught up and started collecting CDs, and at the next blink of an eye Mp3’s became the new thing; yet I continued to purchase CDs for something more tangible, something that involved a piece of paper with lyrics and photos, that I could unwrap like a gift.
Now, in an era where music has been significantly devalued, where listeners can acquire a whole discography at the click of a button, free of charge, while the artist watches his or her fan base rapidly grow while still living at home, I see why vinyl has made a comeback. Not only that, but after decades of hearing music in digital format, it’s no surprise that a record has acquired such a superior status in terms of sound. It is so much more tactile, and natural sounding, than a compact disk, and especially an Mp3. When I hold a record, I feel like I am holding a part of somebody’s soul, and when I listen to it, I am brought to a different place, as if I were there with the artist when he or she was writing the song.
I’m grateful to have been thoroughly introduced to vinyl when a few of my friends from high school moved into the city. It wasn’t until then that I noticed their collection of punk records, ranging from Rancid, to Black Flag, to Fucked Up, along with some classic folk albums like Harvest Moon and The Times They Are a-Changin’.
I wasn’t really aware that vinyl was a thing anymore; this might have been because I only really started to explore the city after high school when I began attending university, or because vinyl was actually still a new thing (well, a new old thing.) I’d always seen my favourite punk bands selling records online, but I never looked into it much and it wasn’t really something I saw those same bands selling at shows. Regardless, I was now more familiar with the format, and my interest was sparked.
My dad finally decided to fix one of our record players, so I began listening to the records that were sitting in my basement. A lot of them were disco records that belonged to my mom, so the selection was scarce. But soon I discovered a whole new collection in my dad’s closet, consisting of CCR, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Elton John, and a whole lot of other artists that grew on me as I entered my twenties.
I purchase punk records here and there, but there is something different about listening to an album that was produced in the age of vinyl, as if that’s the way those songs were meant to be heard. So, most of the albums I buy are classics that I have gotten into over the years, ones that I can seem to be able to relate to more as I get older.
If you listen to my music, you will notice that it has a very organic feel to it; and that’s what I love about vinyl, it has a natural, authentic sound, and I am carried through a musical trance every time I put one into rotation.”
—Jenn Fiorentino
Jenn Fiorentino’s From Darkness to Light is available now.
Jenn Fiorentino Official | Facebook | Twitter
