“I had always been fascinated with record players and how they seemed to capture a period in time and take you there.”
“I saw them in movies and music videos, I saw records in music stores, specifically a local store called Earshot that closed about a year ago, or in Urban Outfitters. But the first time I ever actually picked up a record and held it in my hand was when my family and I were cleaning out my grandpa’s trailer after he passed away when I was 13.
He had a massive box full of records in mostly perfect condition that we found. I asked to keep them even though I had no way of playing them because I didn’t own a record player at the time. My parents let me take them home and I hung a few on my walls but the rest went into a coat closet and over the years I almost forgot about them.
I saw that record players were making a comeback in the music scene as I got older but I still didn’t make that jump into buying one. I would sit in a hot bath, reading a book, listening to “In A Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington through my little bluetooth speaker and imagine I was back in the 1920s with a record spinning and crackling somewhere in the corner.
It wasn’t until this past Christmas of 2016 that I opened up a gift from my dad and realized vinyl was the something missing in my life that I didn’t even know I needed. My heart swelled at the sight of my first record player and I immediately went to set it up and drag out the dusty box of records from the coat closet.
Putting that first record from my grandpa’s collection on the turntable and hearing the quiet static of years gone by come through the system blew my mind and did exactly what I always imagined it would. Vinyl took me back to a place in time picturing my grandpa listening to that record in his dimly lit living room with my mom and her sisters and brother at Christmas.
When other family members found out I had a record player, they started giving me their old collections as well. I felt like I was being given a look into my family’s history and memories through the records they listened to. The first record I bought for myself was none other than Duke Ellington and John Coltrane though.
Music itself is a connector—to the past, to the future, to the people you love and people you don’t even know. Vinyl takes that connection and makes it a physical presence in the room for me.”
—Kylie Odetta
Kylie Odetta’s 7-song EP “Undertow” is in stores now.
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