“I hadn’t really thought about this before, but vinyl has a pretty profound link to my early memories of family and music.”
“When I was little my dad would play records every night. I have vivid memories of listening to Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and Credence Clearwater Revival on record. In winter in Sydney it was too cold to be anywhere else in the house but by the fire. At night my mum, dad, brother and I, and our dog Phoebe would sit in front of the fire and listen to vinyl.
Our lights in the house were really dull. I remember the darkness, the warmth, the crackling and scratching, the smell of the house and the fire, our grandmothers ugly brown velvet couches, my pajamas. When my parents would have groggy dinner parties, I remember managing to fall asleep despite the music and drunkenness getting sufficiently louder. The sound of vinyl so genuinely reminds me of what I treasure most in life; my family and music. Those early days of listening to vinyl marked the beginning of an endless obsession with music.
When our parents “upgraded” to a CD player, I think I missed the novelty of vinyl. I’m so glad that I had those early years of my childhood before the internet arrived and everything took off. CDs weren’t the same, but they still meant something to me as a child of the ’90s. I could hold them.
Once my brother and I discovered Napster and Limewire, it was exciting, but the intangible nature of music became frustrating as the years went on. Computers crashed, entire music libraries and collections were deleted. It was genuinely heartbreaking.
I hadn’t had a record player or listened to vinyl until a few years ago when I purchased a record player from Big W for $30. It was a piece of shit, but it worked. I am slowly collecting vinyl for myself, but I might have to fight my brother for ownership of our parents extensive collection.”
—Liz Drummond
Little May’s self titled EP is in stores now. On vinyl.
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PHOTO: MCLEAN STEPHENSON
