“My love affair with vinyl began somewhere around the age of 5 or 6. In the ‘80s, my parents had a diverse record collection and a state of the art (at the time) sound system. For them, listening to recorded music was serious business. I remember learning to use all of the components: the receiver and the equalizer, how to clean the records, how to set the needle so it would start right at the beginning of a song.”
“I remember even when they got a CD player, I was always more fascinated by the vinyl. Maybe it was because the covers were so big, like I was holding a painting in my little hands. I remember staring at Madonna’s midriff on Like A Prayer, The cool lighting and composition on Bowie’s Let’s Dance, the psychedelic illustration on Sir Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I would pour over the lyrics inside as I listened until I had memorized them so I could sing along. That’s how I learned to sing.
During high school, I was very active so portable music was necessary. I never fully broke up with vinyl, I would dub records and CDs onto tapes and make mixes for my friends. I was getting more into the independent underground music of the time, ska and punk from Asian Man and Victory Records, Indie and Hardcore from Revelation and Polyvinyl Records, and stuff like that. Maybe it was cheaper or easier for those bands and labels to put out CDs because that’s what I was usually able to find. It was very rare that I found a vinyl record during the mid-‘90s by one of my (at the time) favorite bands like Braid or Boysetsfire. That could also be because I was in Hawaii.
In college I began my own record collection. My friends and I would take trips to Keene, New Hampshire to the store Turn It Up! They had stacks upon stacks of used vinyl. I found dusty old punk records, classical masterpieces and everything in between. At the time I was playing a lot of jazz on my ’37 Conn Naked Lady alto sax so I sought out rare jazz recordings.
I remember how glorious it was the afternoon I discovered a copy of The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. I couldn’t wait to get it back to the dorms and listen to those giants wail on a warm analog live recording. Once I brought home a Stan Getz record and my friend Michele and I experienced aural ecstasy over a moment at the end of a cut where you could hear his breath through the saxophone. No note, just breath. It was magical. At one point I applied to work at Turn It Up! but I never got the indie kid fantasy job.
I was stoked when my friends’ bands and other underground punk and indie and metal bands started pressing on vinyl. Now, I always prefer to purchase my favorite bands’ music in that form. The size, warmth, and heaviness of the medium seems more visceral and sincere to me. I still love spreading out the inserts on my bed and studying the lyrics, taking in the layout and the artwork the band selected to express themselves to their audience. It feels like a love letter.
One of my side projects, The Love Supreme recently put out a 7” on Campers’ Rule Records. We recorded it at Mystery Flavor Studio in Brooklyn. The music is dirty neo-soul, which I think is nicely captured by the analog recording. You can listen to ‘I Want You’ here.”
—Meghann Wright
Meghann Wright’s self-titled debut EP lands on store shelves July 29, and today we debut the new single, “Left My Heart in Brooklyn.”
