“I distinctly remember the smell of trawling through my parents’ record collection throughout my childhood—the slightly musty, old paper flavour of discovery.”
“I thought Howlin’ Wolf must be the coolest guy to have a record cover that just said ‘This is Howlin’ Wolf’s new album. He doesn’t like it. He didn’t like his electric guitar at first either’. Who is this guy??—my 10 year old brain asked.
Growing up in Australia, so many of my favourite records were by artists who came from so far away and seemed so exotic and there was no internet for me to go find out every damn last thing about them and ruin the mystery. I love vinyl for that mysterious quality it embodies. It’s like the music and the artist live inside the wax, but you can never quite get a hold of them. You can have your moment with the needle but once the album ends, where does the music go?
I hauled my parents’ record collection around with me from share house to share house when I moved out of home (very freaking heavy boxes) but when I moved to the States, I knew I couldn’t take it with me. So it was thrilling to start working with my friend and co-conspiritor Erin ‘Syd’ Sydney, who produced my last 2 records, not least of which because he had a shiny record player and a huge record collection of NEW (and old) records. My favourite modern artists were starting to press vinyl!
For about a month I had the run of Syd’s house for a song writing ‘retreat’ and I spent my days listening to all his records and getting inspired. I never wrote so many songs in one month before.
And then the ground breaking realisation—I could press my own albums on vinyl too! I never felt more like I had ‘made it’ than holding a big fat juicy copy of my own LP.”
—Mia Dyson
Mia Dyson is a four time ARIA nominated and award winning Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist currently living in Los Angeles. She’s toured with Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Chris Isaak, and Joe Cocker and has just released her fifth album Idyllwild. On vinyl.
