“I think I have to come on out and say it; as the only child of a working class family in far West Texas, I didn’t grow up with vinyl. I’ve always loved music, though, and we listened to the radio a lot.”
“That was back in the days before Marfa Public Radio. There was one country station in Alpine that streamed from 6am to 10pm. I would lie in bed past my bedtime and quietly listen to those last songs around 9:45 before they would play the national anthem. Then the waves were down until dawn.
I do remember the first time I saw a record at age five. It was that sexy scene in Dirty Dancing where Johnny puts on an Otis Redding song and things heat up with him and Baby. I fell in love with soul music then and still am obsessed with Otis Redding.
I left West Texas for the Pacific Northwest in 2000 and got into the independent record store scene pretty quick. It just sort of happened. I must have been good at convincing the owners to hire me. So I began collecting. New, used, inherited, found, classical, rock and roll, whatever. If it was good, I kept it.
I knew that vinyl was an artifact in a different way than other audio media. I learned that from customers. People would take a chance on a CD here and there, but if an album was really good, they bought it on vinyl.
These days, I have a more intimate connection with my collection. My vinyl experience is tangible, a ritual. Coming home, putting on that one record and playing that one side over and over, yes, please.
Of course, there are only a handful of records I play that way. When I finally turn the record, it’s a tiny intermission. A pivot. I don’t get this with other media.
Woman Who Left Behind is my first vinyl record, self-released on my own label, Berniece Rode Records. Putting out this 45 has expanded my view of the media from the perspective of what goes in to putting your own music on vinyl. It’s a lot of work, more steps than a digital release, and if it’s not right, then it’s just not right. You send it back and start over.
If the vinyl experience is sacred to me as a listener, then as a publisher it is my responsibility to make sure that I have that connection with my own record. If I don’t, others might not, and why put out a record at all?
Challenges aside, I’m still in love with vinyl and can’t wait to put out more records. In the future, I see Molybden only releasing on the vinyl format with digital media codes included. You have to have your music available on the Internet. But if it’s good, someone will want to buy it on vinyl.”
—Tess Seipp, Molybden
“Woman Who Left Behind” will be available on vinyl next Tuesday, 2/25 via Berniece Rode Records.
