“I’ll be honest…I don’t even own a record player. I’ve been asking for one for Christmas for a few years now…”
“Years and years ago, everyone had a record player. Nowadays, not only are they hard to find, but they are kind of expensive for a starving artist like myself. I get most of my music on Spotify or iTunes. However, that doesn’t mean I still don’t want to experience music on vinyl. I say ‘experience’ because that’s truly what it is. Listening to a record start to finish on vinyl is something you take time to do, to truly savor the sounds and warmth of the tones. It’s on my agenda to one day have my own player. I actually only own one record personally, an Original Soundtrack recording from Singin’ in The Rain!
Not many people know this, but my background is in music theatre, opera, and classical music. Whenever I’m sifting through old records at McKay’s in Nashville, TN, I’m ALWAYS hoping for a Bernstein conducted piece. Or a Puccini opera. Or some rare original performance of a Stravinsky piece, like The Rite of Spring. There’s absolutely something amazing about hearing these classical performances on vinyl, because back then, they had no choice but to record them to vinyl. And every performance is different. So I love that McKay’s has tons of classical records. You NEVER know what you’re going to find. And there are some rare performances floating around out there.
But my first experience with vinyl was, like most people, as a kid. My father had a huge collection…everything from The Beatles, to Toto, to Jimmy Buffet, to Billy Joel. I remember getting in trouble for dropping the needle wrong, or touching the records with my fingers. My Dad had a huge collection and he cherished it. My sister and I used to harmonize with each other, sitting on the living room floor singing along to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Billy Joel’s Glass Houses.
The most amazing thing about music from this generation is that it truly inspired me to start playing the piano when I was young. Listening to John Lennon and Billy Joel, I was eager to reach up to the family keyboard and start picking out my own melodies. That was truly the beginning for me, and life was good back then. You were a kid without a worry in the world.
We used to sit around all day and listen to records with my Dad. And when my parents weren’t home, I would sneak into the record cabinet (like I said I got in trouble all the time for handling them wrong!) and look at the artwork. All the record covers and lyrics inside, the whole packaging of it was so intriguing to me as a kid. I think I got in trouble a few times for having records spread all over the living room floor!
Little did I know that one day I would be making music of my own, then releasing it, choosing artwork, and presenting it in a way that someday others would get excited about themselves. The Nearly Deads haven’t put anything on vinyl yet, but we would love to.
Vinyl gives you the full range of frequencies, something that modern recording smashes and squishes right out of the music. Vinyl has depth, atmosphere, meaning, and the sound has room to breathe. I’m so lucky that I had a musical upbringing and was able to be surrounded by records as a kid that would eventually work their way into my heart, and into my own music.”
—Theresa Jeane
The Nearly Deads’ debut full length Invisible Tonight arrived on store shelves, June 24.
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 25, 2014
