“In Halifax, NS where we grew up, there was a small all ages venue called The Pavilion where touring bands would come play every weekend and smaller local bands, usually high school aged bands, would get the opportunity to open.”
“It was really cool for a small city like ours to get all these touring bands from across North America to come play every weekend and even cooler that we’d have the opportunity to open up for these established bands when we were that young.
I worked a part-time job I hated but I’d save up my money so I could get merch from the touring bands coming to town. I was in high school and didn’t have a credit card so it was my only opportunity to get merch from these bands and a lot of them would come with vinyl records.
I didn’t know a whole lot about vinyl but I became addicted. I thought it was really cool to have the artwork as big as it was and most bands packaged something on the inside that you wouldn’t normally find online like an artwork/photo booklet.
The first record I remember buying was 7” single by a band called Living With Lions and remember it had a song on it that wasn’t released yet online on the B-side that would be on a future full length album. I loved that I got to hear a song that wasn’t out yet because I bought that 7”.
After collecting a bit from shows I realized that sometimes the records came pressed in different colours or special limited runs. I then realized some of my favorite bands all had different releases of records in different colours, first pressings, 180g black versions, special limited releases.
I became obsessed, I needed every single one, so I started buying prepaid Visas so I could search the internet and find every single one. I still have all the records I bought during that time and listen to them every now and then. It brings me back to those times we were a band in high school playing at this small all ages club in Halifax, Nova Scotia.”
—Adrian Morris
“Sick of Feeling Useless,” the new single from Neon Dreams is in stores now.
