“I have often said I was born in the wrong era. Maybe it’s that we glorify the decades that we weren’t around in based on all the good that came out of them. Maybe it’s the stories we hear from our parents or our grandparents. Maybe it’s the memorabilia, the vintage, the style, the art, that a certain era had to offer.”
“I have always categorized time through what it had to offer me. So the best time, in my mind, is the ’60s and ’70s. It offered up some of the best, most consistent, real art, real music to date. Sure, maybe it’s that it’s very hard to be objective about the present. And a decade only becomes a tangible thing the farther away we get from it… but for whatever reason, I have fully dreamt up what I would have been like had I been born in a time that embraced peace, freedom, and real genuine music.
I relish in the stories I hear from my parents. My mom, running home for lunch in elementary school, having just enough time to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, put on her favourite vinyl, and listen to side A and side B while singing along with her mouth full before heading back to class. My dad, remembering the exact moment he heard The Beatles for the first time on TV, jamming along on the keys to anything and everything he could get his hands on.
Imagine a time where people, kids even, would wait in line at a record store and use their allowance to buy music. To listen to an album as a whole.
I may have been born in ’94, but I’d still spend every allowance on CDs and as I got older, vinyl. I love vinyl. I just like having something to hold. I love that with a record you can open it up, smell it, touch it, read it. It feels like you helped it come to life in some way. You don’t get the same experience listening to music digitally. It sort of puts a screen between you and the music, a barrier.
Some of my fav vinyl in my collection are Abbey Road, The White Album, Rubber Soul, all by The Beatles, Tapestry by Carole King, Ella and Basie!, Aretha Sings The Blues, etc. I also always try to find my favourite records of today on vinyl. I have Unorthodox Jukebox by Bruno Mars, Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, Where The Light Is (live album) by John Mayer, The Score by The Fugees… the list goes on.
Nothing was more satisfying than putting that needle down on my own record, Little Secret. I set out to make the record sound classic. That was always the goal, and hearing it in such a classic format really confirmed that I achieved what I wanted to do. It didn’t feel out of place. Even the album artwork had a retro vibe to it. It felt authentic which was super cool and important to me.
I can’t wait to press some versions of my latest release, Solid Gold, onto vinyl. Especially because it is a concept album that chronicles my 6-year long relationship (and counting!), and collectively it really tells a story. It is meant to be heard as a whole.
Now, sure, vinyl is sort of, “back in style”… a lot of people have been jumping on that bandwagon. Is it that there’s something inherently great about it (ahem, the warm sonics)? Or is it just trendy? Well, I think it’s a bit of both. I think that we are a very impatient generation. Our attention spans are dwindling and we’re sort of being conditioned to consume things at a very fast pace.
Enter vinyl: a way to turn off, something to actually touch, feel, learn, and explore. I think that the fast pace nature of this era, in its own unique way, craves something that forces us to slow down, to feel connected to the past, and to turn off our minds for a half hour or two, depending on whether you flip to side B.”
—Nikki Yanofsky
Nikki Yanofsky’s “Solid Gold EP” is in stores now.
Nikki Yanofsky Official | Facebook | Twitter
