“My earliest memories of vinyl are from about the time I was around 11 years old. I had a friend whose older brother owned a lot of Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, and Led Zeppelin records and we would sneak in and listen to them after he had left for work.”
“I can remember a sort of ritual when it came time to put on a new record. The process of removing the vinyl from the jacket, then the sleeve…the last minute check for dust before placing it on the turntable. After the first track started, we would stare at the album cover art only making comments, if any, in between songs.
My older sister also started getting into music and I would then listen to some of her vinyl collection which was everything from Duran Duran to the Cars to U2.
The first record I bought with my own money was the Police’s Ghost in the Machine which had three or four tracks that I played endlessly for the first month of owning it.
At that point I don’t think I appreciated the sound of vinyl as much as the songs, melodies, and the album artwork. When I flash ahead to my first impression of the cassette or CD format, I don’t remember thinking, “Wow this sounds amazing.” I just thought that they were more convenient.
I ended up putting out my first 7-inch vinyl single in the mid 90s with a band called SpaceBike. We had previously recorded a demo only available on cassette. The test pressing for the single arrived and I remember how excited we were that we had our first vinyl record. The sound was also something that instantly struck me as I felt I was back listening to vinyl as a kid again…and staring at the album art.
It’s my opinion vinyl has a 3-D quality that the digital format lacks. Some things pop out…a vocal here or a subtle guitar part bit there with just an overall organic feel about it.
With our latest project, Porcupine, we have released one vinyl split single 7-inch in 2011, one three song vinyl 7-inch in 2012, and our second full length The Sensation of being Somebody in 2013.
We did it knowing that it would be a more expensive venture as opposed to a CD release, along with a turnover time that would be twice as long. There are not many places pressing vinyl these days and it did take us some time and energy finding a pressing plant. When we finally heard the test pressing and eventually saw the artwork all come together, we couldn’t have been happier with the end result.
If just one person picks up our vinyl record and experiences the same things I felt as a kid, then I’m a happy. We win.”
—Casey Virock
