“The first time I started listening to vinyl on my own began when my dad was cleaning out his garage one day. He brought all of his records inside and told me to go through them and take some. It was mostly all classic rock and that led me into listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Doors, etc.”
“The whole experience of putting a record on is exciting—buying a new one, pulling the plastic off, checking out all of the art front to back and placing the needle on. It becomes more intimate just by doing that. I was always really fascinated by the album art and my favorite was Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin. I still think it’s so great and unique, there’s nothing like it.
Now I have a record player and have started collecting more. I feel like I definitely need to grow my collection of current artists because I was recently given The War on Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding and I can’t stop listening to it. It’s definitely one of my favorite albums, but now having it in physical form and holding it is a beautiful thing.
I’ve been going between that and Shostakovich—I’m a big classical music fan. I think its amazing that a composer during that period, with no mediums outside of ink and paper, was able to create bodies of work that are so intricate, and shaped stories without using lyrics.
I love that vinyl has made a strong comeback—there’s just something about listening to music on it that is so special. It’s important to keep that aspect alive because the experience is completely different.
I will be having my EP “Mirage” available on vinyl, which I’m very excited about.”
—Sam Valdez
Sam Valdez’s “Mirage” EP arrives in stores on June 29, 2018—on vinyl. Pre-order it here.
