“My first taste of vinyl came from my brother.”
“Over the years he has amassed a giant collection ranging from classical to ’70s rock to house music. The collection has gotten so enormous that my Dad is storing hundreds at his studio in Brooklyn. I remember being six years old and flipping through the beautifully colored packaging of his 12 inch records and slowly slipping the thin black disks out of their sleeves.
My brother gave me my first record. It was by France Gall, the popular French singer of the Sixties. I remember how beautiful I thought she was on the cover of the record with her blonde bobbed hair and red turtleneck. I used to sit and sing along to the songs in French trying to make sense of the lyrics in a language foreign to me.
After the France Gall record I moved onto exploring records at the local store in Brooklyn and discovered The Beatles, The Ronettes, The Supremes, The Who, and Roberta Flack’s Love Songs. I memorized every song on Love Songs. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was one of my favorite early childhood songs. I remember hoping that one day I would be able to sing like her.
To this day, I love wondering through Permanent Records in Brooklyn, Bleeker Street Records, or Gimme Gimme. I enjoy getting recommendations from an actual person and not from a computer screen. These stores aren’t about necessarily knowing what you want from the get go but finding out along the way.
I appreciate the art of browsing.”
—Sophie Auster
