“Much of what I’m about to admit, I probably shouldn’t. It’s pretty embarrassing that I, someone who has been a musician for almost twelve years, has never owned a record player or listened to records until early this year.”
“I always found the record player very intimidating, as if I wouldn’t know how to set it up or make the music it emitted sound right. I was also worried that if I got one, I wouldn’t know how to work the manual needle.
Strangely enough though, I’ve always collected records. Their covers always enchanted me. I would pick them up at garage sales or in the dollar rack at record stores. I would take them home and try to replicate David Bowie and Debbie Harry’s makeup and outfits, read all the names of the songs and so on—but I would never listen to them. I would just stare and wonder.
I finally got a record player around January of this year. We were just starting to lay down our record at Nobel Studios in Toronto, and I knew that we would eventually have our very own record. I needed a fucking player.
I bought it from this smelly, drunk dude at a pawn shop for a hundred bucks with a pretty affordable amp and decent set of speakers, and had a very kind and patient friend set it up for me in my bedroom. The first record I played was Maria Callas performing in Tosca.
It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I wish I had gotten the player earlier.”
—Jordan Miller, vocals/bass
The Beaches debut full-length release Late Show is on store shelves right now—on vinyl.