“I have early memories of vinyl. My father’s Zeppelin and Police records. My step father’s James Taylor and Harvest. The holy grail of my step brothers, 1984 which I still have. My mother’s West Side Story and Placido Domingo. But I don’t have nostalgia for vinyl.”
“It’s not the sound of vinyl though I love it and, in a lot of cases, it is better. It’s not the black circle, though the black circle is hypnotic. It’s not the large artwork, even though I want it to pull me in and make me hang it on my wall like my original Sticky Fingers copy. For me it is the intention that comes with having and playing vinyl.
Listening is the lost art of our time. All our opinions matter in social media feeds. News is about shouting first, and loudest, instead of listening to information to develop an understanding. The musical landscape where it more often feels like getting attention is a greater commodity than being heard.
Vinyl is the anchor I have to the art of listening. Sometimes I feel like it is the only anchor.
I, you, we are in this world of constant everything. For better or worse. Our eyes close at the end of the night not because we are tired but because we finally quit looking at things. Songs were coming at me from thing I use to make phone calls. If we are listening to an MP3 or streaming, I am passively allowing interruption at any time by text, email and/or phone call. I’m not committed. I got a mountain on gigs in iTunes and love to use Spotify to reference and check something out all the time. But I refuse the idea that I actually listened to an artist when I “check” something out that way.
And that is why my vinyl is out 3 months ahead of digital distribution (the worldwide digital release of National Throat is scheduled for 8/26). It’s the kind of listeners I imagined for National Throat when I was writing it, recording it, mixing, and mastering it. If ten people buy it, that is way better for my songs then 10,000 casually checking it out on laptop speakers while they study or are at work; or typing blogs like I am now!
Forget, for 40 minutes, all these ones and zeros of our uninterrupted-constant-interruption digital lives. There is actual sound buried in the blackness of a vinyl record. An invisible piece of diamond is dropped into it and it is my responsibility to oversee the spin and listen.”
—Will Dailey
Will Dailey’s National Throat is available now—on vinyl. Grab the limited edition (250) 180gram, signed, blue/gold vinyl with download card including bonus tracks—right here.
