“There’s something different about holding a vinyl record in your hands compared to a CD or your iPod. Our new ways of listening to music weren’t built to last the way they were, which in turn gives them a life of their own. Think about it. From the time a record is printed to the point it reaches a store, to when it’s bought, listened to, tucked away, and then found again, a record lives its own life.
“For example, the first time I got my hands on a record I was 14. I was late in the game. Neither of my parents had kept their record players, and I grew up in Italy after my mom had remarried an Italian man, so she had left all her records behind. My closest encounter with vinyl had been this incredibly old gutted out record player that my Nonna kept family photos in. It wasn’t until we were visiting my mother’s parents’ home in Los Angeles one summer that I discovered it. And I really mean discovered because it was never introduced to me like great music was.
I was digging through my mother’s childhood room when I opened the closet and found a crate full of old records. From the Beatles’ Abbey Road to Blondie’s Eat to the Beat—at the time I had no idea how valuable these records were. I was so excited because this was music I loved and the act of finding a way to play these was exciting! I felt like I had stumbled upon a piece of family history. What a story these records had.
When I brought them downstairs my mother and uncle said to me almost in perfect unison “Where’d you find my records?” I jokingly said something along the lines of they are my records now and they both had a fit about how I needed to be careful and how I had no Idea what they were worth or how to handle them. They were genuinely worried about them. They had both spent time listening to them front and back. They had both cried to them, danced to them, and respected them enough to keep them in good condition to get to me, and I grew to have the most amazing relationship with these records.
Vinyl records have life. If you only count my family, this particular bunch had a story with three of us. Some of the records had been bought used and some I came to sell, so I can only imagine where they’ve been or where they are going. And I’m only talking about this bunch! This story sparked my love affair with vinyl and my personal collection is still ever growing. It’s so easy to get emotionally attached to it. You miss it when it’s gone, and mourn it when it dies from over play.
What’s so magical about vinyl is that it has its own history and it was made to last longer than what we listen to music on today. My dream is to one day be a part of this culture, and hopefully send off a record with my music on it into the world and give it a life of its own.”
—Katharine Kadenacy
XMeKate’s “Expectation” EP is in stores now.
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PHOTO: SHARLENE DURFEY
