Well, that’s pretty crazy. So the question is WHY do you keep your records scattered in the house this way?
I live alone and I spend a lot of my time alone. At my age (50) I just want a simple life and I take pleasure in very simple things. Music brings me enormous joy and it blocks out all the drama and negative things that come into my day. I find that I don’t need to actually hear a song to receive pleasure from it, just the memory of the song is enough. I have records, CDs and cassettes scattered all throughout my house. When I open a draw and see an Adam and the Ants CD I instantly recall the music and I make that connection with it, and I feel the joy. I guess it’s just a sneaky and quiet way to keep myself happy as the day passes.
I supposed you live alone, as I can’t figure out none else that could bare having cassettes in the bathroom drawers…
When friends visit and they discover the hidden music they usually think it’s a bit weird. Once I explain to them why I do it and how it makes me happy they tend to find it a sweet and endeering thing to do. It really does make a lot of sense.
By the way, how do you listen to music nowaday, when you do it? You keep some of these stuff out from the shoes wardrobe and put it on a turntable or in other ways, like digital for instance?
I never listen to digital music. I don’t have anything against it, it’s just not for me. The physical album cover is an important part of the experience for me, so I always sit with it and study the artwork, lyrics and production details. Listening to music is usually a spontaneous thing for me, I open a draw and find an album and sometime I will want to play it straight away, or other times seeing an album will inspire me to play a different album from the same artist etc. It sparks and idea.
Is there a relationship between the place where you put a record and the music or the artist? Do you think that Kraftwerk and George Harrison fit with cooking maybe?
Hahaha, no, I am not that organized. I just put music randomly around the house.
What’s the 7″ (or LP?) on the bathtub?
The album on the bathtub in the photo is “Kimono My House” by Sparks. It is a brilliant album, something everyone would enjoy I think.
I showed the pictures to my wife and told her about your answers and she said “I think it’s a wise and interesting sort of self-therapy.” What do you think?
Yes I agree. I think it is probably similar to people who have photos of their kids all over the house… it makes them feel connected to something and just makes them happy.
Can you tell me about your project of “Music Hoarders United”? Is it a musical label? I suppose you’re receiving tons of demos… How will you choose the one to be released, and how will you do that publishing?
Yes Music Hoarders United is a new record label. An old band mate of mine and I started it together in August this year. We both still make music but because we are now older it is much harder for us to find an audience. Many record labels lose interest in us as soon as they hear that we are 50. We thought there must be many musicians like us that are making great music but no one ever gets to hear it, so we decided to start our own label and try to find some of these other creative people. We started a facebook page and we asked bands that did not have an audience to send us their demos. We received close to 150 so it took some time for us to sort through them all. We were amazed at the incredible level of talent out there and decided the best thing to do would be for us to release a compilation album showcasing many styles of music from all over the globe. The album will be released on CD and digital download in early 2019 and it has 17 bands on it. We have also started a website and music blog where we interview interesting music industry people and talk about anything music related. The CD will be available from the website and also from a few record shops. And while we are waiting for the CD release we are giving away a sampler EP for free which features 4 of the bands from the album. You can download it for free on our website.
Concrete Shelves 