May 15, 2024 • 58 mins
Women in Vinyl Airlines, now arriving in Mumbai! This week we are joined by our new friend, Kinjal Gosar, founder, owner, operator and the vinyl lover behind Drocer Records, India’s up and coming online record store.
We had such an amazing time getting to know Kinjal, her cats, and to find out that even though we’re on another continent record collecting is one thing that connects us all. Drocer Records has new and “pre-loved” vinyl, and hosts many community minded events with other local record stores, DJs and other local businesses. She also stocks and sells turntables and other gear, and isn’t afraid to go toe to toe with any Uncle that might challenge her! Kinjal’s joy and love of vinyl is super infectious and we can’t wait to pack our bags and fill our crates with her.
Check out:
https://drocerrecord.com/
https://womeninvinyl.com/profiles/kinjal-gosar-founder-drocer-record
Big thank you to Berklee Indian Ensemble, a world renowned collective, known for its global Indian sound that honors traditions while boldly experimenting with a cross-pollination of genres, cultures, and multidisciplinary art forms; for the use of their song ‘Aakash’ off their album Shuruaat. Read more on them and what their up to at: https://berkleeindianensemble.com/
Reminder, grab a copy of our book 'Women in Vinyl, the Art of Making Vinyl' is out now! Learn more and buy a copy at: womeninvinyl.com/book
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! Keep your records clean and sounding great with GrooveWasher. Use WomenInVinyl10 at check out: www.groovewasher.com
Commercial-Free & High Resolution version of this podcast, along with membership options and ton of other discount codes available at: https://www.patreon.com/womeninvinyl
You can also contribute to furthering our mission by donating https://www.womeninvinyl.com/donate as a 501(c)3 all donations are tax deductible. Visit the website to check out past episodes, features, and our ever growing library of resources to further the education, demystification and diversification of the Vinyl Making Space.
We were listed as number 11 on Feedspot’s Top 25 Vinyl Records Podcasts! Don’t forget to like, subscribe and give us a review on your favorite podcast delivery method! Want to be a sponsor or just get in touch? Email us: info@womeninvinyl.com
We had such an amazing time getting to know Kinjal, her cats, and to find out that even though we’re on another continent record collecting is one thing that connects us all. Drocer Records has new and “pre-loved” vinyl, and hosts many community minded events with other local record stores, DJs and other local businesses. She also stocks and sells turntables and other gear, and isn’t afraid to go toe to toe with any Uncle that might challenge her! Kinjal’s joy and love of vinyl is super infectious and we can’t wait to pack our bags and fill our crates with her.
Check out:
https://drocerrecord.com/
https://womeninvinyl.com/profiles/kinjal-gosar-founder-drocer-record
Big thank you to Berklee Indian Ensemble, a world renowned collective, known for its global Indian sound that honors traditions while boldly experimenting with a cross-pollination of genres, cultures, and multidisciplinary art forms; for the use of their song ‘Aakash’ off their album Shuruaat. Read more on them and what their up to at: https://berkleeindianensemble.com/
Reminder, grab a copy of our book 'Women in Vinyl, the Art of Making Vinyl' is out now! Learn more and buy a copy at: womeninvinyl.com/book
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! Keep your records clean and sounding great with GrooveWasher. Use WomenInVinyl10 at check out: www.groovewasher.com
Commercial-Free & High Resolution version of this podcast, along with membership options and ton of other discount codes available at: https://www.patreon.com/womeninvinyl
You can also contribute to furthering our mission by donating https://www.womeninvinyl.com/donate as a 501(c)3 all donations are tax deductible. Visit the website to check out past episodes, features, and our ever growing library of resources to further the education, demystification and diversification of the Vinyl Making Space.
We were listed as number 11 on Feedspot’s Top 25 Vinyl Records Podcasts! Don’t forget to like, subscribe and give us a review on your favorite podcast delivery method! Want to be a sponsor or just get in touch? Email us: info@womeninvinyl.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcastwith Jen Dugenio, founder of Women in
Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond.This podcast facilitates conversations with those working in
the vinyl record industry to educate,demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.
(01:45):
Thank you for joining us on episodefifty one of the Women in Vinyl Podcast.
You just heard Akash by the BerkeleyIndian Ensemble off their album Sharrett.
Find more of their music and whatthey're up to at Berkeley Indian Ensemble.
We are continuing our international vinyl journey, this time heading to Mumbai to hang
(02:06):
out with our new friend kinjal Gosar, founder of Drosser Records. We talked
with Kiinjol about how the vinyl marketlooks in India, how it differs from
North America, what running a recordstore is like there, and more.
Don't forget to grab a copy ofour book Women in Vinyl The Art of
Making Vinyl at Womenanvinyl dot Com slashbook. We were also listed as number
(02:28):
eleven on feed Spot's Top twenty fivevinyl record Podcasts on the Web. Please
continue to like, subscribe, andleave us a review and thank you for
being here. Now here's the episode. Let's talk about you, sweetheart,
though, Let's talk about Kinja Gisarjoining us from India. Whoa time zones
(02:50):
be damned, we're doing this.We're just doing this. Yeah, Honestly,
you were the impetus for us liketalking to people in different parts of
the world, because after one ofafter we were emailing, you said things
are completely different here, and sowe're super excited to dive more into India
(03:13):
and the culture, the final culturethere. I'm so glad that you know,
you chose gross art. Like it'sjust like, I mean, I
such a small you know, itjust means a lot to be very honest
and be like this. I'm justgrateful that we get to do this even
though we are in like different countriesand stuff, and it just just adds
(03:37):
adds places that we need to goon our on our on our hit list
next yeah, next time. Ihaven't even been to India yet. No,
it's always been like really high upon the on the old list being
uh, I mean a casual practiceof yoga for the laws. Yeah,
(03:58):
you like the way people in theUS follow yoga. Indians don't do that.
I know, and that's one ofthe reasons that I wanted to that
I wanted to go over and tryit because it's more of a spiritual practice
and a little bit more of ameditation and a little bit more of like
(04:19):
a cultural thing rather than just likea fifty white ladies in tight clothes clothing
trying to maintain their aesthetic appeal foreach other. Yeah. So, I
mean, we'll forget it. Tellus everything about dro cart Yeah, so
it's grosser basically, it's basically recordwritten in the other directions. Yeah,
(04:46):
yeah, I didn't even catch that. Yeah, it's it's something that.
So I was having this discussion witha friend of mine while coming up with
like a brand name and everything,and he just he just said, you
were such an idiot. You know, the brand name is in the world
record itself. And I was like, what are you talking about? I
mean, are you high on somethingyou can tell me so that I can
(05:13):
Yeah, exactly. But then Ithought about it, and it's very smart
because Vinyl in its own way,it's like the whole subculture has been in
the revival zone. It's not justin India, but like everywhere around the
world. It's just had a comeback, and for me, it's like a
full you know, life coming toa full circle. So it just made
(05:36):
sense to, you know, havethat as my brand name. So I
started started in August twenty twenty two. It's been quite a right since then.
Yeah, we are currently online only. We don't have a brick and
water store. It's just easier tomanage a few things. Also, because
(05:59):
it's a niche market here, it'snot as popular or vinyl as a format.
It's not like it's not something thatyou'll find at every household or like
every other household. It's it's it'sa very small niche market. O yok.
So yeah, just makes sense.This makes more sense. But I
may be soon, I don't know. So you are Are you in Mumbai?
(06:24):
Yeah? I live in Mumbai.I have been uh in Mumbai all
my life, born and brought uphere. It's quite a city. It's
it's a very eastern version of NewYork. So yeah, yeah, the
city never sleeps. Yeah, Imean because everybody has three jobs too.
(06:45):
Yeah, everyone's hustling. Everyone's makingliving there, trying to live there.
Everyone's trying to earn enough to survive. It's it's just another it's a very
beautiful city. Mumbai has that Idon't know what the right word for it
is. It just has that charmand like listen, until you've not lived
here, you wouldn't know. Soit's it's a very right now that I
(07:14):
mean, it's hard to describe thecity that a lot of people haven't potentially
visited is on the other side ofthe world for some of us. So
I mean, yeah, fully,we totally even trying to explain to you
what being in Canada is, Like, I mean, oh, I wouldn't
get it till them there, Soyeah, exactly. So we're all going
(07:35):
to book a flight to Mumbai andit's gonna be great on our way to
go see Sweet Kathy in Australia.You can come with us. It'll be
great Women of a World tour.Yeah, that's a very good idea for
women and women dot com slash don'tright now. Also, India is very
(08:01):
different when it comes to the waythe the you know, the culture works
over your the vinyl culture works overyour Most of the market is disorganized,
and what I mean by that isyou will find scrap dealers, You'll find
all these local small shops in differentplaces who sell vinyl. And it's that
comes in like the disorganized market.Records stores as such, they're very They're
(08:28):
a handful of stores, you know, record stores like think anyone who is
like a registered company, you know, like yeah that we sell vinyl.
So they are a handful of storeslike that. Oh yeah, I'm so
glad you're one of them. Andyeah, Indian music, right, it's
(08:48):
so vast because the culture area literallychanges like every meters. It's like ry
kilometers. It's like a sorry,I don't talk in miles. Uh I
just I just figured out that youlive in Canada, so you know what
kilometers to be fair, Even ifI was thinking about what a mile would
(09:13):
look like, that's all subjective.Well, to go back to to sort
of the start of opening your recordstore, were you a collector for a
long time or what made you decidethat you wanted to bring records to the
Indian market. So, yeah,I have been collecting records for quite some
(09:33):
time. So there's this place inMumbai called a Dadio. So that's where
I actually discovered vinyl. It's notbeen a hand me down for me from
my parents or generation or something likethat. It's not been like that.
It just came in my life whenI needed needed it the worst. It's
funny, I know how it sounds, but still love it. I love
(09:54):
it. Yeah. I found alot of friends that, like, I
found a proper community there, right, So, like it came in my
life and I needed people, youknow around, So it just happened.
So I found a daddio, Ifound records. It was very interesting for
me. I mean I could hearthe difference in the music, and I
(10:16):
figured I saw how engaging it is, you know. Like So the first
record that I listened to was myfavorite record, Dark Side of the Moon.
So I heard Dark Side of theMoon so many times, so many
times, like I listened to Ilistened to great thing in this guy almost
every day. It's just a thing. So yeah, So when I heard
(10:39):
the record from start to finish theway it is supposed to be, you
know, listen to and you knowthe way you're supposed to experience the album,
I was I don't even have theI don't have the right objective for
it because it was just so surreal, surreal, Like it was mind blowingly
awesome. So yeah, so that'show it started to me here was this.
(11:03):
When did you start collecting records?When did you first listen to it?
So I heard record the Dark Sideof the Moon record in the year
twenty seventeen, I started. Yeah, I started collecting in twenty nineteen.
I went crazy during the lockdown weall did. It's totally fine. So,
(11:33):
I mean, as I told you, right, it's not going to
hand me down. I mean,my parents knew about the culture. They
have heard music somewhere or the otheron a grammar phone or on a record,
but there were no hand me downas such. And I really didn't
have anyone else who you know,who used to listen to music, specifically
online before before a Daddio happened.So yeah, it's been quite a journey,
(11:56):
to be honest, to be veryhonest. Also, I I am
an electronics engineer myself, so youknow, the whole systems and players and
aldo. It's always been like aoh wow, this is interesting, you
know, so why not? Andthere was an opportunity that just kind of
presented itself in twenty twenty two.I'm very For a very short time I
(12:18):
worked with another record store. Thingsjust didn't go the way I like,
I had a different idea in myhead. They had a different idea in
my head. So we were like, it's just part two ways. It's
fine. And I was like,wait, I can do this on my
own, just like I just needto start, that's all. Yeah.
So like took out on the sorry, oh no, go ahead. Yeah.
(12:43):
Oh yeah. So I just whateversavings I had over the years,
I just took it all out,and I was like, call my parents.
I told them, listen, I'mdoing this thing, all right,
and just letting you all know Ihave to do this thing. I mean,
and I've known Cevindian parents in mylife and that it would be very
(13:03):
hard, ma'am. That would bea thing, are you I mean,
and you can totally tell me tojust like pound stand literally, but like,
are your parents very traditional? Werethey like? What, No,
this is the plan that we havefor you. You can't do this.
Well again, as I told you, it's been quite right. Yeah,
(13:26):
I'm on the edge of my seat. Literally, this is crazy exactly.
They're not exactly traditional. It's justthat I'm an only child and my father
wanted me to be an engineer,and I did that, but I found
my niche you know, I foundwhat I like out of all that.
So yeah, and then they sawme work hard, like since I got
my first job right after after graduating. Since then they've been just off,
(13:52):
they've been off my back. They'vebeen like, you know you do you
We see you working hard. Weknow you can on a buck. So
yeah, go ahead you want to. You know, I did your thing?
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Idid that thing and now I'm doing
my thing and I'm doing a prettygood job. I mean, why are
(14:13):
you? Like? Are you all? Like? Also? Do you ready
do? Was also the when Ilike got married, so like for them,
I almost I'm second, you know, like you've done all the things.
Yeah, you checked all the allthe Indian boat job. Is the
(14:39):
perception of women engineers the same atall as it is elsewhere there? I
mean is there like because here wefind a lot of gender bias around you
know, women engineers and those typesof jobs. But as that sort of
(15:00):
stereotype, if you will, beingsomething over there, is it the same?
I guess the stereotype that women Isuppose like women can't do things the
way men do. It's everywhere.It's not going to change for a long
long time. But luckily India isknown to produce engineers. Yeah, yeah,
(15:22):
that's why I was curious. Yeah, certain streame like maybe mechanical engineering
is something that that women don't getinto. Computers is fine, electronics is
fine, but like, yeah,scream wise has like a lot of difference.
But then yes, of course,anywhere you go once you get into
(15:43):
the rat race, let's call itthat. Uh you know, once you
get in there, you see thewhole uh inequality and you know, the
pay of the paychecks and whatnot.So like casual sexism, which is very
on your face sex, it's nevercatch. Yeah. I think I got
(16:04):
tired of the corporate rat race afterthe point of time, just because of
this, because I'm not growing upin a household where all of this matters,
Like your gender doesn't matter. Whatyou do mattters with your life and
you're doing it. You're doing itmaybe no, no, yeah, there's
no maybe you're doing it now.Oh yeah, I'm doing I'm doing my
(16:29):
beds. So you said that youfound this great community. So when you
were like, hey, dudes,guess what I'm going to open a record
store, they were like, ohyeah, rad. And then now you're
like, okay, now I gotto find records. So how did that
go? Where did you Where didyou find your records? Where did you
decide that you were going to getrecords from? What is the distribution side,
like in Mumbai? Oh not justin mom but I actually I didn't
(16:52):
talk about India. So we donot have pressing plants so everything at all.
No. So yeah, like beforethis, I was trying to research
and see if there was one,and I was looking at Vinyl pressing Plants
dot com and I couldn't find anything. Yeah, I came pluding into different
like translations, and I was like, well, I definitely don't know how
to speak Hindi, so I don'tI don't know anything more than I knew
(17:19):
before. So the last one actuallyshut in the late eighties early nineties,
I think that was in Polkata.Yeah, yeah, so that that one
shot there was also a fire asfar as I remember, so there was
like it just shut it. Aftera point of time, CDs became a
pain, so everyone was like focusingon that and manufacturing wise, India was
(17:41):
moving from you know, the manufacturingsector to the service sector and all of
that, like a lot of economicand etcetera, etcetera. Things happened,
so there are more pressing plants.Unfortunately, there's great music in this country.
But no, that's God damn it. Anyway, Yeah, well I
guess we need to move to Mumbaiand open a pressing plant because well,
(18:03):
I'm saying, all of these peoplethat want to add capacity in the US
in North America just come, somebodygo to India. I'm sure. I
like. Yeah, So we weimport like all the new records whatever you
call it, like not the preloved ones. Pre loved is a different
(18:26):
ball game. But yeah, newrecords are imported. Everyone imports them.
We have a couple of distributors here, like Sony or Universal, so we
do. We do directly buy itfrom the distributors, but there are certain
records that even they don't have intheir catalog, so we have to import
in each way. So there areall these distributors outside the lens and we're
(18:48):
in there. So we import.But the biggest problem over year is that
let's say I import a record often dollars or ten euros because of the
tums, because of the taxes,et cetera, exetera, et cetera.
Also we have to put own profitmargins margins in the ten dollars. Yeah,
the ten dollars record becomes like atwenty to twenty five dollars effort.
(19:11):
So yeah, I'm just like envisioninga room in your house being just really
after Yeah, how are you doingthis? I have a wardrobe which is
empty, no clothes, nothing thatI had to keep. So uh,
you know, the lower shelf hasmy cat food and everything over there for
my cats, and all the othershells. All the other shells have records
(19:36):
in it, all the other shells, so like I have a very specific
way of keeping everything, So thenew records are kept up, you know,
on the top shell the box set. I still have a pink flood
box set, so that's kept likeon the top, topmost shells. Then
you know, all the Hindi recordsare kept in a certain way. It's
just like a it's like a crazy, crazy thing. So where are the
(19:57):
Bollywood records getting made? Then?Like who's pressing Indian music? Like where
is it coming from? The oldIndian music? Uh so a lot of
as I told you, that wasthe fire tapes. What lost tapes got
more? So bad music is notbeing pressed anymore. So, like there
are really there's they're like really greatIndian old Indian movies with like singers like
(20:21):
Mahama et cetera, et cetera.So they have become like a rarity now.
So it's it's mostly become a collectible. So you know, people will
spend like crazy amount of money justget a copy of that. We will,
yes, we will. Are youable to are you able to source
those within India? Or are youlooking more like to discogs for that kind
(20:45):
of thing? So luckily I havesources, so I can get I do
get, but it's it is difficultto get certain records. And when people
come to me with like their wholelist of wish lists, it becomes a
tough it becomes a tough conversation aftera point of time because I have to
(21:07):
explain it to them that listen,there are certain records I can get,
but then this would be the estimatedprice. Are you willing to spend that
kind of money then yeah, definitely, because then otherwise for me, it's
just like inventory stuck. It's notworth it now, like and also like
there's been no conflict within me asa collector and as a business person,
like you know, you just haveto like you don't just spend that money?
(21:30):
But no, good, you can't. You can't afford it. You
know, there's this constant conversation goingon in my head. And yes there
are people. There are a coupleof record labels, a couple of people
and who are pressing records, butthey get it pressed outside of India.
(21:51):
They manage the whole import this thatmyyeah, So that's how it is right
now, how is the importing price? Is it a fact the buyer?
Are you seeing that? Because youknow, what is the economy? Like
I guess, I know India variesquite a bit in that. So are
(22:11):
you finding a diverse group of peoplebuying records? Yes? Yes, or
to answer your question about the diversegroup, But so the Indian economy is
I want, I don't know howto put it. So people who call
in the top ten percent, likeyou know, income wise, are the
(22:33):
ones who can actually afford this.And out of those ten percent that are
hardly like let's say, only liketwo or three percent, wine and consumers
you know, like really buy vinyl. So it's a very small market.
It's a very small market. Butthen again, when I say small in
terms of America or something. Okay, I'm sorry. That's why we always
(22:57):
welcome against our cat friends. Yeah. So yeah, he is a very
old cat and he also has epilepsy, so he's oh you're famous. Oh
(23:22):
yeah, I love this guy,which is sorry already it's great. Yeah
so as yeah, so out ofthose two three people already have like their
sources. They like there are likethese couple of buyers that they buy from.
Some of them can afford, likemost of them can afford importing themselves
(23:47):
and stuff like that. So insteadof like supporting the local stores, they
end up buying records from UK USJapan on their own. And they don't
understand that if they don't support us, we won't be able to like import
more. If we can't import more, the prices will still be high.
(24:08):
But like there's this whole thing thatwe have to explain. But it's fine,
it's still working, you know.Like the day I launched my record
store, I had like bios becausepeople who'd want to buy. But at
the same time, India's very pricedsensitive market, very priced sensitive, so
that also becomes a challenge. Well, and I mean, like we're seeing
(24:30):
it too over here where it's likethe economy has kind of gone cuckoo bananas,
and it's records or priced such thatthey're luxury items now. So it's
a very it's it's a it's avery fine stratus of the population that can
continually come in on a regular basisfor a for a new record or whatever.
(24:56):
Yeah, you're seeing that too.You know, there's been a slowdown
in the market. So there arepeople who reach out to me that saying
that, hey, do you havethe audio technical and sixty X And I'm
like, yeah, I do,Oh what does it? What? What's
the cost? And I tell themand then they're like, oh, listen,
you know what, maybe I'll buyit after two months because I really
don't have the money. And thena lot of people are stuck in that
(25:17):
chicken and ex situation. What doI buy first records or the player or
the system? Like, you know, you have to have that whole conversation
with them. That becomes a challenge. So your whole your you're you're you're
selling gear too. Oh yeah,we we do. We sell It's another
wall game again. But I amvery lucky. I am very lucky that
(25:40):
I understand the nuancewers and it becomeseasier for me to explain things to people,
so like I end up having likehalf an hour conversation and end up
making friends out of my customers justbecause they're like, thank you so much.
You are the one, right,It's true. And I mean,
(26:00):
like, are you finding put likeI get pushed back sometimes in the store
for being the only girl that hassome of the answers. Are you finding
any pushback from any of your clientscustomers? Oh? No, yeah,
so many people. I'm telling you, it's been quite right. Like when
(26:22):
I say that, I have understandthat it actually has been quite Oh,
we're here for the ride. Wewant to know everything. We're trying to
find the corner of the globe wherethere is somebody that's like, oh,
you know more than me. Great, here's my money, because we all
want to move there. We justwe all want to go there. So
tell us about the roller coaster.We're here, we're strapped in, our
(26:45):
hands are up, We're ready togo. You're too sweetbab like that said
nobody ever got I just did.I just did. Well, trust me,
trust me, trust me. WomenIn final podcast, when I'm driving
because I'm so tired of listening tomusic, sometimes I'm like, no,
no music today. Sometimes you knowwith you, No, I'm with you.
(27:11):
I'm saying that as a record storeowner. I know it's no.
No, it's fine. Also Iam I don't listen to all genres of
music. So just like like thereare castoms, Oh why don't you listen
to this person? Oh why don'tyou listen to this genre? Oh why
is jazz not your thing? Yes, there are amazing artists, some artists
(27:33):
that I do listen to some timeto tax, but my go to is
classic rock, is metal, it'sgoing to be all drock, It's going
to be Lincoln Park. That's justhow it's going to be. You're my
sister, and I love you.I love you too. But no,
yeah, you know, it becomesup, becomes a challenge. But we
have got a lot of pushback fromme. Just imagine a typical fifty sixty
(27:57):
year old uncle, so we callthe uncles. But I know, like
a man, you can it canbe like a cis gender white male.
Also it's like just sis gender whitemales and sis gender brown, so brown
males over here and what white malesare. But I'm glad it's just that
age group really it's just that age. Yeah anyway, Yeah, but then
(28:21):
there have been like even from thecommunity sometimes there's like more if they like
they look at you as competition ratherthan a collaborator. So like, you
know, there's a lot of pushbacksometimes, so like the first few months
were very tough, but then aslike you know what, I'll just I'll
(28:41):
just do it. You know,it's like just go away, just like
go don't don't, don't ruin myenergy. Yea, but those first fifty
six year old sis gender six genderis very important to you, like seriously,
yeah, I mean, can youspeak on that a little bit more?
(29:03):
Knaw? Can you like, canyou expand on like how the rainbow
crowd is viewed and represented in recordsand record buyers in Mumbai. So it's
it's not so you know, whenit comes to business, Oh, you
know, people don't really care whichthat when you belong to your any if
(29:32):
you're doing a good job, ifyour brand is good, if you're giving
good products, it's great. It'sthe support from that different community, like
these smaller subcultures, there's a lotof support, there's a lot of love.
But then again, when it comesto a business, if you're giving
what your customer wants. Nobody reallycares, right, But then again,
of course there is you know,there is a lot of like people view
(29:59):
the a certain way. There's likea lot of barriers to still break,
et cetera, et cetera. Soyeah, it's it's quite a right,
But then again, you know peoplewho are like in the ten who live
in Mumbai, who live in urbanareas, they don't really care, right,
No, yeah they don't. Butlike if you go to like the
rural places or you go to tiertwo, tier or three cities, there
(30:23):
is always an issue, and it'sit's the same in Canada, honey,
it's still a topic, you get. Yeah, it's true sensitive topic.
Yeah, yeah, I think it'sthe same in US too. I think
like the Southern States and the Ithink the story is the same everywhere,
to be very honest, it's justhow it's viewed by other people outside of
(30:45):
your country, like I mean everyone. I mean, it's it's it's kind
of it's kind of good because thatyou have an online store, so you
can just kind of like give it. Like I'm excited for the time that
you potentially open a brick and mortaror so that you could be a safe
space for everybody to come in andflip. I really hope, So,
(31:06):
I really hope. So like yeah, like at least in Mumbai, the
other stores like that, I thinkthey are two freaking attach stores, like
proper stores. They don't like,there's no nobody's going to come at you
just because you belong to another community. They might they might do all the
you know, gossips and like theymight like snigger or they might like,
(31:29):
but it's like within their fraying,they won't like really come and come at
you and attack you. That's notwhat happens. It's not an movement.
Yeah, I mean, of courseit's not happening. I think it happens
every year. R Well, AndI'm curious about kind of going back to
sourcing pressings and things like that.You know, are you seeing a lot
(31:51):
of bootlegs coming into the market becauseyou're not able to necessarily get everything that
your customers want. I haven't comeacross as many, to be honest,
Like there have been a couple ofbootlegs that have come across, but not
as many. Also, what happensis all these scrab dealers et cetera that
(32:12):
are talking about they do have boots, right, and it's like a very
when we source. So okay,when it comes to pree loud, how
we work as we go to theseindividuals and or you know, sellers,
or maybe somebody wants to sell offtheir grandfather's collection or somebody like that,
or we go to these crab dealersourselves. We go through like more than
five hundred, sometimes thousands sometimes youknow, like I don't know how many
(32:37):
records, and then we just selectlike fifty sixty out of them, which
are I aim to. I onlylook at like VEG and VG plus and
everything about that VEG only if weknow the record itself is very rare.
Otherwise it's always VG plus that wego for. So we pick out like,
you know, fifty out of thetwo hundred. So when you're picking
(33:00):
it up picking stuff out, ofcourse we don't. We ignore the boot
likes the move. But yeah,it's it's not as much. I would
say maybe on a very individual level, people like those buyer might be able
to answer this better or rather thana store, right, yeah, I
mean, but I feel like Iwould just like to have a few Indian
(33:22):
bot legs. I think that wouldbe cool. Yeah, I mean that
is There is this one that Ihave. I don't I'm not sure if
it's a bootleg, but like Ijust it had no cover. It's just
like it just had the composer's namewritten on it and I bought it because
it was id Berman and I dBurman was like one of the greatest composers
of his time. I just stillhave it and it's it's good music,
(33:45):
sactly. Yeah, yeah, Imean that's that's the thing. I mean,
it comes down to to that.For me. It's the same old
like repress original kind of thing allof the time. Or it's like would
you rather have the songs or yeah, exactly, I know. I don't
get it. There are like thesepeople that you know, complain about you
know, oh this is not Ilo, this is digital. This is
(34:07):
that. I'm like, listen,dude, it's you are not going to
be able to tell the difference justevery day. That's why it's for the
sake of it. Like, ifyou want, you want this record,
I am not. So there wasthis customer who was asking you to give
him in court of kings uh Crimson, King Crimson. It isn't my collection.
(34:29):
I have like the I think Ihave the first press or the repress
or something. He saw that.He's like, I want that. I
was like, no, that's notfor sale. This one is for sale.
I had a new coffy. We'relike, nah, but this is
I was like, listen, thisis remastered. This is one ATG just
take it. Just like, don'tlook at my stuff. Don't look at
my stuff. It's so they're soobsessed with it, and I'm so tired
(34:58):
of explaining this. You are notYou're not going to tell You're not going
to be able to tell the difference. You just just so are you going?
Are you going to shows? Isthere record shows? Like? I
know you said that I and Ialso love that you called it pre loved
Final That's so adorable. How yeah? I mean, are is there?
(35:21):
Because over here we have like crazycollector shows where people are like, oh,
here's all my records, come flipthrough them and like pay markups and
stuff. Are you going to thosekind of things? Is there like a
weird little record store kind of uh? I mean, not not really a
coalition because like are there record isthere? Record store day India? No?
(35:44):
We would just shocking, like yeah, before before you joined in.
So there's officially there's no record storDay in India, but what we do
is we still celebrated. Of course, it's it's still a celebration of the
culture rather than anything else. Soevery store in their own capacity in different
ways. Sometimes they collaborate and cometogether, but I have not seen that
(36:07):
happen in a long time. Soanyway, so everyone like maybe you know,
has a small celebration, maybe attheir own store if they have a
brick and mortar, or they likebook a really nice venue, can be
anything like I don't know, sohohouse can we want? And there's like
different speakeasys and what not owing hereand also recent like it's been a while,
(36:30):
but there's a vinyl bar now inBangalore in India, there's been Yeah,
there's a vinyl only bar in Goaor that's been around for quite some
time. So all of these placesalso have some of the other a sort
of celebration. And mostly it's,you know, because we are online,
so mostly it's you know, amazingpiece and then depend people. But where
(36:54):
do you go? Where are yougoing for records Sturday? That? What
is your plan for records Sturday?So we we have we are planning like
a small gathering of sorts at oneof the speak easy. I'm still not
I mean, I'm still working outthe details when it comes to that.
It's a literally tough when it comesto like organizing events. It's like I
(37:14):
do everything, Like I have torun the store. I have to do
the package packing, I have todo the shipping. I have to do
I have to talk to the customers, and at the same time, I
have to keep my website updated,which I talk at like it's the most
boring task in this whole podcast.And I think, you know, there
are price changes that happen, andlike you you your customer will this just
(37:37):
call you like, but this isfor five thousand, and I are you
courting six thousands? And I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. There's
a glitch on the website. Andit's not a glitch on the website.
It's just me who's not getting tiny. You just need a button that says
shut up and pay me right,yes, But yeah, So with all
of that, managing an event isalso a tough thing. Also, we
current I currently do not have ateamp. I just like I'm working on
(38:01):
that so yeah, then, butyou're going to play records at this thing
too, right, because working andplay, you're going to play records too,
I imagine. Yeah, so we'regoing to have like a nice setup
only vinyl music only online, andI'm hoping to keep like a jukebox kind
of the scenario so that like peoplecan come and just pick up whatever they
(38:22):
want to listen to buy records.I do not maybe call in a resident
DJ of that particular you know whenyou or like get a TJ Nyl only
DJs. There are a lot ofNyl only good tjs in India. Let's
let's see how it goes like thereare different commutations and combinations of this particular
event. So yeah, but yeah, so everyone celebrates it in their own
(38:45):
capacity. There are certain stores whichare huge, like they're huge or like
one particular store in India is likethe biggest store when it comes to violand
so they will definitely do something likesomething that will blow your mind. How
(39:06):
does your how does your partner fitinto all this? My partner you mean
my spouse? Oh my, hehas just been a very nice supporting husband.
Yeah, oh so no, hehe has his own thing, He
has his own business works in thathe just supports me in terms of like
(39:30):
the more working records, knowing howto record, for shipping, no carrying
crates, carrying all that creates adifferent events and like I just tell like
there's a joke like if he doesn'tgo to the gym that they're like you
listen, you're doing you're deadlifting thatand like your exercise is covered. So
(39:53):
funny. But yeah, he hasbeen very supportive and he's very lovely.
He has his so his taste inmusic is mostly all rock, and uh,
you know, he also listens toa lot of so he doesn't have
a particular genre that he listens toother than all rock. Actually, oh
(40:15):
god, I've been with this guyfor like five years and I still don't
vote. That's okay, That isokay. No, but he was he
was the one who introduced me toFoo Fighters and I fell in love with
them. So yeah, so wehave similar taste in music. Yeah,
(40:37):
it is kind of and sometimes hejust you know, out after retiring day,
it just comes home and he's like, listen, I'm going to listen
to records now, Like cool,let's do that. I was just going
to talk in Hindi and I loveit. He's been very supportive, very
love sweet with the whole thing.He takes care of all the like,
(40:59):
so we when when I made thistransition, of course, I was like
earning a certain salary and stuff,and then from transitioning from that and then
handling three cats and also the household. It's a big team. So yeah,
it's been very farm and supportive.He also helps me through all the
nights when I doubt myself, likealmost every other week, I'm like listening
(41:22):
to it. I'm just going toclose this this down and I'm not.
I'm not. It's like you're doinga great job. Oh that's right.
He is my he's the personal grounds. So great. That's good. How
how else does the culture like theredoes record culture differ in India than it
does so see again, But fora lot of Indians, this is a
(41:45):
luxury. Collecting anything is a luxury, you know, having a hobby which
involves collectibles is a luxury. Sothe people who buy it like so there
are a lot of aspiration, there'sa there's a difference. So there's an
inspirational crowd over here who like someday you know, that's their mindset.
(42:06):
Very very surprisingly, gen zs forsome reason have been very interested. I
have a lot of interest in thisculture. So I've had like an influx
of gen Z kids buying I shouldn'tsay kids, but yeah, the gen
Z crowd buying records. Yeah,and uh, and then there's like this
(42:30):
very there's a clear distinction also,you know, like like what I mean
by that is, if you're intorecords, most likely you also are a
sneaker person. Most likely you alsolike craft beers, so you know,
stuff like that. Where So thestereotype of that is the same. It
(42:51):
exists everywhere. This is amazing.It's just like an overlap of things.
I think everyone wants to be coolin some way or the others. I
see people. We are not differentanywhere. It's like that's the that's the
funniest thing about all of it.It's just I'm very surprised when you said
(43:12):
that, you know, It's recordsare being looked at as a luxury product
in Canada. Also, I wasvery surprised because for such a long time
I thought, like, because everyonetalks about, oh, you know what,
you're going to buy records from theUS because there are dollar bins there
and I'm like dollar bins, butlike anyway way, so you would rather
(43:32):
buy from her, so that wereach a stage where we can have dollar
bins you know I have. Ohyes, that is also something that we
are focusing on this year, likereaching out to other records were not record
stores stores as such, but mayberecord stores also, Like let's say there's
a record store who needs Bollywood musicand I have great collections, so maybe
(43:57):
yeah, yes, so that's somethingthat we are looking to do. But
then again it becomes it's a verydifficult thing to manage because also when you
go to these crab dealers, whatis VG plus for us is near mink
for them. It's here you haveto be very careful when it comes to
the quality at least, yeah,when you're buying from those kinds of people.
(44:22):
But it's just a challenge, youknow, like getting a good record,
like getting let's say there's a moviecalled The Three Months, and so
getting a record of that a moviein a good condition, then we have
to charge accordingly. Also because it'snot easy to come by, then there's
(44:43):
no buyers for that price. Sothere's like a lot of Yeah, I
mean, we deal with that atthe shop every day, I mean,
and like just people's like, oh, well, what do you have this
obscure nineteen seventy one pressing of thisrecord from like from Japan? And I'm
like, no, dude, Like, you can't just walk into a store
and get that. Yeah, youwant the Japanese press, go to Japan
(45:07):
totally. That's the answer, allthe time, all the time. That's
my answer. No, Yeah,everything that I put out into the thing
is starting to happen. And that'sthat's why I know can tell you on
the path you're doing it. Well, that's a great segue. Robin took
kind of one of my One ofmy last questions is what is your dream
(45:30):
for the vinyl landscape in India?Like where do you want it to become
or go? I honestly just wantthis to be accessible to as many people
as it can because the disparity interms of income and the people, like
what people are missing out in termsof just the experienced, it's crazy,
(45:53):
Like I would just rather want thatto somehow magically go away in the next
I don't know if I know.Also, the indie scene, the Indian
music scene in India is crazy rightnow. So good. So it is
with your recommendations. Yes, Iknow. That's the problem. The thing
(46:14):
is I listen to so much differentlike different languages, so I know,
like what five six languages, Iguess, so like, yeah, so
that's Hindi, Hindi because Hindi.Of course, India knows Hindi. Maraki
because I live in the state ofMaharashtra, so I have the regional dialect.
Yeah, yeah, the regional dialect. Then my mother town, which
(46:37):
is Kutchy, which is a dialectfrom uh So there's a place in Guja
called cut So we just have amother towngu Sorry, it's just a dialect.
There's no written form. Then there'sGujarati because of course than English of
course, So like I'm also alittle bit of other like like you know,
the main state sentences from different otherlanguages, like a little bit of
(47:00):
a little bit of Conjaman, alittle bit of this. So we just
yeah, we just understand a lotof We're so deficient in North America,
like it it's crazy. I meanI understand that. Like and also like
every every language. Oh, there'slike this one particular artist that stands out,
(47:21):
and you know who's a singer who'sa great singer in that particular language.
That happens. Yeah, you sendus a email with your favorites from
whatever. I'll listen to music inlanguages that I don't understand. It's kind
of my favorite because I'm like,and what is that you all get a
pressing plant because I think that willreally help as far as getting affordable pressings.
(47:43):
Yeah, yeah, there are alot of So there are a couple
of indie record labels here which arereleasing all this amazing music of you know,
different rock bands and like indie rockbands and indie artists. So they
really I mean, it would reallybe better official if it's just cheaper,
because then it will reach out tolike more people, right, So that
(48:05):
becomes like a very important thing.And a pressing plan will also provide a
lot of job opportunities, so thatalso becomes a thing. But yeah,
it's I think that's like a longway down the line because again, the
focus is different when it comes tolike the larger economics whatever people are planning
for. You need a bold Indianinvestor to make that happen. Yeah,
(48:30):
the investment scene is okay, I'mnot going to go there, but it's
not. It's if there's an investor, it's not going to be an Indian
one. I'm sure, right,all right, I'm sure you have many
numerous things to you. So asa fan of the podcast, you know
(48:51):
what's coming. I don't know ifyou've prepared for it, so I haven't.
I was talking about I love it. I love it so much.
So, yeah, you're custom seveninch record, kid Jule. What would
be on the A side? Whatwould be on the B side? It
doesn't have to be in English,obviously, you Polygott. I'm so so
(49:12):
impressed. I'm so impressed by you. Oh wow. I have been thinking
about this, like for the wholeday, and I was not able to
come up with anything, but I'mgonna try. Uh There's not going to
be one seven inch that I'll evermake, but like if I have to,
uh, side A has to havegreat day in this guy, because
I literally listened to that song onevery single I was expecting that one yeah,
(49:34):
yep yeah. And then on theside B. So there's this indie
band called Adveta and there's this songcalled more Funk, More Funk, and
it's a really good song, reallygood song. I mean, I could
actually put a lot of other artistsinside me, but I don't think that's
allowed. Let's just let's seed fiveminutes and thirty seconds. You could put
(50:00):
a you could put a second.I want to do that. And for
the record, I mean pun intended. That is the first time that anybody
has actually asked me about a runtime for a second for a second song
on the B side. So congratulations, yell in. Uh yeah. This
is the episode fifty one, nowfifty one times that I've asked that question.
(50:24):
That's the first time anybody's ever said, well, can I question?
Oh that's okay, Okay, We'relike, we got this very Indian thing.
Okay, the whole is already Indianthings. I love it. I
(50:44):
love it. I love it lookinglook at me. I'm so international.
You are a delight. We loveyour cat. Uh oh, thank you?
Oh yes, a tree that's greatalways Yeah. Three cats on me
A lot all adopted cat ladies unite, don't I don't have a cat.
(51:08):
I'm like, I'm a I'm acat lover by distance. I'm a dog
person. I love cats, butI love other people's cats. Well,
kN Joel, thank you so much. I mean, really, this idea
was sparked by you. And wealways ask people tell us what they want
to hear, tell us what weshould talk about. And you know,
(51:30):
this has been a really exciting andinteresting journey for Robin and I to hear
about India and Australia and share thatwith the community. So thank you,
thank you so much. I mean, it was just like you know,
for me, it was just hey, let me just try maybe it just
what I don't know. I justwanted to just put it out there and
(51:51):
it happened. So for anybody thatis looking for you, what you got
coming up next? Like this iswhere you plug all of the things that
you do, Oh my website ofcourse, record dot com, d R
O C E R R r Ddot cat dot com. Yes, it's
(52:14):
like it's like race car, butit is records backwards and forwards Instagram because
we live in a capitalist society andI have to have followers on Instagram.
So I mean, I feel Idon't know if I'm following you. Sorry
times I get times, then thenthere's well be able to have a couple
(52:39):
of events. I'm just hoping thatis deeping turns out really like turns out
when that's all I'm hoping for we'lltag us on Instagram when those things happen
and we can share them in storiesand stuff. So done done, Yeah,
awesome. Well we we should definitelycheck up with you and uh not
(53:00):
very long because you're awesome. Soyeah, this has been really fun.
Thank you. You are in India? Yeah, yeah, we're gonna absolutely
We'll go to a yoga class,right, yeah you look yoga, Yes,
yoga. I love it. Wellthere, all right, thank you,
(53:23):
thank you. I did I didnotice the black Oh yeah, follow
Jen on Mistress of Reality if youwant to see what it looks like to
see how many copies of Masters ofReality do you have? Now? Fifty
five? Fifty five? What?Yeah, I mean do it because she's
(53:45):
I do follow Jen, but Ididn't know about this. She has,
she has, she has a record. Yeah, she is a secondary.
I mean she has three Instagrams.I'm just gonna plug your instagrams forever.
So we have the lovely and talentedJena Junior on her own generator. Then
(54:05):
we have obviously Women in Vinyl,and then we have Mistress of Reality,
where Jen showcases and highlights all ofthe incredible copies of Masters of Reality that
she has found from all over theglobe and details like a librarian did,
the incredible differences between every single copythat she has managed to accumulate. It
(54:27):
is. I'm breath taking. Ilove it. It's great. It is.
It is like I love the dedication. It's oh my god, I
have to take it. I'm goingto do that. Like right after this,
I'm trying to figure out what recordI want to do because I'm like,
I want to do that. Ihave no time, so I absolutely
(54:49):
need to do that as well.It's just so fascinating. Yeah, yeah,
that are a couple of records thatI would also do this for.
Yeah, but then then I amnot sure if nobody else has thought about
it. But because like this isso I mean, even if they have
to do it, just do itbetter. Who cares. But it's so
specific to generate like black sadge.It's true, it has to be that,
(55:15):
you know. Yeah, but Imean as as you'll as you'll know,
Like she gets a lot of alot of flack and a lot of
heat and a lot of angry unclestelling her that she doesn't know what the
ship she's talking about when it comesto it, So it doesn't matter.
Do you do you do black Sacks, you do Dark Side of the Moon,
because that is your mother thinking,yeah, do that. Well,
(55:37):
I'll try and find you a weirdCanadian copy and send it to you,
and then you just do that wouldbe awesome. I think we have like
seventy five at the record store rightnow. I'm so glad you people picked
up the uncle thing. I'm goingto say it all of the time now
out of that's just the perfect It'sjust like that stereo typical. They're not
(56:07):
just uncles their ankles. This isgoing to be a thing. Now we're
trauma bonding. I love it.Okay, all right, okay, so
to bond guys. You're so right, it's so true. How sad.
(56:28):
We love you. We love everybody'slistening. Thanks so much for joining us
for episode fifty one. Yay,thank you so much. Thank you say
like night but you have and we'reback at time is a construct? I
(56:53):
was that was good night. Yes, thanks for listening. Don't forget to
like, subscribe and leave us areview on your favorite podcast platform. Join
the conversation on social media at Womenin Vinyl. We want to hear from
you. Shoot us a message fortopics you want to hear, feedback and
(57:15):
more to info at Women Invinyl dotcom. Huge shout out and thank you
for all our supporters, affiliates andsponsors like Marshall Headphones. Visit our website
Women Invinyl dot com for ways toget involved, and you can always contribute
to the education, demastification and diversificationof the vinyl industry by donating at Women
(57:37):
Invinyl dot com slash donate. Seeyou next time. This episode has been
brought to you by Women in Vinyland Red Spade Records. Thank you for
listening. Please remember to subscribe andyou can always contact us directly by visiting
www dot com Women in Vinyl dotcom
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcastwith Jen Dugenio, founder of Women in
Vinyl, and contributor Robin Raymond.This podcast facilitates conversations with those working in
the vinyl record industry to educate,demystify, and diversify the vinyl community.
(01:45):
Thank you for joining us on episodefifty one of the Women in Vinyl Podcast.
You just heard Akash by the BerkeleyIndian Ensemble off their album Sharrett.
Find more of their music and whatthey're up to at Berkeley Indian Ensemble.
We are continuing our international vinyl journey, this time heading to Mumbai to hang
(02:06):
out with our new friend kinjal Gosar, founder of Drosser Records. We talked
with Kiinjol about how the vinyl marketlooks in India, how it differs from
North America, what running a recordstore is like there, and more.
Don't forget to grab a copy ofour book Women in Vinyl The Art of
Making Vinyl at Womenanvinyl dot Com slashbook. We were also listed as number
(02:28):
eleven on feed Spot's Top twenty fivevinyl record Podcasts on the Web. Please
continue to like, subscribe, andleave us a review and thank you for
being here. Now here's the episode. Let's talk about you, sweetheart,
though, Let's talk about Kinja Gisarjoining us from India. Whoa time zones
(02:50):
be damned, we're doing this.We're just doing this. Yeah, Honestly,
you were the impetus for us liketalking to people in different parts of
the world, because after one ofafter we were emailing, you said things
are completely different here, and sowe're super excited to dive more into India
(03:13):
and the culture, the final culturethere. I'm so glad that you know,
you chose gross art. Like it'sjust like, I mean, I
such a small you know, itjust means a lot to be very honest
and be like this. I'm justgrateful that we get to do this even
though we are in like different countriesand stuff, and it just just adds
(03:37):
adds places that we need to goon our on our on our hit list
next yeah, next time. Ihaven't even been to India yet. No,
it's always been like really high upon the on the old list being
uh, I mean a casual practiceof yoga for the laws. Yeah,
(03:58):
you like the way people in theUS follow yoga. Indians don't do that.
I know, and that's one ofthe reasons that I wanted to that
I wanted to go over and tryit because it's more of a spiritual practice
and a little bit more of ameditation and a little bit more of like
(04:19):
a cultural thing rather than just likea fifty white ladies in tight clothes clothing
trying to maintain their aesthetic appeal foreach other. Yeah. So, I
mean, we'll forget it. Tellus everything about dro cart Yeah, so
it's grosser basically, it's basically recordwritten in the other directions. Yeah,
(04:46):
yeah, I didn't even catch that. Yeah, it's it's something that.
So I was having this discussion witha friend of mine while coming up with
like a brand name and everything,and he just he just said, you
were such an idiot. You know, the brand name is in the world
record itself. And I was like, what are you talking about? I
mean, are you high on somethingyou can tell me so that I can
(05:13):
Yeah, exactly. But then Ithought about it, and it's very smart
because Vinyl in its own way,it's like the whole subculture has been in
the revival zone. It's not justin India, but like everywhere around the
world. It's just had a comeback, and for me, it's like a
full you know, life coming toa full circle. So it just made
(05:36):
sense to, you know, havethat as my brand name. So I
started started in August twenty twenty two. It's been quite a right since then.
Yeah, we are currently online only. We don't have a brick and
water store. It's just easier tomanage a few things. Also, because
(05:59):
it's a niche market here, it'snot as popular or vinyl as a format.
It's not like it's not something thatyou'll find at every household or like
every other household. It's it's it'sa very small niche market. O yok.
So yeah, just makes sense.This makes more sense. But I
may be soon, I don't know. So you are Are you in Mumbai?
(06:24):
Yeah? I live in Mumbai.I have been uh in Mumbai all
my life, born and brought uphere. It's quite a city. It's
it's a very eastern version of NewYork. So yeah, yeah, the
city never sleeps. Yeah, Imean because everybody has three jobs too.
(06:45):
Yeah, everyone's hustling. Everyone's makingliving there, trying to live there.
Everyone's trying to earn enough to survive. It's it's just another it's a very
beautiful city. Mumbai has that Idon't know what the right word for it
is. It just has that charmand like listen, until you've not lived
here, you wouldn't know. Soit's it's a very right now that I
(07:14):
mean, it's hard to describe thecity that a lot of people haven't potentially
visited is on the other side ofthe world for some of us. So
I mean, yeah, fully,we totally even trying to explain to you
what being in Canada is, Like, I mean, oh, I wouldn't
get it till them there, Soyeah, exactly. So we're all going
(07:35):
to book a flight to Mumbai andit's gonna be great on our way to
go see Sweet Kathy in Australia.You can come with us. It'll be
great Women of a World tour.Yeah, that's a very good idea for
women and women dot com slash don'tright now. Also, India is very
(08:01):
different when it comes to the waythe the you know, the culture works
over your the vinyl culture works overyour Most of the market is disorganized,
and what I mean by that isyou will find scrap dealers, You'll find
all these local small shops in differentplaces who sell vinyl. And it's that
comes in like the disorganized market.Records stores as such, they're very They're
(08:28):
a handful of stores, you know, record stores like think anyone who is
like a registered company, you know, like yeah that we sell vinyl.
So they are a handful of storeslike that. Oh yeah, I'm so
glad you're one of them. Andyeah, Indian music, right, it's
(08:48):
so vast because the culture area literallychanges like every meters. It's like ry
kilometers. It's like a sorry,I don't talk in miles. Uh I
just I just figured out that youlive in Canada, so you know what
kilometers to be fair, Even ifI was thinking about what a mile would
(09:13):
look like, that's all subjective.Well, to go back to to sort
of the start of opening your recordstore, were you a collector for a
long time or what made you decidethat you wanted to bring records to the
Indian market. So, yeah,I have been collecting records for quite some
(09:33):
time. So there's this place inMumbai called a Dadio. So that's where
I actually discovered vinyl. It's notbeen a hand me down for me from
my parents or generation or something likethat. It's not been like that.
It just came in my life whenI needed needed it the worst. It's
funny, I know how it sounds, but still love it. I love
(09:54):
it. Yeah. I found alot of friends that, like, I
found a proper community there, right, So, like it came in my
life and I needed people, youknow around, So it just happened.
So I found a daddio, Ifound records. It was very interesting for
me. I mean I could hearthe difference in the music, and I
(10:16):
figured I saw how engaging it is, you know. Like So the first
record that I listened to was myfavorite record, Dark Side of the Moon.
So I heard Dark Side of theMoon so many times, so many
times, like I listened to Ilistened to great thing in this guy almost
every day. It's just a thing. So yeah, So when I heard
(10:39):
the record from start to finish theway it is supposed to be, you
know, listen to and you knowthe way you're supposed to experience the album,
I was I don't even have theI don't have the right objective for
it because it was just so surreal, surreal, Like it was mind blowingly
awesome. So yeah, so that'show it started to me here was this.
(11:03):
When did you start collecting records?When did you first listen to it?
So I heard record the Dark Sideof the Moon record in the year
twenty seventeen, I started. Yeah, I started collecting in twenty nineteen.
I went crazy during the lockdown weall did. It's totally fine. So,
(11:33):
I mean, as I told you, right, it's not going to
hand me down. I mean,my parents knew about the culture. They
have heard music somewhere or the otheron a grammar phone or on a record,
but there were no hand me downas such. And I really didn't
have anyone else who you know,who used to listen to music, specifically
online before before a Daddio happened.So yeah, it's been quite a journey,
(11:56):
to be honest, to be veryhonest. Also, I I am
an electronics engineer myself, so youknow, the whole systems and players and
aldo. It's always been like aoh wow, this is interesting, you
know, so why not? Andthere was an opportunity that just kind of
presented itself in twenty twenty two.I'm very For a very short time I
(12:18):
worked with another record store. Thingsjust didn't go the way I like,
I had a different idea in myhead. They had a different idea in
my head. So we were like, it's just part two ways. It's
fine. And I was like,wait, I can do this on my
own, just like I just needto start, that's all. Yeah.
So like took out on the sorry, oh no, go ahead. Yeah.
(12:43):
Oh yeah. So I just whateversavings I had over the years,
I just took it all out,and I was like, call my parents.
I told them, listen, I'mdoing this thing, all right,
and just letting you all know Ihave to do this thing. I mean,
and I've known Cevindian parents in mylife and that it would be very
(13:03):
hard, ma'am. That would bea thing, are you I mean,
and you can totally tell me tojust like pound stand literally, but like,
are your parents very traditional? Werethey like? What, No,
this is the plan that we havefor you. You can't do this.
Well again, as I told you, it's been quite right. Yeah,
(13:26):
I'm on the edge of my seat. Literally, this is crazy exactly.
They're not exactly traditional. It's justthat I'm an only child and my father
wanted me to be an engineer,and I did that, but I found
my niche you know, I foundwhat I like out of all that.
So yeah, and then they sawme work hard, like since I got
my first job right after after graduating. Since then they've been just off,
(13:52):
they've been off my back. They'vebeen like, you know you do you
We see you working hard. Weknow you can on a buck. So
yeah, go ahead you want to. You know, I did your thing?
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Idid that thing and now I'm doing
my thing and I'm doing a prettygood job. I mean, why are
(14:13):
you? Like? Are you all? Like? Also? Do you ready
do? Was also the when Ilike got married, so like for them,
I almost I'm second, you know, like you've done all the things.
Yeah, you checked all the allthe Indian boat job. Is the
(14:39):
perception of women engineers the same atall as it is elsewhere there? I
mean is there like because here wefind a lot of gender bias around you
know, women engineers and those typesof jobs. But as that sort of
(15:00):
stereotype, if you will, beingsomething over there, is it the same?
I guess the stereotype that women Isuppose like women can't do things the
way men do. It's everywhere.It's not going to change for a long
long time. But luckily India isknown to produce engineers. Yeah, yeah,
(15:22):
that's why I was curious. Yeah, certain streame like maybe mechanical engineering
is something that that women don't getinto. Computers is fine, electronics is
fine, but like, yeah,scream wise has like a lot of difference.
But then yes, of course,anywhere you go once you get into
(15:43):
the rat race, let's call itthat. Uh you know, once you
get in there, you see thewhole uh inequality and you know, the
pay of the paychecks and whatnot.So like casual sexism, which is very
on your face sex, it's nevercatch. Yeah. I think I got
(16:04):
tired of the corporate rat race afterthe point of time, just because of
this, because I'm not growing upin a household where all of this matters,
Like your gender doesn't matter. Whatyou do mattters with your life and
you're doing it. You're doing itmaybe no, no, yeah, there's
no maybe you're doing it now.Oh yeah, I'm doing I'm doing my
(16:29):
beds. So you said that youfound this great community. So when you
were like, hey, dudes,guess what I'm going to open a record
store, they were like, ohyeah, rad. And then now you're
like, okay, now I gotto find records. So how did that
go? Where did you Where didyou find your records? Where did you
decide that you were going to getrecords from? What is the distribution side,
like in Mumbai? Oh not justin mom but I actually I didn't
(16:52):
talk about India. So we donot have pressing plants so everything at all.
No. So yeah, like beforethis, I was trying to research
and see if there was one,and I was looking at Vinyl pressing Plants
dot com and I couldn't find anything. Yeah, I came pluding into different
like translations, and I was like, well, I definitely don't know how
to speak Hindi, so I don'tI don't know anything more than I knew
(17:19):
before. So the last one actuallyshut in the late eighties early nineties,
I think that was in Polkata.Yeah, yeah, so that that one
shot there was also a fire asfar as I remember, so there was
like it just shut it. Aftera point of time, CDs became a
pain, so everyone was like focusingon that and manufacturing wise, India was
(17:41):
moving from you know, the manufacturingsector to the service sector and all of
that, like a lot of economicand etcetera, etcetera. Things happened,
so there are more pressing plants.Unfortunately, there's great music in this country.
But no, that's God damn it. Anyway, Yeah, well I
guess we need to move to Mumbaiand open a pressing plant because well,
(18:03):
I'm saying, all of these peoplethat want to add capacity in the US
in North America just come, somebodygo to India. I'm sure. I
like. Yeah, So we weimport like all the new records whatever you
call it, like not the preloved ones. Pre loved is a different
(18:26):
ball game. But yeah, newrecords are imported. Everyone imports them.
We have a couple of distributors here, like Sony or Universal, so we
do. We do directly buy itfrom the distributors, but there are certain
records that even they don't have intheir catalog, so we have to import
in each way. So there areall these distributors outside the lens and we're
(18:48):
in there. So we import.But the biggest problem over year is that
let's say I import a record often dollars or ten euros because of the
tums, because of the taxes,et cetera, exetera, et cetera.
Also we have to put own profitmargins margins in the ten dollars. Yeah,
the ten dollars record becomes like atwenty to twenty five dollars effort.
(19:11):
So yeah, I'm just like envisioninga room in your house being just really
after Yeah, how are you doingthis? I have a wardrobe which is
empty, no clothes, nothing thatI had to keep. So uh,
you know, the lower shelf hasmy cat food and everything over there for
my cats, and all the othershells. All the other shells have records
(19:36):
in it, all the other shells, so like I have a very specific
way of keeping everything, So thenew records are kept up, you know,
on the top shell the box set. I still have a pink flood
box set, so that's kept likeon the top, topmost shells. Then
you know, all the Hindi recordsare kept in a certain way. It's
just like a it's like a crazy, crazy thing. So where are the
(19:57):
Bollywood records getting made? Then?Like who's pressing Indian music? Like where
is it coming from? The oldIndian music? Uh so a lot of
as I told you, that wasthe fire tapes. What lost tapes got
more? So bad music is notbeing pressed anymore. So, like there
are really there's they're like really greatIndian old Indian movies with like singers like
(20:21):
Mahama et cetera, et cetera.So they have become like a rarity now.
So it's it's mostly become a collectible. So you know, people will
spend like crazy amount of money justget a copy of that. We will,
yes, we will. Are youable to are you able to source
those within India? Or are youlooking more like to discogs for that kind
(20:45):
of thing? So luckily I havesources, so I can get I do
get, but it's it is difficultto get certain records. And when people
come to me with like their wholelist of wish lists, it becomes a
tough it becomes a tough conversation aftera point of time because I have to
(21:07):
explain it to them that listen,there are certain records I can get,
but then this would be the estimatedprice. Are you willing to spend that
kind of money then yeah, definitely, because then otherwise for me, it's
just like inventory stuck. It's notworth it now, like and also like
there's been no conflict within me asa collector and as a business person,
like you know, you just haveto like you don't just spend that money?
(21:30):
But no, good, you can't. You can't afford it. You
know, there's this constant conversation goingon in my head. And yes there
are people. There are a coupleof record labels, a couple of people
and who are pressing records, butthey get it pressed outside of India.
(21:51):
They manage the whole import this thatmyyeah, So that's how it is right
now, how is the importing price? Is it a fact the buyer?
Are you seeing that? Because youknow, what is the economy? Like
I guess, I know India variesquite a bit in that. So are
(22:11):
you finding a diverse group of peoplebuying records? Yes? Yes, or
to answer your question about the diversegroup, But so the Indian economy is
I want, I don't know howto put it. So people who call
in the top ten percent, likeyou know, income wise, are the
(22:33):
ones who can actually afford this.And out of those ten percent that are
hardly like let's say, only liketwo or three percent, wine and consumers
you know, like really buy vinyl. So it's a very small market.
It's a very small market. Butthen again, when I say small in
terms of America or something. Okay, I'm sorry. That's why we always
(22:57):
welcome against our cat friends. Yeah. So yeah, he is a very
old cat and he also has epilepsy, so he's oh you're famous. Oh
(23:22):
yeah, I love this guy,which is sorry already it's great. Yeah
so as yeah, so out ofthose two three people already have like their
sources. They like there are likethese couple of buyers that they buy from.
Some of them can afford, likemost of them can afford importing themselves
(23:47):
and stuff like that. So insteadof like supporting the local stores, they
end up buying records from UK USJapan on their own. And they don't
understand that if they don't support us, we won't be able to like import
more. If we can't import more, the prices will still be high.
(24:08):
But like there's this whole thing thatwe have to explain. But it's fine,
it's still working, you know.Like the day I launched my record
store, I had like bios becausepeople who'd want to buy. But at
the same time, India's very pricedsensitive market, very priced sensitive, so
that also becomes a challenge. Well, and I mean, like we're seeing
(24:30):
it too over here where it's likethe economy has kind of gone cuckoo bananas,
and it's records or priced such thatthey're luxury items now. So it's
a very it's it's a it's avery fine stratus of the population that can
continually come in on a regular basisfor a for a new record or whatever.
(24:56):
Yeah, you're seeing that too.You know, there's been a slowdown
in the market. So there arepeople who reach out to me that saying
that, hey, do you havethe audio technical and sixty X And I'm
like, yeah, I do,Oh what does it? What? What's
the cost? And I tell themand then they're like, oh, listen,
you know what, maybe I'll buyit after two months because I really
don't have the money. And thena lot of people are stuck in that
(25:17):
chicken and ex situation. What doI buy first records or the player or
the system? Like, you know, you have to have that whole conversation
with them. That becomes a challenge. So your whole your you're you're you're
selling gear too. Oh yeah,we we do. We sell It's another
wall game again. But I amvery lucky. I am very lucky that
(25:40):
I understand the nuancewers and it becomeseasier for me to explain things to people,
so like I end up having likehalf an hour conversation and end up
making friends out of my customers justbecause they're like, thank you so much.
You are the one, right,It's true. And I mean,
(26:00):
like, are you finding put likeI get pushed back sometimes in the store
for being the only girl that hassome of the answers. Are you finding
any pushback from any of your clientscustomers? Oh? No, yeah,
so many people. I'm telling you, it's been quite right. Like when
(26:22):
I say that, I have understandthat it actually has been quite Oh,
we're here for the ride. Wewant to know everything. We're trying to
find the corner of the globe wherethere is somebody that's like, oh,
you know more than me. Great, here's my money, because we all
want to move there. We justwe all want to go there. So
tell us about the roller coaster.We're here, we're strapped in, our
(26:45):
hands are up, We're ready togo. You're too sweetbab like that said
nobody ever got I just did.I just did. Well, trust me,
trust me, trust me. WomenIn final podcast, when I'm driving
because I'm so tired of listening tomusic, sometimes I'm like, no,
no music today. Sometimes you knowwith you, No, I'm with you.
(27:11):
I'm saying that as a record storeowner. I know it's no.
No, it's fine. Also Iam I don't listen to all genres of
music. So just like like thereare castoms, Oh why don't you listen
to this person? Oh why don'tyou listen to this genre? Oh why
is jazz not your thing? Yes, there are amazing artists, some artists
(27:33):
that I do listen to some timeto tax, but my go to is
classic rock, is metal, it'sgoing to be all drock, It's going
to be Lincoln Park. That's justhow it's going to be. You're my
sister, and I love you.I love you too. But no,
yeah, you know, it becomesup, becomes a challenge. But we
have got a lot of pushback fromme. Just imagine a typical fifty sixty
(27:57):
year old uncle, so we callthe uncles. But I know, like
a man, you can it canbe like a cis gender white male.
Also it's like just sis gender whitemales and sis gender brown, so brown
males over here and what white malesare. But I'm glad it's just that
age group really it's just that age. Yeah anyway, Yeah, but then
(28:21):
there have been like even from thecommunity sometimes there's like more if they like
they look at you as competition ratherthan a collaborator. So like, you
know, there's a lot of pushbacksometimes, so like the first few months
were very tough, but then aslike you know what, I'll just I'll
(28:41):
just do it. You know,it's like just go away, just like
go don't don't, don't ruin myenergy. Yea, but those first fifty
six year old sis gender six genderis very important to you, like seriously,
yeah, I mean, can youspeak on that a little bit more?
(29:03):
Knaw? Can you like, canyou expand on like how the rainbow
crowd is viewed and represented in recordsand record buyers in Mumbai. So it's
it's not so you know, whenit comes to business, Oh, you
know, people don't really care whichthat when you belong to your any if
(29:32):
you're doing a good job, ifyour brand is good, if you're giving
good products, it's great. It'sthe support from that different community, like
these smaller subcultures, there's a lotof support, there's a lot of love.
But then again, when it comesto a business, if you're giving
what your customer wants. Nobody reallycares, right, But then again,
of course there is you know,there is a lot of like people view
(29:59):
the a certain way. There's likea lot of barriers to still break,
et cetera, et cetera. Soyeah, it's it's quite a right,
But then again, you know peoplewho are like in the ten who live
in Mumbai, who live in urbanareas, they don't really care, right,
No, yeah they don't. Butlike if you go to like the
rural places or you go to tiertwo, tier or three cities, there
(30:23):
is always an issue, and it'sit's the same in Canada, honey,
it's still a topic, you get. Yeah, it's true sensitive topic.
Yeah, yeah, I think it'sthe same in US too. I think
like the Southern States and the Ithink the story is the same everywhere,
to be very honest, it's justhow it's viewed by other people outside of
(30:45):
your country, like I mean everyone. I mean, it's it's it's kind
of it's kind of good because thatyou have an online store, so you
can just kind of like give it. Like I'm excited for the time that
you potentially open a brick and mortaror so that you could be a safe
space for everybody to come in andflip. I really hope, So,
(31:06):
I really hope. So like yeah, like at least in Mumbai, the
other stores like that, I thinkthey are two freaking attach stores, like
proper stores. They don't like,there's no nobody's going to come at you
just because you belong to another community. They might they might do all the
you know, gossips and like theymight like snigger or they might like,
(31:29):
but it's like within their fraying,they won't like really come and come at
you and attack you. That's notwhat happens. It's not an movement.
Yeah, I mean, of courseit's not happening. I think it happens
every year. R Well, AndI'm curious about kind of going back to
sourcing pressings and things like that.You know, are you seeing a lot
(31:51):
of bootlegs coming into the market becauseyou're not able to necessarily get everything that
your customers want. I haven't comeacross as many, to be honest,
Like there have been a couple ofbootlegs that have come across, but not
as many. Also, what happensis all these scrab dealers et cetera that
(32:12):
are talking about they do have boots, right, and it's like a very
when we source. So okay,when it comes to pree loud, how
we work as we go to theseindividuals and or you know, sellers,
or maybe somebody wants to sell offtheir grandfather's collection or somebody like that,
or we go to these crab dealersourselves. We go through like more than
five hundred, sometimes thousands sometimes youknow, like I don't know how many
(32:37):
records, and then we just selectlike fifty sixty out of them, which
are I aim to. I onlylook at like VEG and VG plus and
everything about that VEG only if weknow the record itself is very rare.
Otherwise it's always VG plus that wego for. So we pick out like,
you know, fifty out of thetwo hundred. So when you're picking
(33:00):
it up picking stuff out, ofcourse we don't. We ignore the boot
likes the move. But yeah,it's it's not as much. I would
say maybe on a very individual level, people like those buyer might be able
to answer this better or rather thana store, right, yeah, I
mean, but I feel like Iwould just like to have a few Indian
(33:22):
bot legs. I think that wouldbe cool. Yeah, I mean that
is There is this one that Ihave. I don't I'm not sure if
it's a bootleg, but like Ijust it had no cover. It's just
like it just had the composer's namewritten on it and I bought it because
it was id Berman and I dBurman was like one of the greatest composers
of his time. I just stillhave it and it's it's good music,
(33:45):
sactly. Yeah, yeah, Imean that's that's the thing. I mean,
it comes down to to that.For me. It's the same old
like repress original kind of thing allof the time. Or it's like would
you rather have the songs or yeah, exactly, I know. I don't
get it. There are like thesepeople that you know, complain about you
know, oh this is not Ilo, this is digital. This is
(34:07):
that. I'm like, listen,dude, it's you are not going to
be able to tell the difference justevery day. That's why it's for the
sake of it. Like, ifyou want, you want this record,
I am not. So there wasthis customer who was asking you to give
him in court of kings uh Crimson, King Crimson. It isn't my collection.
(34:29):
I have like the I think Ihave the first press or the repress
or something. He saw that.He's like, I want that. I
was like, no, that's notfor sale. This one is for sale.
I had a new coffy. We'relike, nah, but this is
I was like, listen, thisis remastered. This is one ATG just
take it. Just like, don'tlook at my stuff. Don't look at
my stuff. It's so they're soobsessed with it, and I'm so tired
(34:58):
of explaining this. You are notYou're not going to tell You're not going
to be able to tell the difference. You just just so are you going?
Are you going to shows? Isthere record shows? Like? I
know you said that I and Ialso love that you called it pre loved
Final That's so adorable. How yeah? I mean, are is there?
(35:21):
Because over here we have like crazycollector shows where people are like, oh,
here's all my records, come flipthrough them and like pay markups and
stuff. Are you going to thosekind of things? Is there like a
weird little record store kind of uh? I mean, not not really a
coalition because like are there record isthere? Record store day India? No?
(35:44):
We would just shocking, like yeah, before before you joined in.
So there's officially there's no record storDay in India, but what we do
is we still celebrated. Of course, it's it's still a celebration of the
culture rather than anything else. Soevery store in their own capacity in different
ways. Sometimes they collaborate and cometogether, but I have not seen that
(36:07):
happen in a long time. Soanyway, so everyone like maybe you know,
has a small celebration, maybe attheir own store if they have a
brick and mortar, or they likebook a really nice venue, can be
anything like I don't know, sohohouse can we want? And there's like
different speakeasys and what not owing hereand also recent like it's been a while,
(36:30):
but there's a vinyl bar now inBangalore in India, there's been Yeah,
there's a vinyl only bar in Goaor that's been around for quite some
time. So all of these placesalso have some of the other a sort
of celebration. And mostly it's,you know, because we are online,
so mostly it's you know, amazingpiece and then depend people. But where
(36:54):
do you go? Where are yougoing for records Sturday? That? What
is your plan for records Sturday?So we we have we are planning like
a small gathering of sorts at oneof the speak easy. I'm still not
I mean, I'm still working outthe details when it comes to that.
It's a literally tough when it comesto like organizing events. It's like I
(37:14):
do everything, Like I have torun the store. I have to do
the package packing, I have todo the shipping. I have to do
I have to talk to the customers, and at the same time, I
have to keep my website updated,which I talk at like it's the most
boring task in this whole podcast.And I think, you know, there
are price changes that happen, andlike you you your customer will this just
(37:37):
call you like, but this isfor five thousand, and I are you
courting six thousands? And I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. There's
a glitch on the website. Andit's not a glitch on the website.
It's just me who's not getting tiny. You just need a button that says
shut up and pay me right,yes, But yeah, So with all
of that, managing an event isalso a tough thing. Also, we
current I currently do not have ateamp. I just like I'm working on
(38:01):
that so yeah, then, butyou're going to play records at this thing
too, right, because working andplay, you're going to play records too,
I imagine. Yeah, so we'regoing to have like a nice setup
only vinyl music only online, andI'm hoping to keep like a jukebox kind
of the scenario so that like peoplecan come and just pick up whatever they
(38:22):
want to listen to buy records.I do not maybe call in a resident
DJ of that particular you know whenyou or like get a TJ Nyl only
DJs. There are a lot ofNyl only good tjs in India. Let's
let's see how it goes like thereare different commutations and combinations of this particular
event. So yeah, but yeah, so everyone celebrates it in their own
(38:45):
capacity. There are certain stores whichare huge, like they're huge or like
one particular store in India is likethe biggest store when it comes to violand
so they will definitely do something likesomething that will blow your mind. How
(39:06):
does your how does your partner fitinto all this? My partner you mean
my spouse? Oh my, hehas just been a very nice supporting husband.
Yeah, oh so no, hehe has his own thing, He
has his own business works in thathe just supports me in terms of like
(39:30):
the more working records, knowing howto record, for shipping, no carrying
crates, carrying all that creates adifferent events and like I just tell like
there's a joke like if he doesn'tgo to the gym that they're like you
listen, you're doing you're deadlifting thatand like your exercise is covered. So
(39:53):
funny. But yeah, he hasbeen very supportive and he's very lovely.
He has his so his taste inmusic is mostly all rock, and uh,
you know, he also listens toa lot of so he doesn't have
a particular genre that he listens toother than all rock. Actually, oh
(40:15):
god, I've been with this guyfor like five years and I still don't
vote. That's okay, That isokay. No, but he was he
was the one who introduced me toFoo Fighters and I fell in love with
them. So yeah, so wehave similar taste in music. Yeah,
(40:37):
it is kind of and sometimes hejust you know, out after retiring day,
it just comes home and he's like, listen, I'm going to listen
to records now, Like cool,let's do that. I was just going
to talk in Hindi and I loveit. He's been very supportive, very
love sweet with the whole thing.He takes care of all the like,
(40:59):
so we when when I made thistransition, of course, I was like
earning a certain salary and stuff,and then from transitioning from that and then
handling three cats and also the household. It's a big team. So yeah,
it's been very farm and supportive.He also helps me through all the
nights when I doubt myself, likealmost every other week, I'm like listening
(41:22):
to it. I'm just going toclose this this down and I'm not.
I'm not. It's like you're doinga great job. Oh that's right.
He is my he's the personal grounds. So great. That's good. How
how else does the culture like theredoes record culture differ in India than it
does so see again, But fora lot of Indians, this is a
(41:45):
luxury. Collecting anything is a luxury, you know, having a hobby which
involves collectibles is a luxury. Sothe people who buy it like so there
are a lot of aspiration, there'sa there's a difference. So there's an
inspirational crowd over here who like someday you know, that's their mindset.
(42:06):
Very very surprisingly, gen zs forsome reason have been very interested. I
have a lot of interest in thisculture. So I've had like an influx
of gen Z kids buying I shouldn'tsay kids, but yeah, the gen
Z crowd buying records. Yeah,and uh, and then there's like this
(42:30):
very there's a clear distinction also,you know, like like what I mean
by that is, if you're intorecords, most likely you also are a
sneaker person. Most likely you alsolike craft beers, so you know,
stuff like that. Where So thestereotype of that is the same. It
(42:51):
exists everywhere. This is amazing.It's just like an overlap of things.
I think everyone wants to be coolin some way or the others. I
see people. We are not differentanywhere. It's like that's the that's the
funniest thing about all of it.It's just I'm very surprised when you said
(43:12):
that, you know, It's recordsare being looked at as a luxury product
in Canada. Also, I wasvery surprised because for such a long time
I thought, like, because everyonetalks about, oh, you know what,
you're going to buy records from theUS because there are dollar bins there
and I'm like dollar bins, butlike anyway way, so you would rather
(43:32):
buy from her, so that wereach a stage where we can have dollar
bins you know I have. Ohyes, that is also something that we
are focusing on this year, likereaching out to other records were not record
stores stores as such, but mayberecord stores also, Like let's say there's
a record store who needs Bollywood musicand I have great collections, so maybe
(43:57):
yeah, yes, so that's somethingthat we are looking to do. But
then again it becomes it's a verydifficult thing to manage because also when you
go to these crab dealers, whatis VG plus for us is near mink
for them. It's here you haveto be very careful when it comes to
the quality at least, yeah,when you're buying from those kinds of people.
(44:22):
But it's just a challenge, youknow, like getting a good record,
like getting let's say there's a moviecalled The Three Months, and so
getting a record of that a moviein a good condition, then we have
to charge accordingly. Also because it'snot easy to come by, then there's
(44:43):
no buyers for that price. Sothere's like a lot of Yeah, I
mean, we deal with that atthe shop every day, I mean,
and like just people's like, oh, well, what do you have this
obscure nineteen seventy one pressing of thisrecord from like from Japan? And I'm
like, no, dude, Like, you can't just walk into a store
and get that. Yeah, youwant the Japanese press, go to Japan
(45:07):
totally. That's the answer, allthe time, all the time. That's
my answer. No, Yeah,everything that I put out into the thing
is starting to happen. And that'sthat's why I know can tell you on
the path you're doing it. Well, that's a great segue. Robin took
kind of one of my One ofmy last questions is what is your dream
(45:30):
for the vinyl landscape in India?Like where do you want it to become
or go? I honestly just wantthis to be accessible to as many people
as it can because the disparity interms of income and the people, like
what people are missing out in termsof just the experienced, it's crazy,
(45:53):
Like I would just rather want thatto somehow magically go away in the next
I don't know if I know.Also, the indie scene, the Indian
music scene in India is crazy rightnow. So good. So it is
with your recommendations. Yes, Iknow. That's the problem. The thing
(46:14):
is I listen to so much differentlike different languages, so I know,
like what five six languages, Iguess, so like, yeah, so
that's Hindi, Hindi because Hindi.Of course, India knows Hindi. Maraki
because I live in the state ofMaharashtra, so I have the regional dialect.
Yeah, yeah, the regional dialect. Then my mother town, which
(46:37):
is Kutchy, which is a dialectfrom uh So there's a place in Guja
called cut So we just have amother towngu Sorry, it's just a dialect.
There's no written form. Then there'sGujarati because of course than English of
course, So like I'm also alittle bit of other like like you know,
the main state sentences from different otherlanguages, like a little bit of
(47:00):
a little bit of Conjaman, alittle bit of this. So we just
yeah, we just understand a lotof We're so deficient in North America,
like it it's crazy. I meanI understand that. Like and also like
every every language. Oh, there'slike this one particular artist that stands out,
(47:21):
and you know who's a singer who'sa great singer in that particular language.
That happens. Yeah, you sendus a email with your favorites from
whatever. I'll listen to music inlanguages that I don't understand. It's kind
of my favorite because I'm like,and what is that you all get a
pressing plant because I think that willreally help as far as getting affordable pressings.
(47:43):
Yeah, yeah, there are alot of So there are a couple
of indie record labels here which arereleasing all this amazing music of you know,
different rock bands and like indie rockbands and indie artists. So they
really I mean, it would reallybe better official if it's just cheaper,
because then it will reach out tolike more people, right, So that
(48:05):
becomes like a very important thing.And a pressing plan will also provide a
lot of job opportunities, so thatalso becomes a thing. But yeah,
it's I think that's like a longway down the line because again, the
focus is different when it comes tolike the larger economics whatever people are planning
for. You need a bold Indianinvestor to make that happen. Yeah,
(48:30):
the investment scene is okay, I'mnot going to go there, but it's
not. It's if there's an investor, it's not going to be an Indian
one. I'm sure, right,all right, I'm sure you have many
numerous things to you. So asa fan of the podcast, you know
(48:51):
what's coming. I don't know ifyou've prepared for it, so I haven't.
I was talking about I love it. I love it so much.
So, yeah, you're custom seveninch record, kid Jule. What would
be on the A side? Whatwould be on the B side? It
doesn't have to be in English,obviously, you Polygott. I'm so so
(49:12):
impressed. I'm so impressed by you. Oh wow. I have been thinking
about this, like for the wholeday, and I was not able to
come up with anything, but I'mgonna try. Uh There's not going to
be one seven inch that I'll evermake, but like if I have to,
uh, side A has to havegreat day in this guy, because
I literally listened to that song onevery single I was expecting that one yeah,
(49:34):
yep yeah. And then on theside B. So there's this indie
band called Adveta and there's this songcalled more Funk, More Funk, and
it's a really good song, reallygood song. I mean, I could
actually put a lot of other artistsinside me, but I don't think that's
allowed. Let's just let's seed fiveminutes and thirty seconds. You could put
(50:00):
a you could put a second.I want to do that. And for
the record, I mean pun intended. That is the first time that anybody
has actually asked me about a runtime for a second for a second song
on the B side. So congratulations, yell in. Uh yeah. This
is the episode fifty one, nowfifty one times that I've asked that question.
(50:24):
That's the first time anybody's ever said, well, can I question?
Oh that's okay, Okay, We'relike, we got this very Indian thing.
Okay, the whole is already Indianthings. I love it. I
(50:44):
love it. I love it lookinglook at me. I'm so international.
You are a delight. We loveyour cat. Uh oh, thank you?
Oh yes, a tree that's greatalways Yeah. Three cats on me
A lot all adopted cat ladies unite, don't I don't have a cat.
(51:08):
I'm like, I'm a I'm acat lover by distance. I'm a dog
person. I love cats, butI love other people's cats. Well,
kN Joel, thank you so much. I mean, really, this idea
was sparked by you. And wealways ask people tell us what they want
to hear, tell us what weshould talk about. And you know,
(51:30):
this has been a really exciting andinteresting journey for Robin and I to hear
about India and Australia and share thatwith the community. So thank you,
thank you so much. I mean, it was just like you know,
for me, it was just hey, let me just try maybe it just
what I don't know. I justwanted to just put it out there and
(51:51):
it happened. So for anybody thatis looking for you, what you got
coming up next? Like this iswhere you plug all of the things that
you do, Oh my website ofcourse, record dot com, d R
O C E R R r Ddot cat dot com. Yes, it's
(52:14):
like it's like race car, butit is records backwards and forwards Instagram because
we live in a capitalist society andI have to have followers on Instagram.
So I mean, I feel Idon't know if I'm following you. Sorry
times I get times, then thenthere's well be able to have a couple
(52:39):
of events. I'm just hoping thatis deeping turns out really like turns out
when that's all I'm hoping for we'lltag us on Instagram when those things happen
and we can share them in storiesand stuff. So done done, Yeah,
awesome. Well we we should definitelycheck up with you and uh not
(53:00):
very long because you're awesome. Soyeah, this has been really fun.
Thank you. You are in India? Yeah, yeah, we're gonna absolutely
We'll go to a yoga class,right, yeah you look yoga, Yes,
yoga. I love it. Wellthere, all right, thank you,
(53:23):
thank you. I did I didnotice the black Oh yeah, follow
Jen on Mistress of Reality if youwant to see what it looks like to
see how many copies of Masters ofReality do you have? Now? Fifty
five? Fifty five? What?Yeah, I mean do it because she's
(53:45):
I do follow Jen, but Ididn't know about this. She has,
she has, she has a record. Yeah, she is a secondary.
I mean she has three Instagrams.I'm just gonna plug your instagrams forever.
So we have the lovely and talentedJena Junior on her own generator. Then
(54:05):
we have obviously Women in Vinyl,and then we have Mistress of Reality,
where Jen showcases and highlights all ofthe incredible copies of Masters of Reality that
she has found from all over theglobe and details like a librarian did,
the incredible differences between every single copythat she has managed to accumulate. It
(54:27):
is. I'm breath taking. Ilove it. It's great. It is.
It is like I love the dedication. It's oh my god, I
have to take it. I'm goingto do that. Like right after this,
I'm trying to figure out what recordI want to do because I'm like,
I want to do that. Ihave no time, so I absolutely
(54:49):
need to do that as well.It's just so fascinating. Yeah, yeah,
that are a couple of records thatI would also do this for.
Yeah, but then then I amnot sure if nobody else has thought about
it. But because like this isso I mean, even if they have
to do it, just do itbetter. Who cares. But it's so
specific to generate like black sadge.It's true, it has to be that,
(55:15):
you know. Yeah, but Imean as as you'll as you'll know,
Like she gets a lot of alot of flack and a lot of
heat and a lot of angry unclestelling her that she doesn't know what the
ship she's talking about when it comesto it, So it doesn't matter.
Do you do you do black Sacks, you do Dark Side of the Moon,
because that is your mother thinking,yeah, do that. Well,
(55:37):
I'll try and find you a weirdCanadian copy and send it to you,
and then you just do that wouldbe awesome. I think we have like
seventy five at the record store rightnow. I'm so glad you people picked
up the uncle thing. I'm goingto say it all of the time now
out of that's just the perfect It'sjust like that stereo typical. They're not
(56:07):
just uncles their ankles. This isgoing to be a thing. Now we're
trauma bonding. I love it.Okay, all right, okay, so
to bond guys. You're so right, it's so true. How sad.
(56:28):
We love you. We love everybody'slistening. Thanks so much for joining us
for episode fifty one. Yay,thank you so much. Thank you say
like night but you have and we'reback at time is a construct? I
(56:53):
was that was good night. Yes, thanks for listening. Don't forget to
like, subscribe and leave us areview on your favorite podcast platform. Join
the conversation on social media at Womenin Vinyl. We want to hear from
you. Shoot us a message fortopics you want to hear, feedback and
(57:15):
more to info at Women Invinyl dotcom. Huge shout out and thank you
for all our supporters, affiliates andsponsors like Marshall Headphones. Visit our website
Women Invinyl dot com for ways toget involved, and you can always contribute
to the education, demastification and diversificationof the vinyl industry by donating at Women
(57:37):
Invinyl dot com slash donate. Seeyou next time. This episode has been
brought to you by Women in Vinyland Red Spade Records. Thank you for
listening. Please remember to subscribe andyou can always contact us directly by visiting
www dot com Women in Vinyl dotcom
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