Episode 53.5 - Live from RSD Summer Camp - The Women in Vinyl Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Women in Vinyl Podcast with 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.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thanks for listening to the Women in Vinyl Podcast. We're
currently on the little summer break, but wanted to bring
you a brief insider's view of our time at Record
st Day Camp in New Orleans. Hear from record store
owners like Tanisha of the world famous VIP and Long
Beach to Joe at Birdland Records in Washington, d C.
For a little insight on why they love their job

(00:42):
and their customers so much. Stay tuned after the brief
record store chat to hear our previous episode with Anook Reiners,
the COO of record industry in the Netherlands. I will
be joining a Nook in September as we head to
the Harlem Vinyl Festival, which she helps to curate. It's
an event of fun and celebration with final vendors, presentations,

(01:04):
live music and more. Grab your tickets now at Harlem
Vinylfestival dot com and We'll see you back here next month.
Enjoy the episode.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
My name is Anissa and I work at Out of
the Past Records. My family has owned a record store
for over fifty eight years, so I grew up listening
to music and even being in a record store. The
advice I have for someone that's trying to look into
getting into it is you must have a passion for music.

(01:33):
If you don't have a passion for it, I wouldn't
advise you to get into it. You must love music.
What is your favorite thing about working in a record store.
My favorite thing about working in a record store is
meeting new people from all over the world. And I'm
just a record baby period. I love music, so it's
easy for me. I don't look at it as a job.
It's something that I love to do.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
My name is Andrea Freeman and I am co owner
of Yalla Dog Desk and Wilmington, Calina, and my favorite
thing about working at the record store is record store Day.
So it becomes a week of working and getting to
see all the titles as they come in, unboxing them,
making the videos, making sure everybody is aware of what's

(02:16):
coming out and how many orders that we're gonna or
how many titles we're gonna have of each one. And
the other thing I like is meeting new people in
the store, so getting to know our customers, getting to
know what they like, and like, we've had some kids
that have come in since they've been two years old
and now they're twelve or fourteen, and it's really cool
to see them grow and their music and taste that

(02:38):
they like. And then what is something that the rest
of the supply chain should know could make my life
easier is when I do inventory each year, if they
could put the skew. I know that sounds really crazy,
but the skew is always at the top the bottom
of the back on a sticker upside down or you know,

(02:59):
in a different shape each placement of the record. But
if it was in one location, that would be amazing.

Speaker 5 (03:06):
My name is Riley Kinler. I'm a manager at Clearisia
Music Center. And one of the coolest records to come
through the shop I think might be we had a
collection that came in and it was all this like
really trashed kind of older stuff and we're filing through

(03:27):
it and there's a copy of the Butcher cover in there,
and it's like an almost flawless peel. It's old the
records kind of beat up, but that was that was
really really cool. My biggest pet peeve that shoppers do
is either ask me if something's on the floor when
it's like the display piece on the floor that bothers

(03:48):
me a lot, or when they don't push the bins
back that kills me. I ah ah, somebody with like
underlying OCD. It's just the worst and I hate it.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Uh yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
Hey, this is Tenise Shanderson Loux from the world famous
VIP Records in Long Beach, California. The question is what
is your favorite thing about working in a record store. Well,
that's a tricky one because I don't know anything else.
I was born and raised in a record store. I
love the vibe, the atmosphere, the culture. The fact that

(04:20):
we get to connect to the people within our community
is big for me. And the fact that we get
to be able to also be instrumental in the creatives
that come across our store if they wanted to be
recording artists or musicians or music producers, all in house,
we're able to service them from start to finish, and

(04:41):
so I'm very happy that we have that opportunity to
be able to make impacts on the lives of other people.
The next question says, what are some of the things
you're excited about happening in record stores or your part
of the industry? Excited just about the remergence of physical music.

(05:03):
Yesterday here in Summer Camp, we talked about vinyl cells
and cassette cells and things like that, and I'm just
happy to see that there are music enthusiasts out there
that are still buying physical pieces. So I'm excited about
being able just to share the sound qualities and all
of the things that come along with physical formats. The

(05:26):
next question what are you feeling on indie retail releases,
multi variants and stores or other ways vinyl is currently marketed.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
For the release for releases.

Speaker 7 (05:37):
Excuse me.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
My feelings on indie releases right now is that a
lot of the new releases are not first printed in
physical formats, so they get to have all these digital
cells first before actually being able to be on a
physical format, and it does not give record stores like

(06:00):
ours the opportunity to be able to make a living
or to be able to optimize sales, and so I
am not necessarily happy about the fact that most music
comes out in the digital format first, but excited that
we are still able to be able to share the

(06:20):
music with people.

Speaker 8 (06:22):
Hey, I'm Emilia Ravita.

Speaker 9 (06:24):
I work at Monster Music and Movies in Charleston, South Carolina.

Speaker 8 (06:29):
I am the manager there.

Speaker 9 (06:31):
My favorite thing about working in a record store is
pretty much the people and the customer interactions and just
being around new music every day and discovering things and
turning customers onto it and them turning me onto stuff
that I didn't know about. It's just really cool to

(06:55):
see people picking up maybe their first record they've ever
bought and me being a part of that.

Speaker 8 (07:02):
And it's really rewarding.

Speaker 9 (07:06):
To see the young kids come in. There's people that
I have a lot of fathers and daughters that come
in together that I've seen since they were in like
middle school, watch them grow up. Some of them are
in college now, some of them work for us now.

Speaker 8 (07:22):
Like it's really cool to just be a part of.

Speaker 9 (07:24):
The community and get to know our customers and have
relationships with them. It makes it really meaningful to work
at a record store and to just be on the ground,
like just really a part of what's going on with people.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Buying music, physical music.

Speaker 10 (07:42):
Cool.

Speaker 11 (07:42):
What's up? This is Joe Lappan co owner of Birdland
Records in Washington, DC, and happy to be here with
the women and Vinyl crew at record store Day Summer camp.

Speaker 8 (07:56):
Man.

Speaker 11 (07:56):
You know we've been doing We've been doing it for
close to ten years now, with the Birdland Records location
close to four years now, and honestly, my favorite thing
about it is seeing people with smiles in the store,
finding cool things that either they were looking for or

(08:18):
weren't looking for. I know it's kind of corny, but
I see so many smiles from strangers every day, and
I don't get that a ton in other parts of
my life, so it's it's really cool.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know.

Speaker 11 (08:32):
Some interesting things that have happened lately. We just came
across a really large use collection actually working with some
people who were preserving a lot of vinyl and have
had the occasion recently to be going through it and
slowly cataloging it and getting it out of our store.
And it is so much cool stuff, a lot of

(08:55):
really excellent old compilations, old old show tunes, old Broadway compilations.
In fact, some of this stuff was preserved by Library
of Congress and that was surplus, and you know, it's
kind of a uniquely DC thing to see how far

(09:18):
back some of the stuff goes. So that's kind of
a neat thing that we've been working on on the
store the last few months. Let's see, I'll tackle one
other question, maybe one thing I knew we do. Another
thing we've been really working on this year. We've been

(09:40):
sort of sustaining and launching a record club. We got
about fifty sixty people in it and just having fun
with these people as sort of our VIP regular customers.
The challenge of trying to help, you know, please fifty
sixty people and manage a record club, but seeing the
benefits of how it creates, you know, customer loyalty and

(10:00):
community within the store. And we call it New Columbia
Record Club, which is kind of a play on words
but d C. If DC were to be a state,
one of the proposals for the name of it would
be New Columbia. There was a New Columbia statehood commission.
So every month we also have a local album that's
one of your choices for what you could be getting

(10:22):
that month, and it's spanned from old stuff, you know,
Emmy Lou Harris, of course, you know Bad Brains and
the Discord catalog up to new stuff Mary Timmany's new album,
a lot of some of the local bands that put
out new albums, some of the local labels, Electric cow Bell,

(10:43):
Jim Thompson and d C. So there's some great niche
stuff too that we can put in this flow, and
you know, with the goal of just again creating community
and educating some people around the old and new of
Washington d C.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Music.

Speaker 12 (10:58):
My name is Rachel bra I'm the manager of the
poor House Record Shop, part of the poor House Musical
on Record Shop. My favorite part about working in a
record store is fostering a really cool sense of community
around things that we all love, like music and physical media.
I've generated like a lot of regulars that come in

(11:19):
and we turn each other onto music. We tell each
other to go to shows, we play albums for each other,
and we've helped bolster local musicians to actually sell records
and have a following, all because of a community hub
like a record store. It's an important thing in our
town for sure. The coolest record to come through our

(11:42):
shop is in our shop. Currently. Our sound guy who's
in his sixties, is like a local legend, and one
of his friends gave him his entire record collection. That
was probably the greatest punk record collection I've ever seen.
A bunch of original journ, original Cramps records, original UK

(12:02):
never mind the bollocks. But the highlight was when he
gave me a box of seven inches and most of
them were just crappy, unsleeved bing Crosby, Jethro Tull, whatever,
boring singles. I pulled out all the picture sleeves and
there was an original, uh first pressing of Nervous Breakdown
by Black Flag, So most expensive record to ever come

(12:27):
through our store. It's still available if you want to
buy it and have deep pockets. But it was the
wildest experience. I was holding like maybe ten seven inches
and thousands of dollars the original Cramps in there, an
original middle class record, A fucking it was a nuts day.
Oh how did I find my way into the industry?
I'm sitting next to him. I used to live right

(12:49):
across the street from Grayface Records when Ray was the manager,
and I used to go there and gave me recommendations
for a lot of bands.

Speaker 8 (12:57):
We nerded out over stupid shit.

Speaker 12 (12:59):
And so that's where I learned where like what an
important piece of community that a record store is and
what a record store clerk does, and it was all
downhill from there I started. I bought my first records
at Great Face and then I've been working in record
stores ever since.

Speaker 8 (13:14):
My name is Shelby Guest.

Speaker 13 (13:15):
I work at Plan nine Music in Richmond, Virginia, and
I am a jack of all trades. I do scheduling,
all pre orders, I do all social media, all events
and booking, amongst many other things. My favorite thing about
working in a record store is that I get to
watch people grow up and become regulars in our store.

(13:36):
Ever since we started doing Taylor Swift midnight release parties,
we now have kids as young as seven or eight
who now come in our store every week with their
parents and they buy something, and it's become a really
cool process. Over the years I've worked there to watch
people go from being a really casual customer who's kind
of afraid to talk to us, to being someone who's
coming in and walks right up to us and goes,

(13:57):
you guys, got this, and you got that variant that
I wanted right amazing. I knew you guys would take
care of me. This is perfect, I'll take it. I
found my way into this industry completely accidentally. I had
a full time job running my own business during COVID
and I loved what I did, but I said, if
anything popped up that was a dream job, I would
throw a resume out there and Plan nine posts that

(14:19):
they were hiring. And I actually grew up in Plan
nine as a child, just shopping in the store with
my parents, and so I was like, this would be
a dream job.

Speaker 8 (14:27):
I have to apply.

Speaker 13 (14:29):
And it worked out completely naturally where they met me
and they were like, oh, you have a lot of
music experience, you play in a band. Wow, okay, this
would work out great. And I got hired and it's
just been so lovely.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
It was so organic.

Speaker 13 (14:43):
And now I work with my boss and I have
a picture of him from two thousand and eight of
us together at a music festival and he's in the
background and doesn't know that we would know each other.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Then twelve years later, on this episode, we get the
chance to sit down with the one and only role
model and badass Anook Rhiners. She's the COO of one

(15:14):
of the largest and most renowned European pressing plants record
industry as well as our Tone Studio. She has helped
produce the publication Passion for Vinyl, which has a third
part coming soon, and most recently is a founding member
of the Harlem Vinyl Festival, a celebration of vinyl culture
in all of its aspects, taking place at the end

(15:34):
of the month in the Netherlands. And Nook tells us
how she juggles it all, her path from sales manager
to COO, and how her passion for vinyl remained strong
after over twenty three years in the industry. Enjoy well
in order to get started, Anook, why don't you tell
us a little bit about record industry and how you
found your way to vinyl.

Speaker 10 (15:57):
Well, I've been working for record industries twenty three years now,
so that's quite a long time. I'm already joking that
I've signed up to stay that till my pension. Why not,
because I really really like the company. I like the product,
I like the people we work with, and I like
that in Actually, my job is never the same. Each

(16:20):
year is different, and that's because I get the freedom
to do a lot of great things. I like the book,
the festival and everything. But I started with the company
in nineteen ninety, no, two thousand. It was before that
I was doing something totally different. But before that I

(16:44):
worked in a record shop actually because I already was
a huge music lover. I started in ah CD shop,
later in a vinyl record shop. And then when Ton
asked me in two thousand to come and join the
company because he just he needed a troubleshooter. He just
took over the factory two years before that from Sony Music,

(17:07):
and he had no idea what he started with or
in because he was a computer programmer, but he had
he has he had his own record label, and Sony
and told him, well, we're going to stop with the factory,
so we need somebody to take over. Are you interested?

(17:28):
And after a while he just so, I mean, they
were looking for other people to take over. But then
one day he thought, with his companion back then, why not,
I mean, we need our vinyl for the record labels
they were running, so let's just do this. So that's

(17:49):
how he became a record factory owner after being a
computer programmer for a long time. And I was already
befriend befriended with the Ton because my boyfriend actually was
one of the producers. He managed and for the record labels,

(18:11):
So Ton was pressing the records for my boyfriend. So
in two thousand I was in between jobs and he
asked me to help and help him out, and I
was like, why not? I mean, I love the product.
I wasn't particularly charmed by the chant by the building
because it was totally not sexy, like this conference building

(18:36):
somewhere on a industrial site. It was like, what am
I getting myself into it? And back then it was
still like it was a flashback. It was Mariah Carey,
Destiny's Child. It was all these sony women hanging all
over the plant, you know, and it was like the
seventies eighties vibes all over. So let's go for it.

(19:02):
And once I started, I just got hooked because of
the many aspects that's involved in making vinyl.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's awesome.

Speaker 7 (19:15):
Is the record store that you started at still exist?

Speaker 10 (19:18):
Yes? Well, I started in a CD shop Actually that
was like a long time ago when CD just became popular.
But after that I worked at Concerto, which is still
one of the best record shops there is in the Netherlands.
It recently celebrated its sixtiest anniversary ride in the city

(19:41):
center of Amsterdam, and I worked on the second hand department,
and I mean that was like thirty years ago, and
of course it wasn't like it is now. I mean
I recently visited the shop and it's just like ninety
vinyl ten percent city, and when I worked there, it

(20:03):
was perhaps forty percent final sixty percent city. So that's
really interesting to see. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Wow. Yeah, So what is a day in the life
like for you. I know that your role has changed
over the years, So what does that look like for
you now?

Speaker 10 (20:18):
Well, at the moment, like this months, I'm next to
the just the job I have for the factory of course,
which is managing the order part, like where the order
is coming come in and making sure everything is placed

(20:40):
in the system, which is done by my colleagues. I
don't need to do that myself. The studio I run,
and just everyday problems which occur in a production how
do you say production area, like things with print work,
customers with a problem, you know, the things that happens

(21:01):
a lot during the day. But I've been really busy
with passion for Vinyl book like making sure, all interviews
were done in time and design and it's now at
the printers and of August it will be done. But

(21:22):
I've also been really busy, or still I'm really busy
with the Harlem Vinyl Festival, which actually took a lot
more time then I thought when I said yes to
be part of that, So it's like juggling a bit
with with my time. But I like everything about it,
which which makes it easy to put as many hours

(21:46):
in the day as possible. So it's it's a bit
of everything. Like for the festival i'm involved in, I'm
like together with the three other people in the board,
but next to that, it's like thinking of the subjects
for the conference during the day, approaching people, just using

(22:11):
your network to make it work, Sponsors, I mean, so
many things. It's a whole new world opening up for
me involved in organizing a festival I had no idea
of I mean, the book publishing was something I had
to learn, but this is something totally new. So officially
it's not part of my job, but it became part

(22:32):
of my job and I'm really happy that I also
get the space to do so. Although I'm not sure
if Tony mik know how many hours I put in
the festival. That's why it's too late to say no.

Speaker 7 (22:45):
Now, festivals are sneaky, especially because it's a tight budget.

Speaker 10 (22:54):
I mean, you can't hire full time people to take
care of everything. So I had no idea, but I
love it. It's great.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
That's awesome for those people that maybe don't follow a
record industry on Instagram, which you totally should because they
make amazing things. You guys are a full service kind
of soup to table thing. You do everything right.

Speaker 10 (23:18):
Yeah. Yeah, we offer the one stop shop to call
it to, to give it a good name, to cover
it all. So since five years, we even have the
recording studio upstairs where we do director disc recording, which
I love. I mean, it's my baby. It's it's so
amazing to be able to offer this, to have musicians

(23:41):
over and yeah, it's it beats a live performance, I mean,
stress wise for the for the musicians, it's it's even
like more intense. But the fact that you're recording what
they are making straight to vinyl or I should of
course say lack her or d m M. That's amazing.

(24:04):
But after that, the whole process we have it in house.
So the Galvanix we have the press shop. Of course,
we have our quality control the print shop, folding the
sleeves and also packing and everything, but also like special
things phone numbering and well from A to za. We

(24:29):
do it all in house.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
That's great.

Speaker 7 (24:32):
Some really wicked print options too. That yeah, stained glass
disc that you guys did blew my mind.

Speaker 10 (24:40):
Was yeah, that was for seasons of MYSS. That was
one of the best, to be honest, because stained glass
just works. And the secret of course, I always say
it's the best of both worlds. You have an amazing
picture on one side with no group and perfect audio

(25:02):
on the other side, so it's yeah, it's the best
support world. So you can only have audio on one side,
but it makes it so spectcular. So especially for a
double album and only three sides audio, you really add
something to the record. I agree with that. And in
the distained glass was yeah, was amazing and we're getting
more and more regret request for that. It's UV printed,

(25:25):
so we printed on the record nice.

Speaker 7 (25:28):
Well, and that's that's like, I mean, that's kind of
a weird specialty area that you guys have kind of
not not cornered, but like championed and like spearheaded, I
guess because not a lot of people were implementing or
using a uv printer specifically on records. So I mean
that innovation in itself is like commendable.

Speaker 10 (25:51):
But yeah, so cool, thank you. Yeah, yeah, it's just well,
it's one of the things I get the freedom to
look into because we kept getting requests for picture discs,
but we simply don't offer them because I mean, we
have enough to do. I also would love to do

(26:11):
flexi discs, for instance, from our marketing point of view,
that would be an awesome product to offer, but we
have enough work already with the work we have, but
picture is kept coming back, and I mean the picture
is you buy now are in general, quality wise, not

(26:31):
what we would want from a record because quality is
always number one for the records we make. But then
I thought there must be another option. I mean, if
we do laser discs, lasered records, you do things like
that as well, right, or you do the engraving. Yeah, yeah,

(26:53):
yeah exactly. Well we get like we supplied like that
as well, but next to that, we laser that. Like
how you send a window, that's also how you can
add a design on a lacquer, and then I thought
it can be a picture as well, So let's let's
let's look into what we can do.

Speaker 7 (27:14):
Do you use the v printer another print?

Speaker 10 (27:16):
Like does it?

Speaker 7 (27:17):
Does it print on other things too?

Speaker 10 (27:20):
Yes? Well, actually the company we're using is doing advertisements
like big screens and uh yeah, all kinds of marketing material.
So it's it's a special UV printer. And of course
we tested it on and on and on to to
make sure it didn't influence the audio. And he has

(27:41):
a special mold and yeah, we even show it online,
so it's it's not a secret. But you have to
have a company nearby, and there are just two minutes
away from where we are who can do it for you.
And it's also they understand that they have to be
careful with the record. I mean it's not like a

(28:01):
classter Yeah yeah, yeah, dinner, yeah exactly, yeah, No, I
mean it's still a two t EU record you're you're
printing on, so they take care of it.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
And how many presses do you have there?

Speaker 10 (28:19):
We have now forty two presses and we're still adding.

Speaker 7 (28:26):
How many people work with you?

Speaker 10 (28:28):
I think we're now on forty. Wow, that's meat. Yeah. Yeah,
and we we work five days a week, sixteen hours
a day, so two shifts to shifts and about well
on a good day, fifty to sixty thousand records. On
a bad day, it's a lot less, but that's how

(28:52):
it goes.

Speaker 7 (28:53):
Yes, we never know what's your guys's plant minimum?

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Like?

Speaker 10 (28:59):
Order wise? Yeah, three hundred okay cool? Since this year
again because during the pandemic, when there was so much
a demand, we increased it to five hundred simply because
three hundred takes more capacity. It was hard to explain,
but a smaller order takes up a lot more time.

(29:19):
But I'm really happy we could go back to three
hundred because many small labels just don't sell five hundred records,
So for me, it was always really important that we
could go back to the three hundred option.

Speaker 7 (29:33):
What's your turntime right now?

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It's fourteen to sixteen.

Speaker 10 (29:39):
Weeks, but we're a bit short stuff now because of
the summer holidays, so I hope it will be back
to twelve weeks soon, which is a perfect turn.

Speaker 7 (29:50):
Time because it's a lot actually make sure that people
go on vacation.

Speaker 10 (29:56):
Yeah, like four weeks. Why do we live here? Yeah,
what would.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
You say or some common misconceptions you come up with
or come in contact with a lot when it comes
to manufacturing. What are some things that people are always
asking you?

Speaker 10 (30:17):
Well, what? I still find that it's actually quite amusing
that even people have been in the business for quite
a long time. But also, I mean, some people have
no idea that record has only one groove, so when
you put the needle on the record, it just starts

(30:39):
till the end, and you can't put the volume lower
for track two or three. I mean that's when the
customer gets their testing and they're not quite satisfied about
the Trek two or trick three, and then they want
something changed in between. They just have no idea or

(31:01):
what our pan is and what it takes to actually
get the audio on the record. So I always like
it as well to be able to inform people about that.
But it's so common for us to know what it takes,
but for many people it's just not so. I I yeah,

(31:26):
even as I said, people have been in the business
for quite a long time, sometimes still have no idea
about the technique involved the making the record. And that's
also at the same time, the part that's still like
it can mesmerize me if I walk through the production

(31:46):
and I see a record coming out of the press,
It's like amazing the technique involved to get these tiny
little groups and Robin can, I mean from her side
of the production, isn't it amazing? But yeah, at the
same time, it can just surprise me that people have

(32:08):
no idea that it's just one groove. But once people
do know that, they get so much more respect for
the product itself. And that's also what I like when
we have people over. I mean, we get more and
more musicians actually coming over to see their product being made.

(32:29):
And the respect they respect they get for the whole
production process. It's really great because it's such a labor
of love from start to finish. Yeah, it's totally true.

Speaker 7 (32:44):
Yeah, are you noticing that you're getting a lot of
similar requests and things from the people that are coming
to the shop or giving giving orders in right now?
Like is there a certain color or like splatter or
something that you're doing that people want?

Speaker 10 (33:01):
Well, yeah, it's indeed more and more color. It used
to be a lot less color, like more black and
then just a small part color, but the colored vinyl
is getting more and more popular. We don't offer splattered yet,
to be honest, we have now the Phoenix Alpha presses

(33:21):
and they are much more capable of doing funny things,
So we'll look into that soon as long as soon
as we're up and running. Because next to the Phoenixes,
we're now working on our own sleeving machine, so we
can't leave the record straight in the inner sleeve. Most

(33:43):
Phoenix press is just press on the spindle, but we
we prefer to have them as leaved automatically.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, because your old machines used to do that, right.

Speaker 10 (33:54):
Yeah, yes, indeed they have a sleeving unit and we
now have developed our own leaving units as well for
all the Phoenix presses. As soon as we're done with that,
we can look into the special things. So we could
even start investigating picture discs, but then like awesome audio

(34:15):
with a great picture, but that's the the last on
the list of things we want. Yeah, but indeed, colored
vinyl is popular. Special print people are also interested in
special print, unique numbering, you know, things to make it
more collectible, and they're also willing to spend more budget

(34:40):
on that. Yeah. Yeah, what I also find interesting and
I'm not sure where that's that's going. Of course, people
want things ecological or environmental friendly, and I always say,
never throw away your record, and your as environmental friendly
as you can be. Yeah, and we in our production facility,

(35:05):
we're actually taking care of the environment for quite a
long time, already recycling all the black vinyl into our
own production process, even the flesh. When we press the record,
you cut off the outer rim, and I think many
press shops already do that, but you take it into

(35:26):
back into production right away, for instance, and the colored
vinyl we dispose it and it's used for floor tiles.
You know, the paper is reused. We even reuse the
cooling water from from the press shop. So we recycle
as much as possible. But customers asked for what can

(35:49):
we do more? I mean our print our print shop
is FSC certified, We have biodegradable inks. So there's a
lot of things happening. But people we also want to
know about special boards. I mean, we could print a
sleeve on elephant grass paper, which is the special paper
grown especially for well the environmental side of things. Well,

(36:13):
once customers here that they need to pay like a
euro personally extra, it's like okay, no, never.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Mind, all right, Yeah, and that's just ex yeah, and
that's and that's the thing. People want it, but they
can't afford it still.

Speaker 10 (36:29):
So yeah.

Speaker 7 (36:32):
Well and how how involved or hands off have the
Netherlands government been, Like are they involved with regulations and
things like that? Are they supportive of things that you
guys are doing and your innovation?

Speaker 10 (36:51):
You know, I mean we're just we We we're the
the one press shop in the Netherlands for a long time,
so they couldn't be bothered with the fact that we're
a vinyl pressing plant. Now we have to in lear.
There's a small pressure called groups have four presses, but

(37:15):
we have a lot of strong regulations. I mean, it's
where like any industry in the Netherlands is on quite
of quite a lot of checks. You know, I don't
know the right word how to say, but there there
are a lot of things we need to prove live

(37:38):
up to. You know, we just can't make any mistakes.
We need to do things in the proper way, which
is good. Even our PVC. I know in the States
and many other countries you can still press records with
PVC containing letter, for instance, but we can't. So if
you buy your PVC from Thailand and that's not healthy

(38:02):
I mean for the people who work with it. But
in Europe we need to live up to the reach
regulations which have been said many years ago already and
will there as how do you say the heavy as
can be No, Like, it's it's a lot of rules

(38:25):
we need to live up to and they're all set
by a European government rather than yeah, got you, Yeah exactly.

Speaker 7 (38:34):
And I mean it's kind of awesome though, because that
means that you're looking out for your people, the environment,
sing it the right way, I mean, and it shows
everywhere around the world that it can be done these
ways you just push care a little bit more or
like you do better.

Speaker 10 (38:51):
Yeah, And of course you have also a lot of
things like taking care of your people, having a lot
of well you need to take care of them, and
those are mostly Dutch rules set by the Dutch government
and that's fine too. I mean, we try to take
good care of them. So yeah, in many ways, it's

(39:14):
already a healthy production chain we have.

Speaker 7 (39:21):
Yeah, are your staff kind of a mixed blend of
genders and identities and things like that? Because I noticed
when I was in the Netherlands that it was a
pretty vibrant community. Everybody was kind of able to do
whatever they wanted and fly whatever flag that they wanted,

(39:41):
and it was really really great and such an accepting
kind of place to be. So does that extend onto
your production.

Speaker 10 (39:48):
Floor for sure? Yes. If we would have a world map,
we would have, you know, these little maps with pins
you can put in all the countries, Well, we would
flag a lot of them, I think, yeah, So that's cool.
And even though in production when I started working, I

(40:09):
was one of the few women, and actually there were
just two me and somebody in the office. But now
it's more and more women in production as well, and
I really like that. We've got some awesome press operators
which really actually press great records. And you actually have

(40:32):
dolma An interviewed for the women in the final she's
now quality control, So from press operator, she's now started
to quality control a few months ago. So I like
that a lot. Like she's really really involved in the
company as well. She's got a great heart for what

(40:53):
she's doing. But I mean, do you be honest, Yeah,
that the gender it's all fine in our company, it's fine.
So and now we actually have quite a lot of
people from Ukraine working with us as well. We're really
happy with them and happy they're they're part of our

(41:14):
team because they're the way they work. We could learn
something from that, to be honest.

Speaker 7 (41:21):
Yeah, there's something about the Eastern Bloc.

Speaker 10 (41:25):
Yes, you get it. Yeah, they're there is I don't
know if that's a good English word, but they're ethos there.
They're the way they they they are dedicated to the job.
It's incredible. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (41:39):
Well, and it's like that's part of your culture record
industry too, because like I mean, you've been there for
twenty three years. Your pressops are moving from pressof to QA,
so it seems like no nobody really wants to leave
the record industry, is true.

Speaker 10 (41:54):
Yeah, we recently celebrated our twenty fifth anniversary and we
had I believe seven people. We actually, when you work
with us for ten years, you get a golden record,
and for twenty five years, well we had to come
up with something new. For ten years, it's a seven inch,
so we decided, oh, for twenty five years to get

(42:16):
a ten inch and we had seven seven people with
the company for twenty five years. All right, that's that's
very amazing.

Speaker 7 (42:25):
That's so awesome.

Speaker 10 (42:25):
And yeah, there are many many people have been there
for quite a long time, so that's amazing. And that's
part because it's a great product to work with, but
also because we've got like a family type company. It's
like a MoMA pop mom and pop shop.

Speaker 7 (42:45):
Yeah, and hows it been moving from your sales manager
kind of job all the way into like one of
the headiest hanchos of the spot. You're that Boston in
charge now kids.

Speaker 10 (42:58):
Yeah, I am you forgetting that. Sometimes I never I
never share my my position. Sometimes it's even funny because
then in the studio, I just love being the roadie. Actually,
in my next life, I want to be a roadie.
Whenever a band comes in for the studio, I'm just

(43:19):
there and I just roll the fly cases and I
do everything. And then during the day they asked me
what are you doing actually, and I'm like, oh, well,
I'm the CEO, and they're like, oh my god, and no, no,
it's but yeah, that's just I like it. Or somebody
once ask me if I did the catering and I

(43:40):
was like, yeah, I do that too, that's yeah. So
I like to be hands on and that's actually also
the mentality Ton and Mika have. Who are the owners
of the company or who who initiated the company their
husband and wife, like Ton is the CEO and Mick

(44:01):
is the CFO, and the three of us were just
like a great team. And yeah, one day I just
was thinking, I mean, I've been sales manager for a
long time, but I found myself explaining when people ask
me what are you doing, Like, Okay, I do this
and that and that, and I'm officially I'm a sales manager,

(44:23):
but I do also these kind of things. And then
I just decided it does need to I mean, sometimes
it can come convenient, it can be convenient that your
function title actually covers it all. So I just made
this mind map of what I was actually doing, and

(44:47):
I just presented it to Tonomy and I said, well,
I think it's time I get another position, another name
for my job. And then it became the commercial Larker.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
So right, yeah, that's great. I think it's awesome too
that you did that and decided that you needed to
have that title change, because I think a lot of
us don't stand up for that and all of the
work that we're doing. We just start doing it and
then it. We're just like, this is the job now.

Speaker 10 (45:19):
Yeah. Yeah, and sometimes you just do need some like muscles,
which is given to you by the job you do.
And as I said in the beginning, I know I
don't really very often use it, but sometimes it just
if you need to get something's done or open a

(45:40):
door or anything like that, it can come in handy.
But in general, I don't have it under my email,
I don't have it on my business card because yeah,
I only mention it when it's really really necessary. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (45:57):
Yeah, you've flex and you need to.

Speaker 10 (45:59):
And I love it.

Speaker 7 (46:01):
I mean yeah, I mean it's like it's a it's
a beautiful thing because it it shows that you have
a grasp on every single level of what you're doing
at record industry. But it also like it allows you
to flex when you need to. But it's not you're
not asserting dominance over everybody all the time.

Speaker 10 (46:19):
So not at all. No, Yeah, but I also like,
I mean sometimes when when we're doing over doing extra
work during the weekend, or when when people need a hand,
I'm there. I mean I love helping out on the
packing department or picking up something on the floor, because

(46:39):
you know, just giving the good example, that's that's just
how it works. And also because I like to be
part of that. And also for instance, during the holiday
season the end of the year, Mika and myself we
just packed the Christmas Christmas gifts for all the people
ourselves and hand them out for because you want to

(47:02):
say thank you to everybody. That's just how it is.
And it can be thirty people or one hundred and
thirty people, it's the same for us.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
It's yeah, it's your team.

Speaker 10 (47:13):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and we all like to know everybody
by name, so like not like who's that, No, you
just give somebody, you just introduce yourself.

Speaker 7 (47:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, but that I mean, that's why
you've got people that are there for twenty five years.

Speaker 10 (47:31):
Yes, I think so, yeah, that is not the reason. No,
but yeah, I haven't.

Speaker 7 (47:38):
Done anything for twenty five years other than walk around.

Speaker 10 (47:44):
We have a lot less records to press than we
had last year. And that's not only for us, that's
the whole pressing industry or vinyl pressing final manufacturing industry.
That's a lot less work. And the first to notice
that are of course the smaller shops and they need

(48:07):
to make a lot more money. To be able to
continue working because they need to buy all their work,
like they need to pay for the governing development and everything.
And when something goes wrong in that chain, the customer
comes to them and they need to take care of it.
And it's a lot more difficult for them because there's

(48:29):
a lot more risk involved than it is for us
with everything under one roof. And you know what, I hope,
and it's already happening. I hope it will not be
a price war, you know, like it used to be
ten fifteen years ago. I think it was fifteen years ago.

(48:50):
There wasn't as much work as there was now. And yeah,
there was a lot of low price vinyl, which doesn't
necessarily mean you have a good record, but for the
companies that want to live up to a certain quality,
it's quite hard to maintain to do. So we didn't

(49:12):
drop our prices because we wanted to compete with a
low price pressing plants. And I mean because of that,
we're still there because it is quality. You have quality print,
quality audio. But for all these these new companies, it
will be difficult to keep on pressing final I think.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah, I think it's hard, you know, because a lot
of the consumers don't know the difference too, and what
they're getting quotes for, so they might reach out to
you know, a check Republic plant or something and ask
for pricing and then ask me for the same thing
and not realize that maybe that's being cut dmm and
I'm cutting lacquer, or not realizing that it's you know,

(49:56):
one fortygram versus one eighty gram or whatever, And so
then they want you to lower prices and you're just
you know it is it's coming up against that where
everybody's like, well, this is a lower price. Can you
beat that?

Speaker 10 (50:09):
Yeah? Yeah, you just simply can't. And I mean I
always try to explain, but when you have your record
pressed record industry, you get a lot more than just
to go record. You also get surface, you can get
after sales, You get the delivery date we committ to. Yep.
You know they try. Other brokers do that, of course,

(50:36):
but also other pressing plans. They just say they could
do it in six or eight weeks, but very often
they can't.

Speaker 14 (50:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (50:46):
Yeah, so let's see. I mean there's too much capacity
at the moment for sure, and where it will lead
to I don't know, but to be honest quite confident
that record industry. Record industry will will survive. It's not

(51:08):
even like we're surviving now, which is still pressing a
lot of records. So because we have become much more
like a brand, record industry is a brand. And that's
what I worked for really hard with the books we do.
We sponsor records to day. You know, we do a
lot of things on the side which don't necessarily right

(51:31):
away bring more work for recket industry, but we support
the format vinyl and in the end that also helped
us to build the brand record industry. And yeah, I
get a certain popularity for vinyl in general. I mean,
we even worked on a school project last year to

(51:56):
get Vinyl into the high school to to teach children
what a record is and how cool it is and
how the audio gets in the group. And we had
a pop quiz that we made about vinyl and also
CD by the way, it wasn't only Finyl but just
a physical carrier.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Very cool. Well, you mentioned the book and also the
Vinyl Festival, So since we're getting close on time, I
would love for you to kind of tell everybody about those,
where to find them, how to attend everything.

Speaker 10 (52:31):
The book or the festival.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Let's start with the book and then go into the
festival because you have so many things going on.

Speaker 10 (52:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny that I get into things like
this quite often, like why did they say yes to everything?
But it's amazing. The book is like the Crown on
twenty five years record industry with even nights are more amazing.

(52:59):
People we interviewed from a Gen to Robert Tchilio, and
we now also have Liz Dunster from Erica Records. We
tried to get more women in the book for this edition,
so the book is just a celebration. It's called Passion

(53:20):
for Vinyl, and that's because it's so great to talk
about vinyl and when we now have about thirty people
in this book. And it's interesting that there's just one
storyline which came up in each story this time, which
was that vinyl and music in general's passed along generation.

(53:44):
So many of the stories have some content about what
people grew up with or what they teach their children
and the records that changed their life, and that was
somehow became a continuous story read through many of the
interviews we had, which is why we have a subtitle

(54:05):
Tales from the Groove because it's just tales. And the
book will be released in end of September during the
Harland Vinyl Festival, and it's part three of our series
of books, although I decided not to call it a
part three because I was told that Part two and

(54:27):
three don't sell that well, so it's just sales from
the Groove. So that's a tip for your second book,
Part two. And it's the book has a really nice
seven inch again, so there's a seven inch added to
the book with a track from Monster Records in Madrid

(54:50):
and Love Monk also a label from Madrid, so that's
a nice added value and I'm really proud of this edition.
And then there's the Vinyl Festival, yes, the celebration of
the format vinyl in many ways, like we have the
record fair. We've got a lot of live music and

(55:12):
all the musicians performing music out on vinyl because that
was one of the key things of course, or when
it's a young talent they have a seven inch or
we help them to get a seven inch out, so
that's a sponsor thing we're doing. And the festival's a
cooperation with many yeah venues in Harlem cafes and museum,

(55:41):
so it's like a community thing and they all take
care of their own program and we tried to We
just tried to get everybody involved. So there's the music
part in the evening. There's the record fair on Saturday
and Sunday, which we were really keen on having. It's
free of charge, so everybody can go there. So it's

(56:04):
outdoor because for us it was important to get the
young collector involved as well. And if you already have
to pay like ten or fifteen years admission, you might
not come because that's the budget you have to buy
one or two records exactly. So that's out door. And

(56:24):
then on Saturday and Sunday we also have a conference
during the day with topics just for vinyl lovers music
lovers in general. An example is, for instance, and I'm
really curious for that, what's inside sleeve? I mean, record
shop owners buy collections of people or dead people, or

(56:47):
people want to get rid of their vinyl. But what
do you find in a record sleeve? Sometimes so you
probably know the stories, like shopping notes or love letters,
so things like that. So we have two people telling
about what they just find in the collections. We have

(57:10):
some classic albums. We discussed Colleen Murphy from the BBC
as the classic album Sunday. You may have heard, she's
a great one to interview. By the way, she's in
the Oh, she's in the book. Yeah, Well Colin will
come and she talks about Aladdy Insane on Saturday and

(57:30):
the White Album on Sunday with one of the producers.
I think I can. And we have some more classic
albums like musicians coming over to tell about how they
recorded it for a band, telling about the ten records
that changed their lives, you know. So it's a really

(57:52):
diverse list of topics which will be passing by. So yeah,
I'm really looking forward to that. And prior to the
Harland Vinyl Festival, we have Making Vinyl which decided to yeah,
join us for the festival, so the music professionals will
be in towns well from Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
It's going to be really exciting. I hope we'll be
able to make it.

Speaker 10 (58:18):
Yeah, that would be amazing.

Speaker 7 (58:20):
Yeah, you're a busy lady.

Speaker 10 (58:23):
Yeah, yes I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So let's
see what we'll Well, we'll continue with the festival because
we're quite motivated to keep it a yearly yearly festivity
or yeah, because Harland can use something like that. And vinyl,

(58:46):
I mean when we started with the festival, everybody was
so enthusiastic about it because it's so appealing or you
both know that because you're in the business Vinyl just
it's it's an emotional thing, so people really like to
be involved or do something with it. Or once you

(59:08):
start talking about it, people get enthusiastic and they get
their fantasies about what they could do with it. So
we hope we can continue with this for the next
years as well.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, and we'll absolutely shout out and tag everywhere that
people can find those things hopefully be able to attend.
So with that problem, would you like to ask our
question this time?

Speaker 14 (59:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (59:34):
Sure, so, because you have been involved in making records
for so long, this is going to be a tough
one for Yeah. But okay, instead of the Desert Island
question where we're like, what five albums did you take
with you too Desert Island, we pose the question if
you could make any seven inch record for your own

(59:56):
collection that had anything on the A side and anything
the B side, a custom that is only yours, what
would that record.

Speaker 10 (01:00:04):
Be oh my, so I choose two tracks.

Speaker 7 (01:00:09):
Yeah, it's like it can be like a five minute.

Speaker 10 (01:00:15):
I'm looking like, okay, we want oh well, oh you know,
can I where's my phone? Because I have recently it
was that to make a list for a record label,

(01:00:37):
and and I actually have an eternal thirteen on my
Spotify list. That's the tracks people should play on my funeral.
They don't have to say anything, just play these three
thirteen tracks. And I'm fine, let's just go through that
because it's got and it is a momentum. I mean,

(01:01:03):
in a month it can be different, but I would
like you do something to me from Paul Weller mhm
on one side and on the other side, Massive Attack,
unfinished Sympathy. But next week it can be different. Right now, yeah,

(01:01:27):
so it's a bit slow, but it could next week
it could be a dance strike. I for instance, like
Fred again a lot. I don't know if you know him. Yeah, okay,
well you should listen to him.

Speaker 14 (01:01:41):
Yeah, But for now, it's a bit like more emotional
tracks in the fall season, which is, you know, when
all the spooky vibes start to happen, We're here for
it all.

Speaker 10 (01:01:54):
Yeah, I'm ready the leaves are falling. Yeah, not yet,
not yet. I'm still I still live for courts for
the Greek Island next week as a summer holiday.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
So very nice, awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:02:10):
Thank you for spending time with us today.

Speaker 10 (01:02:12):
Really, yes, really, well meet you. Yes, yeah, well I
didn't I mean I didn't really realize you're recording it
and it will probably it will be online because it
was just a really great conversation with two amazing women.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (01:02:30):
That's very kind of you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Yeah, we really appreciate. I'm glad we were able to
make it happen.

Speaker 10 (01:02:34):
Yes, yes, and I hope to meet you in person soon.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Yes, fingers crossed, all right, all right and ocle, Thank
you so much.

Speaker 10 (01:02:44):
Thanks for your time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Yes, take care, bye bye bye. Thanks for listening. Don't
forget to like, subscribe and leave us a review on
your favorite podcast platform. Join the conversation on social media
at Women in Vinyl. We want to hear from you,
Shoot us a message for topics you want to hear,
feedback and more to info at women Invinyl dot com.

(01:03:07):
Huge shout out and thank you for all our supporters,
affiliates and sponsors like Marshall Headphones. Visit our website Women
Invinyl dot Com for ways to get involved, and you
can always contribute to the education, demonstification and diversification of
the vinyl industry by donating at Women Invinyl dot com
slash donate. See you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
This episode has been brought to you by Women in
Vinyl and Red Spade Records. Thank you for listening. Please
remember to subscribe, and you can always contact us directly
by visiting www dot Women in Vinyl dot com

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Episode 53.5 - Live from RSD Summer Camp

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 53.5 - Live from RSD Summer Camp