Jeffrey Stothers and his wife, Lisa, opened Southbound Records in 2011. Photo / Supplied
Jeffrey Stothers and his wife, Lisa, opened Southbound Records in 2011. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland record store owner says the vinyl revival will be in full swing this weekend as crowds flock to independent shops nationwide for Record Store Day.
The annual phenomenon will see avid collectors race to buy limited-edition releases from participating stores around the country today.
At Southbound Records onSymonds St, co-owner Jeffrey Stothers has been busy preparing since last October, with 235 releases set to drop in store this morning.
“It will probably be our busiest [yet], but we’re probably going, fingers crossed, we’re going to be saying that every year as it grows.”
He runs the independent store with his wife, Lisa Stothers, and with more than 12,000 titles in stock today, he said the Auckland institution has “the best range” of vinyl in the country.
“We saw the need for a dedicated vinyl shop covering all genres and maybe that little bit more specialist stuff.”
He has seen a continuing uptick in the demand for vinyl since opening in November 2011, with shoppers buying less mainstream records across a broader range of genres.
“All my years in music, retail and distribution with CDs, it tended to be very genre-focused. With vinyl, it doesn’t appear to be like that.”
He thinks the demand for media that can be owned and held has been increasing since the Covid pandemic, when people isolating returned to their existing media collections.
Jeffrey Stothers and his wife, Lisa Stothers, opened Southbound Records in 2011.
For Gen Z especially, he thinks collecting has “become like the tour programme or the T-shirt from a concert”.
“The younger generation will have a selection of records, and they will show them to people like books on a bookshelf,” he said.
Started up in 2008 to promote independent record stores like Southbound, Record Store Day – and its drop of special releases – has been a boon for the industry.
“Some of the distributors this year had 60 to 70% more demand than the stock they made for those records, and that’s worldwide,” Stothers said.
Titles will include live records from alternative rock bands Blur, Dinosaur Jr and the Pixies, plus special editions from American popstars Taylor Swift and Charli XCX.
Stothers was unconcerned about the growing participation of “commercial” artists like Swift.
“If for some kid that’s going to be their first record, then that’s great. I don’t care what it is”, he said. “It’s pleasing to see young kids and older people just wanting to be part of it and wanting to buy records.”
He said Record Store Day organisers maintained the spirit of the day by preventing major labels from “whacking out a whole lot of things”.
The annual scrum that is International Record Store Day at Southbound Records in 2020. Photo / NZME
Simon Grigg, founding editor of AudioCulture, noted that New Zealand’s own indie music scene was an early adopter of the event.
“We were also early to create our own editions of local music specifically for RSD, pressing albums by 60s NZ music icons and some of our punk pioneers for RSD, from the early 2010s onwards.”
There are no Kiwi artists on this year’s official release list, but several will perform locally today. Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie has a set at Wellington’s Slow Boat Records, while local band There’s a Tuesday is closing out Auckland’s Real Groovy.
Stothers said not to expect in-store performances at Southbound. Instead, he and Lisa have chosen to stick to the basics.
“We try to keep it back to when it was first formed, you know, come to a record shop, buy some records and hang with people in a bricks and mortar environment.”
With a queue of 50 to 60 audiophiles expected to be lined up when doors open, it’s sure to be a hectic start to one of the busiest days in the musical calendar.
