Vinyloscopy with Lakeman

Lakeman checks back in with Glacially Musical. There's something about those Canadian underground bands that I totally dig.

Maybe it's just that I love Canada and want to become a Canadian.

Either way, stream them on BANDCAMP and read on!

1. Listening to Black Sabbath's eponymous debut the night I got it blew me away. What's the album that sounds the best on vinyl compared to digital sources?

I have a theory that the best way to listen to something is on the medium it was mixed for. So all those classic rock albums are kind of meant to be heard on vinyl. 

Whereas Korn or Deftones might be suited to listen to on a shitty Walmart boom box on a cd. Alexisonfire might be meant to listen to in mp3 format with earbuds on public transit.

The band will usually cater to the format they suspect they will release it on, this is why compression was becoming such a problem in modern music. So with that in mind thank gawd vinyl is coming back.

2. I was laying in bed one night and couldn't sleep and I figured, it was time to start buying records. How did you come to the idea that it was time to start buying vinyl instead?

A friend of mine's grandma past away and he gave the record player he inherited to me. It was one of those old cabinet style turntables, barely used.

2 years earlier my dad gave me his record collection from the '70s. Over 300 vinyl.

That summer I moved in with my friend, his grandma's turntable, and my dad's massive collection of vinyl changed his and my life forever.

3. For my old stuff, it's vinyl worthy, for new stuff, it's all vinyl if available. Do you buy everything on wax or do you have a vinyl worthy category?

I am not picky I am just happy to support the music I love. I mainly try to buy local bands or up and coming bands on vinyl.

I don't have a lot of money to buy vinyl. So when I do I like to support smaller bands. Even though I love NIRVANA, I really don't think they need my money for the 7th re-issue of Nevermind.

4. My second living room is where I keep it all. Upstairs, my 1971 Sherwood 7100-S, Receiver,  1975 Pioneer PL-200, and 70's Sansui 5 way speakers. Tell us all about your vinyl set up.

Its a used mutt set up I bought 3rd hand from a failing record shop in a small town north of where I live. Half of it I had to get repaired and I overpaid, to begin with. 

But the store owner lets local acts put on shows and I really don't want to see the shop go under especially during this COVID thing. My day job is in healthcare and I had a couple of bucks to through around, I didn't even look at the brands I just bought the most expensive set up he had.

Before all that, I didn't have a record player for years. I was either a broke-ass musician that needed the small amount of money I had for new music gear and/or maintenance for said gear.

I was also broke ass student and musician barely paying my bills. Either way, I dreamed of the day I could have a home stereo system.

5. Do you read the lyrics and go over the inserts when you're spinning?

Nope. I live in two extremes when spinning vinyl. Either I throw it on when I am chilling with my baby boy and doing chores around the house.

Or

I lay beside it in the dark at night with headphones after a long night at work or a gig and completely let it take me over the void of any other sensorial distractions.

Unless the lyrics jump right out of the music they are the last thing I notice. Words are the last layer of the onion I devour. I get way more lost in the abstraction of rhythm and melody. I listen to a lot of instrumental music. I find the Narratives of lyricism often get in the way of the primal nature of music for me.

6. When someone says, I'm stupid for buying records, I tell them, thanks, more limited edition colored vinyl for me, what's your answer?

People have told me I am stupid for an uncountable number of reasons but never for buying vinyl. I am so sorry that happens to you. Those people are petty to even care about how you consume music.

7. My first album ever was Live Evil by Black Sabbath, so I'm stuck on live albums. What's the best live album on vinyl?

My mind was forever blown after hearing Led Zepplin's live album "the song remains the same".

First off, genius false advertising on their part! None of those songs sounded the same. Somewhere way better than the original recordings.

Secondly, there is something so sacred about live improvised music. It is so vulnerable and loose. It is like watching a child take its first steps. So much more interesting than listening to a band play the recordings note for note.

8. Tell me about your latest vinyl release.

As a regional/local act, I didn't expect to need to make more than a handful of records. So we used a local small lathe pressing company. We sold out 3 times.

I don't think lathe cuts sound the best. I wish I would have pressed 100 vinyl properly. I just didn't think we had the local support we did.

Also, the fact I did in individual acrylic pours for both sides of each vinyl seems to draw people in.

Here is a link to the making of the vinyl art...

https://youtu.be/mKhg5bM00K

9. Listening to records is my comfort food for my soul. As mentioned earlier, I have a living room dedicated to it. I normally drink a beer or two whilst listening to music I love. Describe your normal listening experience.

I hate to say this to someone that seems so deeply in love with vinyl. But driving and listening to music is my most sacred experience. You spend a lot of time on the road as a musician in the Canadian northwest. 

Minimum 3 hours between the city's when you are on tour, sometimes 8 to 12-hour drives between cities. We rotate album choices, I have had these crazy deep bonding experiences listening to music in the van on the road to gigs with people I make music with. I feel like I really get to know them better as people and musicians.

I remember listening to Steve Wilson's "hand can not erase" for the first time at 3 am on the way back from a gig with my best friend and long time bandmate. We'd both been through the craziest year of our lives, and we had just finished talking about some trauma we'd been through. It was a total soul bond.

Or hearing a rare hardcore band from the late 80's only my drummer and a hand full of people from the hardcore scene from the late '80s in Whitehorse Yukon Canada had heard of. It was such a rare sighting and snapshot of my drummer's life. It was beautiful. Even if the music was not.