Monday, February 4, 2013

Vinyl Inspiration and Record Shops

I do everything I can to make the creative workspace a dope, nurturing environment - it contributes to what (thankfully) has been a lack of writer's block for a really long time. The guitar, keyboard, drum machines (for the music stuff) to tap on if the "music idea" well dries up, kaiju figures to stomp around, movies, videos, posters... all kinds of good stuff.

But over the years, nothing has come through as much as records. I have my share of mp3s, some CDs too. But it's vinyl that drives the majority of inspiration.
- Sometimes the record, art and music all contribute to an idea.
- Sometimes just gazing at the album cover opens up the imagination and brings me back to a time before videos, when you'd put a record on the turntable and listen to both sides doing nothing other than staring at the art, lyrics and liner notes (and trying to figure out who the artist really was using those sparse clues).
- And of course there's the music, which in many cases exists only on wax.

With records being the inspiration, record stores (and swap meets) become portals in a way.  I hit record stores as much as possible (and do a podcast to this effect called Soul Traveling) and with all the record stores I've been to one thing holds true: you never know what you're going to get.

Whenever I walk into a record store for the first time, I make a point to just walk around for a while.  I size up each of the sections - is there a large jazz section? Soul? Rock? Is there a large dollar bin? (If so I follow my "CTA Rule" = "dig through the dollar bin until you come across the Chicago Transit Authority LP", which is in every dollar bin. That's my cue to stop.) What type of stuff is in the soul section - do they specialize in 80s, 70s stuff, what? What is the owner playing on the store loudspeaker for everyone? I soak it in, get the vibe... and after that start digging.  If you're thorough enough and stay in the store long enough it speaks to you and reveals where its strength lies - plus it happens every time. You may walk out of the store with a stack of rock records, soul, death metal, who knows? But you'll figure out the store's true identity and get records in line with it.

Some of my favorite ideas started with music (before Kodoja was a comic it was an album the band did, with a sparse story attached) and those musical ideas trace back to the grooves of a record.