Record Store Day: TLOBF meets Resident Music in Brighton

A relative newcomer to Brighton’s independent record shop scene, Resident Music celebrates its seventh birthday this month. Less than five minutes walk from Brighton station, the North Laine located store is nestled on a pedestrianised street next to an Oxfam bookshop and opposite an overwhelmingly bric-a-brac department store called Snooper’s Paradise. This makes an apt spot for a shop run by self-confessed “serious music lovers” Derry Watkins, Natasha Youngs and their four-strong team.

Resident is as well known for its exhaustive, Rough Trade rivalling weekly mailout and top notch in-store performances as it is for its carefully chosen stock. Every release has an honest review clinging to its front, and for each bleeding-edge limited vinyl 12” there’s a bargain classic in the ‘Change for a Fiver’ section. Resident also sell tickets to all of Brighton’s key gigs and has done its bit down the years to champion local bands, from 2011 breakout stars Esben & The Witch to The Go! Team and the recently reformed Electrelane.

The images of Record Store Day 2010 on Resident-music.com show a bloody great queue at 9am, and since the shop’s opening an hour earlier this year they’re likely to experience similar scenes again (edit: the queue for 2011 can be seen in the image above, taken at around 8:30am). In fact a local coffee house has signed on to provide sustenance for anyone queuing through the night, as many did last year.

I’ve only been living in the area since August but Resident Music has already given me much joy, from a captivating in-store with The Strange Death of Liberal England in September, to some lovely Cold Cave vinyl, a curious double CD of death discs from the early twentieth century, not to mention a cheaper-than-Amazon copy of Joanna Newsom’s triple-CD epic Have One On Me. Any trip to Brighton is wasted if you don’t pop in.

The six enthusiastic Residents have particular reason to feel quietly pleased with themselves this year as they have just been voted England’s best record shop in a Record Store Day poll. And so with that in mind it seemed only right that we have a chat with co-founder Natasha.

What characteristics define an independent record store for you?

The people. The people that work in independents generally aren’t there just to kill time. It’s not “just a job” and they certainly don’t do it for the money! Generally, for the people that work in indies it’s more than just a hobby or interest – it’s a passion…an obsession even. Working in and around music is an addiction, a habit needs feeding: we can’t help but want to share our love of music with anyone we come into contact with. That passion is infectious, enlivening and can genuinely enrich your life. We genuinely care about what we sell, it’s not just “product” to us.

What do you think independent stores have as an edge over chain rivals?

We live by our own rules and are able to quickly adapt to customer and market demands. We don’t have to have 10 different meetings with PowerPoint presentations and project plans to get things done, we can just get on with things.

We are pretty on the ball when it comes to new artists and love to champion them from the outset. We don’t have to wait for an act to be “broken” before our customers come to us for their music, in fact they have often moved on by the time an act is broken and subsequently stocked by the major chains and supermarkets.

Why and how did you start Resident Music?

We wanted to run the kind of indie we’d like to shop in ourselves. We had both been working for the soulless chains for far too long and wanted to get back to what we loved about record shops in the first place.

How it started, well we downsized our flat, sold loads of stuff (including tons of records), pooled our funds, begged and borrowed and in the end, we came up with enough money to make it possible despite the fact we were pretty much laughed out of the banks. “But isn’t everyone downloading now?” and “Have you thought about a market stall?” were just 2 of the dismissive comments we had to our business plan!

What acts have provided your most memorable in-store gigs?

There are so many to choose from but some that really stick out in our mind are The Maccabees, The XX, Emiliana Torrini, Laura Marling, William Elliott Whitmore, Micah P Hinson, Willy Mason, The Dodos, Micachu & The Shapes and The Hold Steady.

Which Record Store Day releases/events are you particularly looking forward to?

Radiohead’s 12” (we are still massive fans), the Metronomy 7” (I am obsessed with the new album), Karen Elson 7” (comes with rose petals in the vinyl!) and the Husband 12” (great record of dark Italian pop on green marbled vinyl). To be honest, we are all looking forward to the whole day. The buzz is incredible. Our customers are amazing and so appreciative. There’s a hell of a lot of work that goes into preparing and organising it, so seeing it all come together is the bit we most enjoy.

How effective do you think initiatives like Record Store Day are for reminding people to buy music as opposed to downloading it illegally?

It’s a great event and it does an important job of raising the profile of independent record shops but I’m not sure it does much to prevent illegal downloading. To be honest, I’m not really sure that is part of the agenda. It’s more about rewarding those who do support physical product.

Have you noticed a shift in clientele in the years since Resident opened? Is there a typical Resident shopper?

Thinking about it, fewer students / young people buy physical releases these days so our customer base will undoubtedly have got older. We have gradually made a name for ourselves among the more discerning music types so we attract more and more music geeks and that’s a compliment in our books by the way. We also attract a lot more women than your average indie, which may be because the store has a very relaxed atmosphere with three girls working behind the counter, balancing out the testosterone!

Does any aspect of running the shop make you wish you’d never opened the doors?

We live and breathe the shop so we never get a proper day off, especially since we bought iPhones! To run a record shop properly these days takes immense commitment, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year although we do give ourselves Christmas Day off. We also took a breather to get married and have a honeymoon! Sometime it gets a bit much, but then we wouldn’t want to do anything else either.

It means the world to us to be voted England’s favourite independent store in the Record Store Day Poll. It is a really special accolade bestowed upon us by our customers and it’s brilliant for us to know that the ridiculous amount of work we all put into making Resident this good, is genuinely appreciated.

Have you ever considered selling downloads or does what defeat the object?

It’s not an area we’re interested in exploring right now.

Why do you feel vinyl sales have been rising again in this digital age?

In an age of disposability when music is not given the value it deserves, vinyl feels and sounds more authentic…and more permanent, which is something we all seem to be craving at the moment. We want to own things again, beautiful things.

Which Brighton bands and venues should we be paying attention to in 2011?

It’s all about the Green Door Store in Brighton this year – the hot new venue that everyone wants to play at: great location, great atmosphere, great size.

Last year saw the incredible Esben & The Witch sign to Matador and rise to fame. This year we’ll be keeping an eye on the likes of Fear Of Men, Cold Pumas, Sauna Youth, Gross Magic and Peepholes.

Is there anything you think the Brighton scene is missing that it could benefit from?

The credit it deserves for offering the strongest live scene in the UK outside of London. The strength of our music scene is what makes it possible for so many independent record shops to thrive here.

What do you think people should take away from Record Store Day?

Lots of records! And the desire to shop in indie record stores for the rest of the year. Record Store Day should be a celebration of the culture of the independent record shop – one that continues throughout the year, not just on one day.

www.resident-music.com