There was a time not too long ago when vinyls and gramophone records belonged in museums or at the very least, in the home of a stuck-in-the-’60s sort of person. Then, a couple of years ago, musicians all over the world began releasing special edition vinyls that a few could afford.
And then last year, Record Room opened in Bengaluru — a restobar whose USP was their collection of phonographs and compatible turntable. To mark their first anniversary, Record Room released a specially curated vinyl, under their own name.
“At the time of inception, we never thought vinyls would become the phenomenon they are now. It was more of a shared passion between the co-founders as well as a way to differentiate ourselves from being just another bar that opened in Bangalore,” says Record Room co-founder Karthik Chandrashekaran, adding that if it was not for COVID-19, it might have happened sooner as it had been in the making since 2017.
Karthik says they were inspired by the Buddha Bar in Paris and Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza which established themselves with music labels. “Eventually, the label preceded the reputation of those bars. A lot of people who think of Buddha Bar recall the cassettes and CDs that used to come out back in the day. Most did not even know it was actually a bar that curated the music and put it out in the form of a label.”
“We tried to do something aspirational because nothing has been achieved like that from an F&B space in our country at least. Besides being close to all of our hearts in terms of music, it made sense given the format of the Record Room,” he says.
Well begun is usually half done, but Karthik says when they got to the implementation stage, they were shocked to find there was a six-to-nine month waiting period to get a record made. “Suddenly, all the artistes at that time were releasing their latest albums on vinyl.“
Still, Karthik says it was a mixed blessing as it gave the team time to curate their first album. Nakul Bhonsle, a Record Room co-founder, connected with Andrew Sabu, a musician in the Indie music space who was initially associated with the project, to forge potential connections..
“We were very clear about wanting to work with Indian musicians, especially for our first few albums, as our vision for Record Room was the possibility of going international someday. So, we reached out to Indian artistes living in different countries to help us create a lounge-y sort of album with their house music from wherever they were based — Berlin, Japan, the United States and elsewhere. At the same time, we welcomed their feedback on how to put this project together.”
“What made it exciting for us was that Peter Cat was getting quite popular then and they were willing to share an unreleased track of theirs as well for the vinyl.”
By the time, they got their music in place, Karthik says it was a matter of deciding which tracks made it to the first album; he admits they received more than enough entries across genres to release at least two more albums. “Initially, we wanted to gauge the level of interest, but with the good reception we’ve got, artistes are reaching out and want to collaborate with us.”
Record Room Vol 1 which features 10 tracks by 10 artistes such as The Figs, Ramya Pothuri and Ditty, “starts with tunes which are a little slow in tempo on Side A, and then picks up and you get a more of a Hip Hop, R&B vibe that goes on towards Side B,” says Karthik, adding that a lot of the artistes were pleased that such a compilation was underway.
