Home  News Latest 'Fanatic's' love of music went from idle hobby to career
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'Fanatic's' love of music went from idle hobby to career |
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 10 August 2007 |
http://www.sltrib.com/sugarhouse/ci_6358662
Sugar House shop
Record-holder
'Fanatic's' love of music went from idle hobby to career
By Olga Muñoz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/12/2007 11:35:55 AM MDT
Click photo to enlarge
David Hansen of The Record Collector in Sugar House... (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune )
David Hansen's Sugar House shop, The Record Collector, has been enabling people's music addictions for 23 years.
The 2,000-square-foot shop carries thousands of hard-to-find records, cassettes and CDs - and even a few eight-tracks to help people "satisfy their habit," Hansen said.
Now 58, his own addiction to music, specifically vinyl records, began in the '80s when he saw his brother-in-law's collection.
"(His) records took up a whole wall," Hansen said. "Everywhere you looked, records. I don't think I even talked to anybody that day; I just went through his records."
From then on, he began to collect jazz and rock 'n' roll albums. At the height of his collection, Hansen had about 3,000 records, so he took the next logical step: Go into business.
He realized that he could buy records for 25 cents or a dollar at yard sales, sell them for at least $2 and make a profit, he said.
Hansen has always loved music.
"I can't live without it," he said. "I started out in different bands in high school and was planning on being a musician. But you know how rarely that works out."
But owning a music shop has worked out, even in the age of iPods and downloading. That's because he only carries "good" music from artists such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presely, Bob Marley.
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Russ Farr, 31, used to buy $2 Grateful Dead records at The Record Collector. He began frequenting the
store when he was a teenager to get his music fix, he said. At that time, he went into the store after school to look for psychedelic music.
"Music gave me a type of high that I just never came down from," Farr said.
Farr describes himself as a "fanatic record collector," like others who visit the store. He has about 3,000 and hopes to open his own open his own store in Mexico.
That's why, when Hansen offered him a part-time job as the store's manager three years ago, he quickly said "yes."
"I work here to support my addiction to vinyl," Farr joked.
Farr also sells some of his records in the store, but he seems to acquire two records for every one he sells, Farr said, adding that hard-core fans are a little weird like that.
People who collect records are a little "wacky," Hansen added. But the world needs more of them.
Folks' lives are faster today than it was in the past, and they don't have time to sit around and listen to a good record, Hansen said. He used to have my friends come over on Friday nights, and they would listen to music.
"It was a social thing, but people rarely do that anymore," Hansen said.
Hansen said that business has slowed lately, but he is certain the store will be around for years to come, he said.
"Records won't come back, but they'll always be around," Hansen said. "People who grew up on CDs come into the store and say, 'That's cool.' "
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http://www.sltrib.com/sugarhouse/ci_6358662
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