Q and A with I Love Vinyl Party founder, DJ Scribe

October 23, 12:40 PMNY Culture ExaminerLayla Macoran

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DJ Scribe: Ready for a cool night.

Vinyl lover DJ Scribe shares his love of records at a monthly party at Le Poisson Rouge in the Village. He elaborates on his career and his passion in this insightful interview.

LM: Tell us a little bit about your career as a dj/producer, and what inspired you to start the I Love Vinyl event.

DJS: I started deejaying in 1990 while I was a student at Oberlin College. I had a radio show called... hold on to your hats... The One-World Funkatronic Soul Express. Back then I played strictly hip-hop, funk, and soul. And it was all vinyl... there wasn't anything else! I was collecting all the great hip-hop records that came out in the 90's, digging for old funk, soul, and jazz, and it just radiated outward from there. In those days, when I played a party, I was carrying five or six milk crates of records with me every time. I played strictly vinyl until a few years ago, when I started using Serato Scratch Live, which is a technology that uses turntables to control digital files on a computer. You can't beat it for portability and access to your music. But you definitely lose something in warmth. I first had the idea for I Love Vinyl a couple years ago. I remember doing a guest set somewhere with vinyl and feeling so happy to be playing my records again. It was like a reunion with good friends. I had missed them so much. It's not just that they sound better, it's that they are multidimensional. They are physical things that age, that accumulate history, objects in time and space that were sitting here at one time, there at another, they are photographed over and over in our minds' eyes, they have texture, smell even, you have to take care of them, etc. So an attachment develops that can never be like a person's relationship to a file on a computer, I think. And that has a big impact on the experience of spinning, and therefore, on the audience. But I had become lazy about carrying my records around so I needed to start a party that would force me to do it. But I also wanted to design it so that I didn't have to carry too many! So I figured if we had enough djs, everyone could just bring a small amount. There also had to be a strong combined draw in order to make it work. At the same time, it hit me that I could flip the I Love NY logo and call the party I Love Vinyl. I reached out to a lot of my dj friends and eventually settled on the incredible lineup we have now- Amir, Ge-Ology, OP!, The Twilite Tone, and Jon Oliver. All heavy hitters in their own right, and in their own ways. The dream was that if we had the right crew, we could pull off a party with six local djs (no "headliners" or guest djs), all playing vinyl, and make it bigger than I could ever do on my own. And it actually worked! It took a while before the right situation presented itself. We started at Le Poisson Rouge this past May, and I couldn't be happier about doing it there. Without a doubt the most positive experience I have had working with a venue, and there have been hundreds, so that's no small compliment.

LM: Was the interest from record companies (Ubiquity, etc.) immediate, or did it take some cajoling?

DJS: I partnered up with Wax Poetics and Halcyon from the beginning because I wanted to keep it local and relevant, and I go way back with both of those guys. The record company angle was another idea I had to get other entities with the shared interest in preserving vinyl culture involved. We have a mutual interest in seeing each other thrive and grow, so it seemed like a natural alliance. Not every label I have approached has said yes, but most of them have jumped right in. I already had good relationships with most of the labels I like that still release vinyl, so it was pretty easy to set it up.

LM: Who do you find are the biggest fans of vinyl (besides dj's of course)? Who regularly attends the events?

DJS: Vinyl seems to appeal to a lot of people, and for different reasons. It's the archival and audiophile format for collectors and music nerds. It's a ritual icon to various dj-centered musical subcultures, from disco to hip-hop. It's nostalgia to anyone born before cds, and an antique to the rest. It can be a fashion accessory, something to roll a joint on, and on and on. And it's just imbued with coolness. As to who comes to the parties, I actually have no idea who most of them are! Some are people we know, of course. But the rest are a very mixed group. We get all kinds of people. Dancers. Other deejays. Lots of women, surprisingly. Musicians. European and Japanese tourists. New Yorkers who usually wouldn't set foot in a club on the weekend... Everybody is just there to dance and enjoy a wide spectrum of music, some of which they might know, and lots of which they won't. Usually, playing in Manhattan on a Saturday means being hounded by (often rude) requests for radio hits. But we have been very lucky to have almost none of that. So, whoever they are, we love them.

LM: Do you have a few favorite records that are always played during your sets?

DJS: I have lots of favorites. But I've actually made a conscious effort to play completely different records each time. I look at the parties themselves as collectibles. Each month is a new edition. We also record each party and make the mixes available online for free streaming and download, so it's good if each one is unique. Of course, after a while, there will be repetition. But between the six of us we probably have from 50-100,000 records, so that could be a long while...

LM: Do you have a special theme or surprises for the Le Poisson Rouge crowd Saturday night?

DJS: The only theme we have is vinyl. If it's on vinyl, it's fair game. The selections are completely up to each dj, so everything is a surprise. And that's part of what keeps it interesting, I think. You might hear some old-school Chicago house, Brazilian jazz, deep disco and soul, classic hip-hop, futuristic electronic beats, and 80s no-wave, all in the same night. Not that it’s something new. We are in a long tradition, in dj culture, of drawing from a wide spectrum of sources. It's only in the commoditized version of music and deejay culture that you see genre become so narrow and limiting. A couple months ago I played Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel right after Chameleon by Herbie Hancock, and the crowd kept dancing. To me, that's heaven. But no jell-o wrestlers popping out of giant birthday cakes, if that's what you mean. Not that I would be opposed to it...

The I Love Vinyl Party returns to Le Poisson Rouge Saturday, October 24, $5 cover, 158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY. For more info., visit I Love Vinyl Party.