The places your passions can take you are endless. As music fans, we have heard some of the most awe-inspiring tales pave roads of gold for some of the most acclaimed artists of our time. No one’s story is perfect and art gives these unperfect moments a platform to reach out and grab people with similar feelings, bringing everyone closer in their confusion. Record collecting has its own art to it and Matt from Too Many Records has stretched this art form to its furthest dimensions and doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. The vinyl enthusiast has taken his love from the medium and created a successful YouTube page dedicated to all things vinyl, a page he has flipped into a record label and now, a storefront in Portland. Too Many Records has come full circle to now building its own brick-and-mortar experience inspired by the passion that launched the YouTube page a decade ago in 2014.
Glide had the pleasure of asking Too Many Records frontman Matt about his experience in the YouTube world, how Too Many Records transformed into a storefront, and the difference between a shop owner and a vinyl collector. Check out our full conversation below.
What inspired you to start the YouTube channel? Was the storefront and record label always in the plan?
My good friend and old co-host Sandy (now Idalia) Valles told me that because I was so encyclopedic and passionate about music, I should start a YouTube channel to share that with other people in the vinyl community. At that time, I thought it would just be a fun thing to do, and the bigger concept ideas developed over time as a somewhat logical progression.
When did your obsession with vinyl start? Did you have a record shop in your town and do you remember the first record you ever bought?
The first record I ever bought was not for my own collection. It was The National- Alligator, my favorite album of all time, and it was for set decoration in a short film that I wrote/acted in inspired by the album. That copy somehow got lost during filming, and it wouldn’t be until about a year later, in 2013, that I would get my own turntable setup and begin my collection. I sadly don’t remember the first record I ever bought, but I do remember looking at boxes on my floor and thinking to myself “How do I have this many records?” very early on in the journey.
How did the storefront come to be? How did you land in Portland and what was the process of finding the location like?
The dream of owning a record store started to loom larger as the channel grew, and I became more and more entrenched in the endlessly growing vinyl community. With every year that passed, I thought to myself “There’s no better time than now to try this!” — however, living in LA and then NYC, those were two daunting places to start a shop for a myriad of reasons. I made my move to Portland at the end of 2020 with the goal of building out my shop here. I believe that I’ve read that Portland has the most record stores per capita out of anywhere in the USA — and the more record stores the better! It just means lots of people are looking to build their collections and every store carries different stuff, so each one’s existence is totally valid and only enhances the cultural landscape.
Finding the location was brutal, to be honest. It was a year of constant searching, and any location that I liked ended up needing me to sign a 5-year contract, and the price to rent far exceeded what I was comfortable with. This is my first foray into owning a business, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t bite off more than I could chew. When I walked into the location I have now, I had a gut feeling of “this is the place” — even though it wasn’t in a highly foot-trafficked location, I thought that with my online audience/social reach, I would be able to make it a destination store for locals and visitors alike. The price was right, the terms were amenable, and the space itself was large enough to execute my vision.
What have you found the most difficult part of transitioning from record collector to record store owner? What has been the most exciting?
Funny enough, I just made a video talking about the 5 Hardest Things About Owning A Record Store. I’ll answer the first question in two parts. The hardest thing about running the store is getting the word out that we exist. It is harder than I anticipated, at least. We’ve built a really lovely community of regulars who are so generous in supporting us, and every week we get new people discovering the shop, but it’s still difficult to know that there are so many collectors in town who haven’t come by yet for one reason or another. Even crazier is when there are people in the neighborhood that come in and say “Oh hey did you just open?” and we tell them “A year and a half ago” and they are mindblown that they didn’t know we were there the whole time.
The hardest part of going from collector to record store owner is the changing relationship with my personal collection. I’m so proud of my record collection. It has grown and shrunk and been chiseled over a decade of fervent collecting, but now when I return back from the shop, the last thing I want to do is listen to a record. I listen to 40+ hours of records a week, so I’d much rather unwind doing… anything else. I’ve started bringing some of my own records into the shop to try and listen through my comically enormous backlog, but inevitably every time I put on something from my own collection, a customer asks “Is this for sale?” which leads to me having to disappoint them, so that’s not great either.
The most exciting thing is seeing what walks through the door collection-wise. People truly can bring some of the wildest stuff in, and I try not to pilfer it all for my own collection (if anything I try to bring chunks of my collection into the shop as often as possible to keep things fun) — but sometimes you have to get high on your own supply. Some of my favorite personal acquisitions from walk-ins have been: a clean 1st of Gabor Szabo – Dreams, a clean 1st of Funkadelic – Maggot Brain, and a second press of Sister Nancy – One, Two.
What about the label? How would you describe the music you release and how do you curate the records you release?
The label is a labor of love and has never really been a money-making venture for me — I usually let the artists keep all the profit or let them decide how much I’ve earned, and thankfully they’ve all been fairly generous in that regard. That being said, it’s been a way for me to find artists I know and/or love and facilitate a one-time collectible pressing that looks and sounds amazing by utilizing the passion and support of my audience. Since 2019 we have 18 releases out there in the world, ranging from indie folk to hip-hop to electronica to pop punk. I love being able to have such an eclectic set of tunes under the Too Many Records umbrella.
Your collection must be massive, how do you keep track of it all? Is there a process of deciding to keep a record for your personal collection and putting it on the shelves of the store?
It’s massive. I have some friends who joke that I’ve been saying I have “3000 records” for years, but with the amount I acquire, it’s considerably more. I try to catalog it with Discogs, and I have it probably 70% accurate in there, but it’s easy to forget to remove something when you sell it or to add it when you spin it, so double checking that to 100% accuracy seems to be an impossibility at this point. I have a large “purgatory” section in my downstairs listening area of stuff that I’m debating keeping or bringing to the shop. I like having that option because it allows me to pepper in some really unique titles you wouldn’t often see at a shop, keeping the digging experience fresh and interesting for my customers.
Are there any vinyl pressings you have on your bucket list that you haven’t come across yet?
Always. Every year I do a series of the Top 7 Holy Grail Records that I’m hoping to find that year (and provide updates on the ones I was able to secure from the previous year’s video.) I’d say the big ones for this year focus on more obscure records/projects from fairly popular artists. Some of those highlights include a Brazilian music collaboration that Ryuichi Sakamoto did, anything from an earlier project (Flipper’s Guitar) by the Japanese pop artist Cornelius, and an MF DOOM-affiliated hip-hop release called Monsta Island Czars.
For the YouTube channel, you have traveled to plenty of record stores. What are some of your favorites and did these shops inspire the layout/aesthetic of your storefront?
Visually I don’t think any specific store inspired my layout, I think it was designed based on the space I had to work with. All I knew was that I loved shops that had more space to dig around and I never enjoyed claustrophobic shops that have really tight bins and thin lanes. Some of my favorite shops I’ve been to in the USA are: Mill City Sound (MN), Freakbeat Records (CA), Amoeba Berkeley (CA), Rasputin Berkeley (CA), A1 (NYC), Academy Records Annex (NYC), and of course my homie’s shops Record Safari (LA), Limited To One (NYC) — there’s also shops like Wax Records Inc. (FL), Rust and Wax (FL) and Noble Records (NC) that I want to make a point to visit soon because I’m friends with the owners. Beyond that, there are a ton of great shops here in Portland, especially in North/Northeast Portland. Between Speck’s, Music History, Vinyl Resting Place, Mississippi, and my own shop, there’s a great circuit you can hit.
For someone as experienced as you, what are some tips you have for new vinyl fanatics?
Do a little research before getting into the hobby. Some topics worth delving into are: what accessories are worth getting, how to protect your records, and what a decent starter set-up looks like. Only buy albums that you want to listen to front to back, as that’s the best way to enjoy a record. Of course, if you’re just in it to collect, buy whatever your heart desires. Understand that the hobby can be expensive, but it’s extremely rewarding if you devote time to it. Most things will eventually get a repress, so overpaying for something in the aftermarket is a choice we all make because we aren’t willing to risk the long wait for a potential repress. Ultimately, just have fun. Remember, it’s about enjoying music first and foremost, not feeling FOMO because you missed a drop or constantly thinking you need to upgrade/calibrate your gear.
You have seen the ups and downs of the vinyl industry, how do you feel it has changed the most over the years?
I feel like there is a pretty staunch divide between the audiophile community and the younger, collector-focused community. There is overlap, of course, but they really are approaching the hobby from two VERY different angles. One hyperfixates on finding the best sound and the other often doesn’t even own a turntable and just collects records to sit sealed on their shelf. Neither is more or less valid than the other, and both are essential — as long as people are buying and appreciating records how they see fit, the hobby will continue to thrive.
Too Many Records is a YouTube channel, a record label, and a record shop. What else do you have in store for the project? What can you tell us about your plans for 2024?
My goal has always been to host a travel show about records. The idea behind it would be “The Anthony Bourdain of Records” — connecting people and cultures with music and why they value certain types of music, the history of that region’s music, and the vibrant vinyl scenes from stores to collectors that inhabit them. I shot a pilot in 2022 called No Skips, which people can watch if they click that link, and my hope is that the right collaborative partner will see this, see the value in it, and help me to continue it in a meaningful way.
