Welcome Eugeny Yunis a Bogotá, Colombia resident for the past 16 years. She co-owns and runs a record store with her boyfriend called Three Little Birds (or TLB Records to locals) and is our first introduction to two vinyl collectives, Los Rulos Vinyl Club comprised of all female DJs and incorporating all music genres which she spearheaded; as well as Vinileros del Trópico (global Latin sounds).

She has a full time job outside of her life in the vinyl industry as well, where she is the project manager at a travel agency which she credits to allowing her the ability to travel often, make new connections and most importantly buy lots of vinyl.

How did you get into your industry / What motivated you?

Nicolás and I started the record store in January 2014 after he came back from a year and a half stay in New Zealand.  I had an online shop called Shopaholics, where I sold clothes, shoes, vinyl records and record players, but we decided to shift the focus to only selling vinyl records online.  We both loved music and shared that passion so we took the first step after we went to one of the first editions of Mercado del Vinilo (a vinyl market led by Rodrigo Duarte, co-owner of La Roma Records).  In 2016 we opened the physical record store on the third floor of a local design shop called Cubo, on the neighborhood Chapinero. Both Los Rulos Vinyl Club and Vinileros del Trópico started in 2017 with gatherings at the record store, we invited friends to play and eventually things grew to collective work and gigs outside the store, the city, and the country.

I was motivated to start with Los Rulos Vinyl Club after noticing there weren’t that many females who played records, and one of the reasons was the lack of spaces for this. I also wanted to share more time with girlfriends who were interested in vinyl, music, etc. I started contacting some of the store’s clients or women I saw online who had vinyl records and weren’t necessarily professional DJs, but still wanted to share their music. After a year of doing it this way, two opportunities to play outside the store came up and at the same time, I met Mujeres Vinileras, Chulita Vinyl Club and Pantera Cartel in CDMX. This is when I called Marcela, Valeria, Luisa, and Juanita so we will be the heads of the club and organized ourselves for real.

What is a day in the life like?

I have an office-traveling job Monday to Friday, I work at the record store 2-3 days a week, play my records at diverse venues during the weekends, and I think about Los Rulos Vinyl Club all day long. Our group is getting tighter and we want to do many things together, one of them, a short tour outside the country and the biggest challenge we’ve put ourselves in a near future is to play our records at the female penitentiary.

We have several types of gatherings: afternoons at the record store where we practice one hour each, workshops with local DJ friends once a month, we try to do official meetings 1-2 times a month to discuss our plans, share stories, define tasks, etc.; and of course, we gather to share music, talk about our records and play at our events or places where we are invited to.

What has been your favorite / the coolest thing you’ve worked on?

I think vinyl records have brought me too many happy times and friends to choose one, with my boyfriend and TLB Records, playing at Kasheme in Zurich and of course having our own record store; with Los Rulos Vinyl Club.

Our second anniversary was the first event we organized ourselves and was a total success, with Vinileros del Trópico we put on a market plaza project where we played records in the most popular fruit, vegetables, herb and food plaza in the country while people did their usual shopping.

What has been / is the most difficult part of your job?

Juggling several jobs and schedules; just the two of us run the store and then there’s the vinyl collectives, which involve organizing and making joint decisions. We all have different schedules so it’s hard to coincide sometimes.

What advice do you have for someone wanting to get into pursuing what you’re doing?

I say if you love it, go for it, don’t wait. I had the idea of the all-women vinyl collective on my mind for two years before taking the first step and making the first event but just wasn’t sure about it. Once I did the first one all the girls wanted more, new girls wanted to participate, and many of them took tasks and responsibilities and made the club what it is now.

With the record store we learn something new every day and something that characterizes us; we have all types of music, we don’t limit ourselves to some genres but try to have a very diverse offering. We also do things with a lot of love and are in front of it, we are the only two employees of the store and do everything.

I am, I had a couple of bolero records I inherited from my grandfather before beginning the collection with my boyfriend right as we started the online record store. We fell in love with the format as soon as we got involved in the industry and understood what was going on in the world regarding vinyl records. Colombia is the country of 1.000 rhythms and the music we have here is gold!

What types of things are happening in your industry / with vinyl that you’re excited or worried about? i.e. innovation, or trends you’re seeing.

I’m happy to see more and more people getting into vinyl. More and more bars, restaurants and clubs have the format incorporated into their events and have bought appropriate equipment, are interested in the DJs who play vinyl, and promote it. Vinyl sales keep going up as well and all generations love it.  I’ve also seen an increase in female vinyl selectors so that is wonderful!

Finally, tell me what you’re listening to right now that you’re loving:

My favorite music genre is salsa, and my favorite DJ/Producer is Quantic.

Find Eugeny:

Instagram:

Eugeny: @eyunisdc

Los Rulos Vinyl Club: @losrulosvinylclub

TLB Records: @tlbrecords

Vinileros del Trópico: @vinilerosdeltropico

Facebook: 

Los Rulos Vinyl Club: @losrulosvinylclub

Vinileros del Trópico: @vinilerosdeltropico

Website:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5GPBM6DjFo&feature=youtu.be