Meet vinyl DJ and promoter Isabela Garcia, or who is bringing community together through her turntables, and dancing the night away while doing it. Based in Seattle and DJ'ing there for almost a decade, she is a regional promoter, vinyl collector, event curator, and the founder of , Seattle’s girl-powered dance party, as well as co-founder of Seattle’s Danse Macabre .
Meet Melanie Peters, the owner of Poulsbo Washington's first record store since the 1980's . Rockin' Ruby's is a brick and mortar record shop with thousands of top quality new and used vinyl records, plus CD’s and tapes. Melanie is a former wannabe rock star (her words), who as she got older found her passion to keep kids interested in music, and playing it too.
Meet turntablist DJ and music producer Madison True aka , from the US, currently based in London. While getting her MA in Popular Music Practice, with a focus in Turntablism she keeps busy running events and workshops for FLINTA turntablists and vinyl enthusiasts with open decks as .
As we continue on our search to find community throughout the world, we were thrilled to meet someone blazing trails in South America. Daniella Pimenta is a journalist, music researcher, cultural producer and DJ selectress in Brazil. She started her career in music in 2006, first as an independent journalist, and then as a DJ and cultural producer.
Meet Sydney Christensen the VP of indie label (KRS). Kill Rock Stars since 1991 has been a queer-positive, feminist, anti-racist, and artist-friendly label that came out of DIY punk culture and still believes in a DIY ethos. They are a small team, and all share time wearing different hats. Sydney is primarily in-charge of marketing, radio, and asset organization, as well as organizing timelines, amongst other things.
This week, we're excited to share how the vinyl making landscape is continuing to grow in Japan! Meet Ruriko Tsuruta, a Board Director at , a Japanese music label established in 2004, which then launched a record pressing business in 2018 called . Ruriko is in charge of production coordination, accounting, legal affairs at the label and vinyl pressing operations. Known for having such a long standing and wonderful vinyl culture in Japan, it's great to see the pressing landscape also continuing to grow.
This week we share the budding story or record store owner Jen Nolan. A self proclaimed massive music head, Jen has worked in record stores since she was sixteen and in November of last year decided to turn her love of records into a reality, opening her online store .
Karen Kalriess, or “Kitty” the Disc Jockey, is a vinyl DJ, radio show host, playlist curator, and musician from New York City. She began spinning soul 45s at a small bar near her home which led her to hosting "", an award winning show on in NYC.
It's fitting we close out the month with a Philly local while we're in town, who is bringing records year round to her community. Meet Keri Girmindl the co-owner and manager of . Common Beat is located in West Philadelphia, specializing in a large selection of vinyl records and musician supplies such as strings, cables, drum sticks and more, coupled with a full instrument and electronics repair service.
