In our Record Store Day 2024 issue of the BrooklynVegan Digital Magazine, we talked to many different musicians about how record collecting and independent record stores shaped who they are today. One of those was with Jay Ferguson of Canadian alt-rock greats Sloan. Jay has been a music fanatic since he was a kid, and actually worked at his local independent record store, Ol’ Dan’s Records in Halifax, when he was 13 years old.
We talked to Jay about how he ended up a record store clerk at such an early age, the first record he bought, The Beatles, his vinyl collection, records he’s still on the hunt for, his favorite record stores, and more. Read that below.
Read more of these Q&As, including Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, Frank Turner and more, in our RSD issue of the BrooklynVegan digital magazine which is free to subscribe to. It’s also got features on Blur, Paramore, Talking Heads, Militarie Gun, and more, plus our picks for the best exclusive releases to pick up at Record Store Day 2024. Check it out HERE.
How important have independent record stores been for you as a listener and consumer of music? Did you have any formative experiences at indie record stores growing up?
As a young record and music fan/nut, I was fortunate that there was always a healthy number of vintage and independent record stores where I grew up in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. Some of the records that I sought out would definitely have been the result of reading about them in music magazines or the UK weekly papers, but I’ve lost track of the times I’d heard something playing in a store, asking what it was and buying it on the spot. Track Records was the go-to spot in Halifax in the early 1980s for imports, and I remember hearing “This Charming Man” by The Smiths in the shop and buying the UK single that had just been released. Same goes for the “So. Central Rain” UK 7” by R.E.M., “Never Understand” by The Jesus & Mary Chain, and the fold-out poster single for “Rip It Up” by Orange Juice. It was the only store that stocked Let It Be by The Replacements or Flip Your Wig by Hüsker Dü. This is obviously way before the internet, and even before there was citywide college radio in Halifax, so stores like Track would have been one of the only outlets to hear and obtain non-commercial/indie music.
The same goes for the five or six vintage record stores in Halifax at the time. Taz Records, Beat Town, Days Of Wine and Vinyl, Talking Wax… these were the other stores in the early 1980s where I was going to find out-of-print records by artists I was reading about like Big Star, Nick Drake, The Millennium or The Velvet Underground. As a result of access to stores like these, it continually broadened my interest in music and stoked my record collecting fervor at the same time. Each time you discovered one cool thing, it led to another.
Do you remember the first vinyl record you bought, and the story behind it?
Aside from records I would have received as gifts, I think the first record I sought out specifically was Destroyer by KISS. My summertime babysitter in the mid-to-late 1970s was a teenager named Rhonda Joy and she was a big fan of KISS. I recall her painting pictures of Paul Stanley! (Sorry Rhonda, if you read this!) It was definitely through her that I would have first seen pictures of them or heard their music. I remember going to the record section of Simpson’s department store with my mom and asking if I could get a KISS record. I think I was frightened to show her the cover of the LP I wanted. One has to put in perspective how threatening, outrageous and scary they appeared to be in 1977. However, when you listen to the music in hindsight, it’s not much crazier than Raspberries. My mom allowed me to buy it and, the next day, I excitedly showed Rhonda which album I chose. She looked approvingly and said “cool choice.”
What is your most prized possession in your record collection, and the story behind that?
I have a few different records that might qualify as “prized possession,” both for rarity or sentimentality, but perhaps one of the more unique items is a copy of The Who Sings My Generation (their first North American LP) signed by all four original members; Pete, Roger, John and Keith. I bought it for the “astronomical” sum of $75 (Canadian) when I was in Grade 8. Pure madness! That was a lot of money in 1982! I was working at a local used record store Ol’ Dan’s Records by this point [editors note: Jay was 13 at the time!], so I was earning my own pocket money that mostly went back into buying records. An older friend, Frank Brady, who had worked at the store previously had the opportunity to purchase this record along with a copy of The Who’s second North American album, Happy Jack, signed in full on the back. Apparently they both came from a fellow who was working as a sound technician at a Toronto venue called Rockpile and he had The Who sign both albums when they performed there right before the release of Tommy in 1969.
Frank chose to keep the Happy Jack record as the signatures were more visible, and asked me if I’d like to buy the other LP. The signatures are a little harder to see on the first album, but I was more than happy to own this wonderful little piece of rock and roll history. I remember telling a couple of friends what I had purchased (The Who were still active and very relevant in 1982 at my school) and I think they thought I was bonkers. It’s a record that I’m happy to have as I’m a big fan of The Who, but it’s also nostalgic to me as it reminds me of the fun times working at Ol’ Dan’s and those early days of record collecting.
Is vinyl record collecting something that’s important to you, and if so, what put you on the path towards building your own collection?
I think I was always drawn to collecting, whether it was baseball cards or comics when I was a kid, or records by the time I was 12. I’ve always loved it. I like the connection to the past, and learning about history or assembling sets of artifacts. Being an only child, I think sometimes you have to make your own fun or build a world of one’s own. It could also just be the fact that I didn’t have a rival sibling who wanted to destroy stuff! For me, it also instilled an interest in music, record making, record labels and the desire to play in a band, so I guess you could say those early years of collecting records had a deep sway towards my future vocation.
I think what really put me on that collecting path was in the summer of 1981, a local used record store I mentioned earlier, Ol’ Dan’s Records – just two blocks from where I lived in Halifax – was holding a “Beatlefest.” My mom saw a poster advertising the event and told me about it as I’d become a rabid Beatles fan in the preceding six months since John Lennon died. I went to the fest, which was a normal day at the shop except they had lots of vintage Beatles records for sale and a separate room displaying Beatles memorabilia, posters, rare sleeves and ephemera. I was hooked.
It was such an enthusiastic atmosphere and I was so curious about all these records I’d not seen before …George’s Electronic Music album on Zapple, or the All Things Must Pass box set, both John and Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band records or the Beatles fan club Christmas records. I remember meeting the owner, George Zimmerman, and the teenager who was responsible for all the Beatles items, Frank Brady. I think I was there about an hour or so, and bought a couple 45s, a t-shirt and some buttons. I went home… and then went back again in the afternoon! I just wanted to hang out there more.
I did hang out there a lot that summer and eventually started working there after school and Saturdays by August of 1981. Being around, not to mention tolerated and welcomed by, the owner and his friends immersed me into a world of music and record collecting that I don’t think I would have been naturally exposed to. Artists such as The Kinks, Big Star, early Prince, Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds, The Hollies and Motown were just the tip of the iceberg. It was both a musical education and a fun environment that really fostered a lifelong love of record collecting. Even today, whether going to a record fair or visiting a vintage record store, it feels like a pathway to memory for me. I even recall that summer that Frank wanted to trade to me a box of extra copies of records he had – Beggar’s Banquet, Gerry & The Pacemaker’s Ferry Cross The Mersey, McCartney’s RAM amongst others – in exchange for a promotional copy of Somewhere In England by George Harrison I owned that was just released that year. I think it was a lopsided “deal” in my favor, but I think he was just kindly helping this 12 year old kickstart a collection of records he thought I’d like.
How big is your collection these days?
It’s not toooo crazy of an amount, maybe just shy of 3000 LPs and about 1800 7″ singles. I had more stored in Halifax many years ago that I just had to sell off (some I regretted years later!) as I didn’t have room to bring them to Toronto at that time.
Is there a white whale record — a dream find — that you don’t own but want to? Or a record you wish someone would reissue?
It’s clear that Discogs and eBay have reduced the endless searching for rare “white whale” records, as so much stuff is now within reach that was once an absolute challenge to find in the pre-internet era of collecting. However, if there’s a record I’d enjoy finding for a non-astronomical price (“good luck!” I say to myself) it’s the Barry Gibb solo 45 “One Bad Thing” / “The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine.” It’s a record released in 1970 in Canada only. It was issued by mistake, having been pressed up ahead of Barry’s debut solo album after the Bee Gees early initial break-up. Once the brothers decided to reunite, Barry’s solo album was canceled and so was this second solo single, but not before a very limited number of copies trickled out to some stores and radio stations in Canada. Perhaps it’s not his two finest songs, but it’s a cool rarity and artifact by one of my favorite songwriters, and has a cool link to Canada.
How has the importance of physical music changed or evolved for you as music consumption becomes increasingly dominated by streaming services?
It hasn’t really evolved for me. I still prefer owning the physical version of an album or 45 that I enjoy as opposed to just having access to it on streaming services. Like most collectors, I would imagine, I prefer being able to enjoy the packaging, design and the tactile vinyl experience. It’s something I like to think that we try to keep in mind when assembling Sloan box sets or reissues, not to mention our current releases. I certainly have nothing against streaming at all. I enjoy it for fun and convenience, not to mention previewing newer or older artists that I’d like to check out.
Do you have a favorite record store now, and if so, what makes it special?
It’s definitely hard to choose just one. I’m fortunate that I get to travel and spend afternoons wandering foreign cities while on tour with Sloan. I almost always find something interesting at Groove Merchant in San Francisco. Rebel Rouser in Brooklyn has such an air of enthusiasm about it, especially in the genre of ’70s glam, UK rock and rare underground power pop. Into The Music in Winnipeg is another shop I always look forward to digging through when on tour. Locally, I live within about a 10-minute walk of about seven vintage record stores. It’s dangerous! One of my close-to-home favorites would be Rotate This. Another, Shortstack Records, always seems to uncover unusual rarities at fair prices but unfortunately is closing due to their landlord selling or leasing their building and the shop’s difficulty finding reasonably priced alternatives in downtown Toronto. It sadly seems to be not an uncommon story across various businesses in this city and beyond.
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For more interviews like this and a big guide to this year’s RSD releases (metal included), read the entire BV digital magazine. It’s free and available instantly, in exchange for your email address.