This is part of an Arts Access series called “Home is where the art is,” which gives an inside look into the art that North Texans treasure in their homes.
Justin Myers has collected vinyl records for about a decade. It’s become an obsession after his wife gave him a record player.
“Since then, I've just been collecting like crazy all the time. Daily records are coming in or I'm going shopping. It’s a sickness,” he said.
Thousands of vinyl records are meticulously organized in his home office by genre and beats per minute.
Some North Texas music lovers might know Myers as DJ Willie Dutch who hosts vinyl-only sets about once or twice a month. He said there’s something special about holding a vinyl in your hands.
“You can see who played on a record. You know what the label was it released on, what year it released,” he said. Myers said some things simply aren’t available digitally. “I can’t go on YouTube and listen to specific records. So the deeper and deeper I go, the more I find that records are the way for me.”
Some of his favorite records include Leo’s Sunshipp’s “We Need Each Other,” Kiki Gyan’s “Feelin’ Alright” and The Neville Brothers’ “Dance Your Blues Away.”
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Can you describe your vinyl collection?
I have about 4,000 records here. I sold a lot recently and gave away a lot recently. Mostly disco, funk, soul, boogie, rare stuff. Some rock and punk and stuff like that. But mostly all you're seeing is like disco, funk and soul.
Where did you get your vinyl collection from?
I mostly buy online because I'm looking for such specific things that when I go to stores, they probably won't have it. But there's a million great record stores here in Dallas. I don't want to single anybody out because I go to all of them, and I don't want anyone to see this interview and say, “Hey, you didn't mention this.” But there's a ton of great record stores here.
I have a wants list, which means these are the records that I really, really want. When I see those pop up, I buy from all across the globe. Some of these came in from Japan and Brazil and a lot from London, so all over the place.
Discogs is like an eBay for just media. So you can buy CDs or cassettes. A lot of the physical stores have presences there too.
Where is your vinyl collection in your home and why did you place it there?
When we bought this house, it was one of my requirements to have a place where I could keep my records. Before we lived in Chicago and we had all these records all over the place, in closets and extra storage units.
So I needed to have a place where I could keep all these. I have young kids too, so I don't want them destroying these rare records. Here [in my home office] I can sit, I can spin, I can practice my deejaying and organize my records in peace.
How does having your vinyl collection make you feel?
Every day, all day I'm thinking about records I can find or new records or artists I've never heard of. It consumes almost my entire life. So I can pull any of these records and tell you a story about when I got this or how I found this or who played bass on a lot of these. It’s just, I mean an obsession. There's no other way to say it.
How does your vinyl collection represent home for you?
I've been digging and buying them for so long, it's just kind of like another part of me. I think if anybody knows me, they know vinyl records or they know my obscure taste and disco and funk.
I think it's as a part of me as anything is, any part of my personality or characteristics are. It's essential.
Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.
This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.
