A short biog of Road Records:

Road Records was opened in September 1997 by Dave Kennedy [that’s me] and Julie Collins [that’s my partner]. A lot of people ask how and why so heres the answer in a short concise form. We originally met in another record store we both worked in here in Dublin, yes it’s a mildly romantic story.

After several years toiling away in a store neither of us really loved we managed to get very very drunk one night and decided we should open our own shop, this was back in the day when ideas like this sounded good. We sobered up the next day and thought to ourselves we should finally stick to a drunken promise and 6 months later we were the proud owners of our very own little record store. It all happened so fast that neither of us had even a chance to get scared of the idea of running our own business, which is a good thing really as I don’t think we would have gone ahead with it if we had really put a lot of thought into it. We both knew there was a huge demand in our city for a proper Indie shop willing to look after unsigned Irish artists who were out there doing things for themselves and also to cater for the huge hunger in this city for quality underground music, something we both dearly loved, old fashioned Indie kids that we were at the time.

The shop has developed massively over the years to include so many different genres of music that neither of us would have even dreamt of carrying at the initial stage 11 years ago.

Dave Kennedy of Road Records

1) How did you end up working in a record shop?

I began working in a record shop about 3 years before opening Road Records. I worked in another small store in the Temple Bar area which came about due to my previous occupation as a furniture maker. I was employed at the time by the store during an expansion into a second premises, I was basically building all the racks and display units. I noticed during the final days of fitting out the shop that a sign appeared in the window looking for staff so I took it down from the window just to make sure nobody else could apply and hey presto I got the job, not a difficult job for the owner with only one application sent in. Music has always been a passion of mine and my back was getting tired of making furniture.

There are many things that makes working in a music shop so special but I think the really important one for me is the fact that I probably would sit at home all day listening to music anyway so I may as well spend my time productively. I also love the buzz of metting like minded music freaks like myself and nothing is more enjoyable than chatting for hours on end about the ins and outs of your favourite albums, not live changing conversations but it certainly seems like it to us.

2) What do you love so much about music?

I think for me that music can just bring out so many different emotions in people. The fact that you can pick any particular record and it can evoke so many different feelings from people, some will love it and then some would rather walk out of the room than have to listen any further. I love the way music which can sound so blissfully heavenly to one person can also annoy the hell out of others. I love the way some music can be just so uplifting to you and also when moods change you can find something that just soothes you out of a bad mood or even just takes the pain away when you have a bad day. I also love the way live music can bring so many likeminded people together under one roof, be it 50 people in a small upstairs room over a bar or several thousand in a stadium.

3) If your record shop was an album, what would it be?

Its hard to believe that this question took me nearly 3 weeks to answer and finally I come up with an album that doesn’t exist [and most likely won’t either].

The album would feature the work of three different staff favourites. Julie is the expert on indie pop around here and the shop would not be the same without listening to Camera Obscura at least once a week, if you need any help in finding top notch melodic indie pop then head straight to Julie’s corner. Then we would throw in Japanese noise terrorists Boris, just for me. And then the only one all three of us can agree on here would be the vocals of the mighty Bonnie 'Prince 'Billy. So there you have it, an album features the noise of Boris, the twee pop of Camera Obscura and held together in a country roots fashion by Will Oldham. If this collaboration ever happens I think a tour would have to happen too.

4) Do people come to your counter knowing what they want or do you have a huge role in turning people onto great stuff still?

I think that would pretty much be split 50 / 50 at this stage in our experience. We have quite a lot of customers who know exactly what they want each and every week, some come in with a list from our weekly mailout and some a case of browsing and picking maybe 2 or 3 albums every week that they know they want.

Then there are a fair amount who will either trust our judgement with a few hints regarding what they like and dislike. We also print out short reviews of every title we carry in the shop and stick them in with the display copies so at least people can get an idea if they want to try something out. We have a listening post for both vinyl and cd so we do recommend people try out a few things that they may not be familiar with, this is very important when you carry a lot of underground music. Quite a lot of purchases are made on the basis of albums playing in the shop too, there are times when we hear a real gem and it just stays on the stereo all day, its that exciting feeling you get when you hear something amazing and you just feel the whole world needs to know about this band.

A lot of the Irish music we stock deserves to be heard by a wider audience and the exposure a lot of bands get is pretty minimal nowadays so we do try and encourage people towards something special that we hear from week to week. We have also introduced a regular album of the week and month, just as a way of maybe pointing people towards some of the real quality.

5) What’s the local music scene like in your city? Is there a distinctive identity to the type of music coming out?

The local music scene here at the moment is probably as healthy as it has ever been in my experience. We have seen a real change over the last 5 years from the solo singer songwriter and now more people are getting involved in both bands and collective style setups. Quite a lot of solo artists are now pooling their resources together to form little micro labels and promotions companies. We have also found a huge increase in the amount of top quality electronic and laptop style sounds coming into the shop, I think digital recording has made it easier for people to get their ideas down onto disc than it was previously. We have a really really healthy free folk kind of improv scene going on here beneath the mainstream venues with lots of likeminded folks gathering for a good old fashioned improv bash, its kind of reminds me of the older days in this country with the way traditional music was played live in bars and was totally unrehearsed and freeflowing.

There is still a really healthy underground rock scene going on here and has been for many many years now, particularly in the experimental post rock side of things with local bands like The Redneck Manifesto playing to crowds of 700 / 800 people.

6) What’s the place for record stores in the 21st Century?

If I had a crystal ball I could answer that question more accurately but I don’t so I will have to answer it from the heart.

I think a certain amount of hard working stores will survive through this transitional times we are in at the moment. It is very important for stores to keep ahead of things, in particular what styles and genres people are looking for and also its important to make sure people are aware of the importance of the smaller independent stores. I don’t simply have this opinion because I am a shop owner myself but as I say to people all the time do we really want a situation where the only place to buy music are either online or through the major chains. This will inevitably see smaller bands and labels fall by the wayside because I can assure you that the big chains won’t care about them unless they are selling thousands of copies a week.

I do think smaller stores will survive through this because there are enough people out there who actually want to buy physical products and also music is one of those things that people like to interact about, be it at concerts or just have a good old fashioned bit of banter in a store with somebody of likeminded tastes.

We have recently begun to notice a very small turn towards an increase in vinyl sales over the last year or two, people are going back to one of the first and finest formats again. Its kind of strange to see customers come in with I-pods in their pockets and buying vinyl but have noticed a lot of our customers are beginning to get a wee bit bored with the I-pod phenomena, they find the whole thing rather cumbersome and just want to sit at home and relax with a slab of vinyl on their turntable, as Jon Bon Jovi said in an interview a few years back “You can dance on an I-pod and dance to a record”, that raised my opinion of that man tenfold.

7) If you could make a perfect mix tape from your record shop collection – what would be on it?

1. Anything by Camera Obscura – for Julie. Its all about indie pop around here somedays, you have to stick with your roots.

2. Anything from Boris – for Dave. I’m just a sucker for long droning [and evil]

3. Anything from Teenage Fanclubs “Bandwagonesque” album. They are probably one of our all time favourite bands in the shop, how could we not include them

4. Ramblin’ Man by Hank Williams We have quite a passion for country and roots music around here, so best to go back to the original of them all

5. “Dress Sexy At My Funeral” by Smog, I think we both would love this played in a church after a good funeral.

6. “54 46 Was My Number” by Toots And The Maytals, we all love quality reggae around and really could have picked at least 40 tracks but we have gone for this one just for the stunning vocals.

7. My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep”. A classic from MBV, this I think is a standout track on a standout album. Romantic and loud at the same time, what a combination! 8. “New Partner” by Will Oldham, we could have picked any track from Mr Oldhas but why not go with the popular choice.

9. Anything from “36 Strings” by Irish band The Redneck Manifesto, they are probably our favourite Irish band from the last 10 years and their debut still stands up as one of the finest post rock albums to date.

10. “Two Wooden Spoons” by This Is The Kit which was probably our single of the year last year.

11. “Jackson” by Johnny Cash and June Carter, if we ever get married then this will be the first song of the night.

12. “Tupelo” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, its kind of apt at the moment considering the weather we are having.