Home Grown: “My collection is more important than a sofa or a refrigerator”

Because every record collection has a story.

Home Grown is our series profiling you lot and your excellent record collections. Taking our cue from the brilliant submissions to the #VFRecordCollections thread on Instagram, we want to share a little of your hard-earned love for vinyl with the world.

Each week, we’ll be profiling a different collector from around the world and finding out what makes them tick. Want in? Send us a pic and a few words about your collection to social@thevinylfactory.com

Name: Moisés ‘Nolo’ Vega

Instagram: @el_nolo

Location: Santiago, Chile

# of records (approx.): 150

How long have you been collecting for? About 5 years

What part of your set-up are you most proud of?

I love my turntable – it’s a Sony from 1982, the same year I was born. It has aged better than me. I bought it from a collector here in Santiago, his office had dozens of old turntables, all in mint condition.

In my family we never had one, so soon as I saved some money I bought a suitcase turntable, but it had horrible sound. I changed it as soon as possible.

What record(s) are you most proud of?

My favourite is a very old edition of The Beatles’ Revolver. The album is in good condition and sleeve is trashed, but I love it. Another album that I love is a Japanese edition of The Clash’s Combat Rock – that comes with a giant poster.

What does your record collection mean to you?

My collection is my way of saying: I’m old, I do not want to go out and party anymore, I just want to stay at home, invite my friends to come over and enjoy album after album together with my girlfriend. Obviously with food and a good Chilean wine too.

I love progressive music and conceptual albums, and for me albums should be heard from the beginning to the end because they are a complete piece of art.

For a financial reasons, I decided to buy new releases only on CD and leave the vinyl records only for the classics. Chile is a very expensive country to buy records, so I buy in other countries when I’m traveling.

Even though it is a small collection, all the people that come to my house tell me that they would love to have a similar audio system, and I tell them: “it is more important than a sofa or a refrigerator”.