Home Grown: The collector whose weekly trip to Amoeba turned into a life-long vinyl love

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: Erickson Raif

Instagram: @Nov_Spawned_A_Monster

Location: Los Angeles

# of records (approx.): 1,000

How long have you been collecting for?

I’ve been collecting for over ten years now. It started in college. I used to take the Metro to school, and there’s a subway stop near Amoeba in Hollywood, so every Friday I’d spend the small amount of money I had on records.

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

I’m proud of my whole set up. It’s simple, but way better than what I had when I first started collecting.

What record(s) are you most proud of?

I’m really proud of my growing Smiths/Morrissey and Sarah Records collection, but the thing I’m most proud of are the different types of music I’ve collected over the years. I can be listening to twee pop like The Field Mice then switch it up to VST & Co., a Filipino disco group from the ’70s.

My family and friends all have different taste in music; whenever they come over, I love that I can play a record each person will enjoy.

What does your record collection mean to you?

My record collection is a big part of my life. My passion for film, photography, and design all started because of music.

Whenever I travel to a new city or country, the first thing I look up is which record store I should go to. I was in London not too long for vacation, and instead of hitting up the National History Museum, I was in Rough Trade digging. There’s nothing like flipping though thousands of records and finding that piece of music you’ve been looking for or discovering a band you’ve never heard of and end up loving.

My collection also has allowed me to be a part of a wonderful community. Through Instagram, I’m able to connect with amazing people from all over the world and learn about different kinds of music. It’s nice to be able to share this obsession with a group of people who really care about vinyl records.