Hamilton’s local record store welcomes its community with open doors
The digitization of music has arguably made listening more accessible for us on-the-go university students. Entire albums can be downloaded in the span of a few seconds, and mixtapes can be compiled with the touch of a few buttons. But in this pursuit of high-speed consumption, we risk isolating ourselves from communal experiences in the real world. Musician and store owner Brad Germain hopes to change that.
In 2017, Germain founded Into The Abyss, a record store which takes its name from a Nietzsche quote, as a way to provide service for his community. Now situated on 267 King St East, the store is reinventing what it means to be your local vinyl supplier. Offering artisanal t-shirts and pins, and a variety of different live events, such as poetry nights and live concerts, Into The Abyss is dedicated to nurturing a gathering space for Hamiltonians.
“I’ve always wanted my shop to be a community spot. So many of the events and shows we have are just a way to make people feel like they’re a part of something, and I think that’s a really important thing to have in a city,” said Germain.
I’ve always wanted my shop to be a community spot. So many of the events and shows we have are just a way to make people feel like they’re a part of something, and I think that’s a really important thing to have in a city.
Brad Germain, Owner of Into The Abyss
The store fosters learning as well, particularly among students. Among the crates of vinyl, Germain hopes Into The Abyss can act as a catalyst for expanding one’s musical knowledge — in fact, he thinks a visit to the store should be a prerequisite for graduating.
“You can learn a lot just by poking around in here. As a student, you go to school to learn and [I think] an extension of learning should be learning about the culture and cultural practices of the place where you are. Exposure to culture and community is a huge part of finding yourself,” said Germain.
You can learn a lot just by poking around in here. As a student, you go to school to learn and [I think] an extension of learning should be learning about the culture and cultural practices of the place where you are. Exposure to culture and community is a huge part of finding yourself.
Brad Germain, Owner of Into The Abyss
Discovering who you are, what you like and what you dislike are major revelations many of us come to during our university years. While the process can take time, finding your true self is a reward worth waiting for. In the midst of this journey of self discovery, Into The Abyss wants to be your guide.
“If you’re coming from a different city or you’re coming to a new place for school, I think community becomes a very important thing. To have places that feel comfortable and safe for you to be at, where you can experience new things and meet new people. The store is really good for that here,” Germain expressed.
Into The Abyss is open from 12 P.M. to 5 P.M. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12 P.M to 7 P.M on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 11 A.M to 5 P.M. on Saturdays. For the latest sales, shows and events, visit their Instagram account here.
Approximately once a month from last October through to June, Into the Abyss, a record store on Locke Street South, hosted concerts in its small but cheery space. With autumn back on the horizon, the store is starting up the Shopshows Series once again on September 29.
Store owner Brad Germain had been thinking of the idea long before the record store opened last year. He believes being able to enjoy music with music makers and other music lovers in a close environment is a special experience.
As a friend of musicians and a musician himself, he wanted to provide a unique venue where artists would want to play. The closeness of the shop setting delivers the sort of heightened experience that he knows artists are looking for.
“[A]ny time you can break down the barrier between audience and creator, I think it always makes for better art and always makes for a better experience… I think that it's so much easier to make a connection with the audience and the audience with you when you're all on the same level and… close to one another and able to feel each other's energy,” he explained.
At the same time, he also enjoys the fact that he is able to support hardworking and heartfelt artists by inviting them to play at the shop. The shows last year often included local Hamilton artists, such as improvised noise duet Eschaton and the band, Human Nun, known at the time as Poorage.
Like the music sold at the store, the artists that have played Into the Abyss come from many different places. Last year, there were shows featuring Canadian artists such as Montreal folk singer Corey Gulkin, and Winnipeg-based band Tunic. Internationally known artists, such as British folk act This Is The Kit, also came to play the shop.
Germain is looking forward to bringing some more internationally renowned artists into the store this year, giving his audiences a unique chance to see these larger artists in a smaller venue.
The intimacy of the space was not the only motivator behind Germain’s decision to start the shows. He also liked the idea of providing an alternate small space venue outside of the bar scene, something the Locke Street community didn’t have prior to Into the Abyss.
“I think a lot of music now… is tied to [having] a seat in a bar and then you have to drink. You have to… go out late at night and you know people tend to drink a lot and then it turns into this… party thing where the music becomes a secondary… part of the puzzle,” he explained.
“I felt that it was important to have another space in Hamilton [where] people could have access to live music and connect with it in a very quiet, intimate, small setting where the music is the focus… [It’s about] bringing people together… [and wanting] another space in town where people could go to see music without all that other type of pressure.”
Last year’s Shopshows series included kid-friendly shows and start times as early as four in the afternoon. Distancing the music viewing experience from the party experience gave Shopshows audiences a chance to truly enjoy and interact with the music they came to see.
For Germain, the music is the most important aspect. He loves working in music because he believes in the power that it has to change lives and foster community.
“Well, you know, the power of music is crazy, the power of what music can do to a human being and the effect it has. The effect that music has on plants, the effect that music has on animals… I get… so excited about music when I talk about it... because it changes your life,” he said.
“When you think about all the moments in your life where music impacted you in profound ways and it's like, you know, speech has the power to do that as well, but sometimes tones arranged in the right way, performed by the right person and you listening to them at the right time is…transformative…[I]t's so vital to the human experience.”
The audiences that come out to the shows are able to feel that transformation. The small space breaks down the distance that exists between strangers and allows individuals to feel part of the larger community. By plugging into the music and to each other, the Shopshows give people a chance to unplug and truly feel the power of music.
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1978 witnessed debut albums from such future rock heavyweights as Dire Straits, Van Halen and The Cars, not to mention each of the four original members of Kiss. Yet, the year also marked a musical milestone for the city of Hamilton: the opening of Cheapies Records and Tapes on King Street East.
Owner Brian Jasson had only recently graduated high school at the time, making him younger than most of the artists that his store would soon be stocking. “I started working in a record shop in 1977 after completing Grade 13,” Jasson recalled. “I was offered my own store by the owner of a small chain in Burlington, which I opened in 1978. My second store opened shortly after in Hamilton.”
More than thirty years later, classic records from this era fill teeming used bins at Cheapies, alongside an immense selection of newer and older releases across several formats. Indeed, Jasson notes that Cheapies has withstood decades of flux in the recording industry, with music moving “from 8-track to cassette to CD to free, with vinyl surviving all.” Today, the store also stocks video games, movies and collectibles. The sight of discounted, previously owned Blu-Ray discs further testifies to how rapidly entertainment formats come and go.
Despite changes in the listening habits of its customers, however, Cheapies has always refused to turn its back on the turntable. “Vinyl has never left Cheapies,” said Jasson, “and yet it has been a steadily increasing percentage of sales since 2005 after bottoming in the mid-‘90s.” While few young music enthusiasts start record shops these days, as Jasson did in 1978, they do buy a lot of vinyl. Jasson credits “kids between 18 and 25” with having the biggest impact on vinyl sales.
While vinyl records kept turning in Cheapies over the years, so did the world outside. The store’s neighbourhood, near the intersection of King and John, is markedly different today than it was in the late 1970s. In Jasson’s words, “it’s gone from suit and tie to crack heads, from Woolworths to bingo.”
This blunt assessment reflects the pragmatism with which Cheapies operates. It is easy to romanticize the importance of independent record retailers to their communities. Such stores are sometimes idealized as buzzing, Bohemian hangouts for members of the local music scene to come together and collaborate, whether they are actually buying records or not.
Jasson removes these rose-coloured glasses and runs Cheapies with a more matter-of-fact philosophy. “If you don’t have the stuff people want to buy at the price they are willing to pay for it, you are out of business, and the ‘community’ doesn’t care,” he explained. His words make the idea of a community-based record store sound as sentimental as all the Christmas albums currently on display at Cheapies’ entrance.
Despite Jasson’s claim not to “understand connecting with the community,” however, Cheapies does make some attempts to extend itself beyond its doors. In the summer months, there are regular sidewalk sales. Employees also manage an active Twitter account that fields constant questions about whether certain items are in stock
These efforts reflect the personal touch and knowledgeable staff that Jasson believes keep people coming back to Cheapies in the iTunes age. “There is something about coming home, being comfortable, touching the product and having 60-plus years experience anytime during the day,” he said.
Given the transformation that the recording industry has undergone since 1978, it is difficult to imagine how people will be listening to music three decades from now. Yet, whether Hamilton music fans of the future use iPods or direct line-ins to the brainstem, it seems likely that Cheapies will be around to meet their needs. If so, the store’s continued success will surely be based on ordinary business savvy, just as much as nebulous notions of “community.”
Cooper Long,
