MARMALADE DROP

I sat down with the man behind Ottawa's Birdman Sound record shop, John Westhaver, and asked his tips for starting, running, and keeping alive a vintage record shop. Here is what he had to say. ●  HAS VINYL 'MADE A COME-BACK', AS THEY SAY? “ Resurgences and come-backs don't last for seven years,” Westhaver says. “ Most people still just don't buy records. Most people just steal music from the internet.” ● WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN RECORD-SHOPPING HABITS OVER TIME? When people would buy records back when he worked in shops in junior high, the majority of customers would come in for an album just looking for one specific track from it. “ I had two aunts who bought records,” Westhaver says. “They were into country music. They bought albums all the time. Their record collections, which I inherited when they passed away, were really funny because they were blueprints of one another. It was where those hit singles were, those were the tr...

John Westhaver, owner and sole employee of the Glebe record store Birdman Sound, likens songs to brussell sprouts when he describes the discomfort he notices some customers have when they listen to new music. Throughout his work day, he often hears the line, “The only good song was the single”. He has to disagree. Most of the time, he says, people simply don't like what they don't know. “ It's kind of like the people who say they hate brussell sprouts,” Westhaver says. “What, because you had it once when you were ten years old? Your mom probably boiled them and you got salt and pepper on them. Trust me, man, that is gross. That is not the way to eat them.” John Westhaver, owner of Birdman Sound, an Ottawa record shop in the Glebe neighbourhood, shows a favourite record. (PHOTO: COURTNEY EDGAR) As a man who DJ's for CKCU and has been in radio since 1980, Westhaver says he has an insatiable appetite for music, especially records, and that it is ...