Vintage record shop owner talks business of 'geeking out'

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 that insatiable appetite that is at the heart of Birdman Sound.

Looking for new music, that crate-digging penchant for curiosity and finding the gems at the bottom of the stack or tucked away into the end of a record, are what keeps him in this business – even at a time when digital music is on the rise and mainstream music behemoths like HMV are disappearing.

"I got bit really early"

The band Chicaloah plays from the record player nestled against a purple wall covered almost completely in silkscreen show posters. It is at the back of the store where the long row of record shelves have ended.

Incense perfumes Birdman Sound while Westhaver, clad in his signature patched-up and stencilled jean jacket, pokes through a box of tapes he says he hasn't looked through in twenty years.

“I got bit really early,” John Westhaver says from behind the counter.

He had a cousin who was older than him by seven years, so by the late 60s, Westhaver was well-schooled in the rock music of the day.

Even before the age of 10, his parents would drive him to K-Mart to pick up his childhood favourites – Creedence Clearwater Revival's Pendulum, his first purchase, and the typical Beatles and Kinks albums.

“I got records for Christmas and I got records for Valentine's Day and birthdays,” Westhaver lists off.

“And at a point, once I got deep into it at age eleven, I would start getting Circus Magazine.” It was the hard rock magazine that would be formative in his first record-buying choices.

Currently his personal collection sits at roughly 8,000 records but he estimates that he has had seven or eight times that which he has since sold off.

He says it is easy for him to flip the ones he is done with, once he has “played the shit out of them” and they no longer serve him. The store is, in fact, a reflection of his own tastes.

A small corner of the used record shop Birdman Sound. His collection on display is
currently estimated at around 8,000 records in total. (PHOTO: COURTNEY EDGAR)

Since 1991, Westhaver has been a seller of psychedelia, noisy jazz, traditional blues, experimental, electronic, reggae and dub music records at his own store.

Although he does carry some punk, it is a rarity these days, and usually only the older stuff.

“I couldn't care less about modern punk rock,” Westhaver says, dismissing it as mostly copycat work.

Although his first few record purchases as a child were The Beatles and The Kinks, he does not sell them.

“I've done my time with them,” Westhaver says.

“I know them intimately. I had their catalogue. I know the words to all their songs. I just don't feel the need to carry their records because I would never feel the desire to actually sit down and critically listen to those records."
He says he just doesn't need to any more.

"You need your repeat customers because overhead is, like, staggeringly stupid"

Birdman also will not stock anything: “popular”, “currently popular”, “popular in the last twenty years”, or anything “mainstream” or “vacuous”.

After years of working at other people's record stores, Westhaver decided it was time for him to open up shop, naming it after the Australian punk band Radio Birdman.

“I got tired of making money for other people when I was more than capable of doing it even at that time on my own, but it was just a question of having the balls to step out and give it a shot.”

However, it is not -- and hasn't been -- easy.

Known for its chill vibe and cozy atmosphere, customers say going to the Birdman
Sound shop feels like just hanging out with friends. (PHOTO: COURTNEY EDGAR)

“There are so many variables at work, especially in the last fifteen or twenty years,” Westhaver says.

“The economy in this country is up and down all the time. And it is no big secret that the people with the keenest interest in music do not ever earn the most amount of money so that aspect creates a lot of headaches, because you've got a bunch of regular customers who are buying really deep shit, they don't care what the genre is, but then they lose their job and it takes six months to find a new job. So you lose them for six months as a customer.”

“You need your repeat customers because overhead is, like, staggeringly stupid,” he says.

Birdman Sound is the kind of store that he would want to shop in – that is why it is the way it is.

"He is so knowledgeable about music, really great, obscure music"

According to David Aardvark, a former employee of Birdman Sound and CKCU radio DJ, what makes this record shop stand out from the crowd is its closely-curated selection.

“There's no dead weight at Birdman Sound,” Aardvark says. “Turning people on to new music is really great and that happens a lot there.”

Candace Nelson has been shopping at Birdman for a few years. She says what makes the store so unique is really, just, Westhaver, himself.

“He is so knowledgeable about music, really great, obscure music,” Nelson says.

His expansive knowledge of bands, how they're connected to other bands or musicians, makes the shopping experience so enjoyable, according to Nelson.

“He is quite an animated character,” she says.

Brash, crass, sharp-witted, smart, funny, are some of the ways she would describe him. But deep down he is a huge teddy bear softy, Nelson says.

“He loves his job and it shows in his selection of records at the shop.”