Home Grown: A meticulous vinyl archive and Rane rotary in Chicago

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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 of your collection and a few words about your collection to [email protected].


Name: Adam Rowe Lonczynski

Location: Chicago, IL

Size of collection (approx.): 3,478 records (as of February 5th, 2017)

How long have you been collecting for? I’ve been collecting in earnest for about seven years, although I began buying records at much smaller scale through high school and college. Growing up, I was always inspired by my father’s collection of vinyl and CDs, which he kept meticulously organized, and I think that had a strong influence on me.

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

I am most proud of the records in my collection that I have helped create. As a graphic designer, I’ve always been very hands on in the scene- designing logos, record artwork and flyers. Chicago’s dance music community is full of talented and driven people, and I’ve been lucky to work with many of them.

I currently work at Gramaphone Records and co-run a record label, as well as write and produce music. Through all of these things over the past seven years, I’ve learned so much about music, the history and process of producing vinyl, and myself.

The stack of records I helped to create is the physical manifestation of that experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Oh, and also… my Rane MP2016S!

What does your record collection mean to you?

My record collection embodies exactly how much music means to me, and more importantly, it is the touchable, smell-able, and organize-able representation of my personal journey through music, which I am able to revisit whenever I want. As our world fills rapidly with non-physical stimuli, owning a hard copy of something is one of the highest forms of respect you can have for a medium.

I also enjoy the preservationist and archival aspects of collecting records. Once a piece comes in to your possession, you become responsible for it. When you come across something rare or unknown in beautiful condition, you can always rest assured that at least one copy of the record is safe and accounted for.

Records can quickly become an overwhelming thing to keep track of, but the way you organize your collection can become almost as personal as the records themselves. It’s also reassuring to know that my music collection can transcend digital rights management and – given a crank-driven turntable— total power-grid failure, Waterworld, and solar flares.