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CK
@myllck
CK has amassed a collection of records that would make even the experienced collector of this format green with envy. It’s carefully and lovingly assembled with music from all corners of the Earth gracing his turntable.
As mentioned, he lives in Singapore with his wife and young son Ming-Yang who is becoming quite the vinyl addict himself as well as being a promising young
musician! CK shares the vinyl collecting passion with Ming-Yang and they often go out digging together for records.
It was a no brainer featuring CK for this project and Im honoured he took the time to talk about vinyl and music.
You’ve collected records for around 8 years? Is that when you first considered yourself a record collector?
Yes I started collecting around 2012 and I accidentally fell into this hobby I suppose. I went with a friend as he was checking out a Project Turntable and as soon as I heard that needle drop on a record I was amazed by how good the music sounded. I had a CD collection but this was completely different! My friend didn’t buy the turntable and I did, after running it by my wife of course! And I didn’t have any records at that point either so I bought “Nevermind” by Nirvana from a local shop in Singapore because I loved that artwork! I was so naive about records that I left the album in my car under the very hot sun of Singapore and it warped badly! Luckily I found someone who could fix the warp and it is still in my collection to this day. I would say from the day anyone buys a turntable then they become a record collector.
The collection is obviously very big but do you know how many records you have?
I don't know the exact number no but at i’d estimate around 7,000 LP’s and twelve inch singles and then I have another 1,000 seven - inch singles that I store elsewhere. Also maybe have around 50 ten inch records.
Is it LP’s that you mainly collect?
Yes that’s correct. I grew up in the ‘80s where the twelve inch single was quite popular which is where my love of that format comes from and bands like Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears and Duran Duran who were part of the New Wave music genre and were releasing great mixes of their songs on a twelve - inch single. And now I’m trying to go back and pick up all those singles that I loved to add to my collection but they are expensive. I think I have around 200 twelve - inch singles in my collection currently. In general though yes it’s LP’s that make up the majority of my collection and it’s a format that I love to collect. The LP is such a great format for collectors to enjoy in regards to all aspects of the format. Things like the artwork, sleeve notes and label are so important for me when buying a record.
Your son features a lot on your Instagram profile, do you think he may go down the same road as you and become a record collector?
Looking at it at the moment yes I think he will but life changes quickly so you never know? His musical tastes are starting to change as he gets older I’ve noticed and he has more of an opinion on what I like to listen to. For example he does’t like Guns ‘N’ Roses when I listen to them, he always tells me to turn it off! He plays and studies the piano,which he is very good at, so he mainly likes Jazz music but he does have a fairly broad interest in most musical genres.
Is there a favourite genre of music you both like to listen to?
Wow, the problem with me is I like to listen to a wide spectrum of music. I was even into Hardcore music a long time ago but not as much now really. Music for me started seriously back in 2012 when I started this hobby and then in late 2012 I decided to open my own record shop with a friend called “Vinylicious Records” here in Singapore. He had already been selling records from his home so we decided to move all his inventory to a new shop. I had only known him for around three months as I used to visit his house to buy records but we struck up a great friendship and decided to open the shop. I liked that the record shop could get certain records in that were very difficult to get hold of in Singapore. For example, a record label called “Death Wish” who are a Hardcore music label, decided to allow us to start stocking their label which was great as we were the only stockists in the whole of Singapore selling their records. So that was how I got into the Hardcore genre but nowadays where I listen to music is in my home with my wife and son so it is much more family orientated. In fact when you look at music being released today, I think that genres are very much mixed with each other. Taking Jazz as an example, that genre has been crossed over with many different other genres like Electronic or Soul which gives Jazz a totally different sound. In the UK there is a great record label called “Brownswood” that fuses different types of Jazz together. It’s great to see how experimental Jazz music has been throughout the decades and that of course really started with Miles Davis turning more Electronic on some of his later records. This wasn’t to everyones tastes as some people started to say he was betraying his Jazz roots but I disagree. I am of the opinion that we don’t need to put a genre to music and that allows artists to be more creative and release better music. I have to admit I’m very excited with modern music that is being released these days. It seems much more experimental and more fun to listen to.
What is about the vinyl format that keeps you buying records?
Well I never thought about starting to collect vinyl until I went to that shop with my friend to look at a turntable. My first passion for music started with the cassette format and I amassed a big collection of cassettes from the early 80s. My father used to listen to a lot of cassettes also from Disco artists like Boney M and that got me interested in cassettes. Then compilations were being released on cassette like “The Grammy Award Winners” etc so I was buying those from an early age. I also became fascinated by artists like Michael Jackson and Bonnie Tyler. And then like most people I moved to CD and then I discovered the vinyl format and I think that you can have the most fun with vinyl. And I think the reasons I collect vinyl will be simillar to other collectors which are I love the big artwork and I’m a very visual person so that appeals greatly to me. There has been a lot of occasions when I am in a record shop that I buy a record just solely based on the artwork and then I can discover what the music sounds like when I get home and put it on the turntable. And of course the visual element became one of the factors when I was building my shelves and the idea that I could display artwork. There has been times when I have bought an LP knowing full well I don’t like the music but I love the artwork and I know I'm investing $30 on just something I like to look at and will never probably play on my turntable at all. But as a collector I don’t mind that at all and will continue to do that.
Do you have any records that you can think of that you have picked up for a great price when you have been out crate digging.
The best one I have found is “Golden Album” by Jefferson Airplane and I found this copy which was a Japan only release in a shop in Singapore called Memory Lane and it is a shop that sells records for a great price. This album, I didn’t know it was so rare until I checked on Discogs when I had got home and found it was worth over $200 and I only paid around $20 for it so I was very happy with that purchase for sure!
Ok so my final question is what will happen to your collection when you pass on?
I only have one person really it can go to and thats my son Ming Yang so I am hoping he will hold onto it. I’m quite confident he will want to keep them but if he ever wanted to sell them, they are listed in Discogs and I will teach him how to look at the correct prices if he were to ever sell them. As we have discussed, he has shown a big interest in records and music so here’s hoping he will keep hold of the collection.
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