More than 15, 000 walking steps later, all designed by conversations about life and death, hope and sorrows, we all figured it would be a good idea to give our day “off” a lighter twist to its already pretty serious tone, and there’s nothing like a field trip to bring a joyful vibe to the mix, right!?! So, let’s go visit our vinyl pressing plant, “Drummond Vinyl”. It was very exciting, considering the fact that I didn’t have the opportunity to visit our final installations after I set its colors and designs back in August! And considering that it’s been up and running since its opening last November, my presence on site was truly awaited and seriously long overdue. There was a grand celebration of that incredible accomplishment, as it was another vivid incarnation of a vision made real by our sole determination to keep on pushing through the numerous obstacles we had to manage with each motion forward and all the perpetual technical adjustments we had to deal with every day. I knew it would be quite fulfilling for Jeff, Miss Isabel Ben, and me to witness our own vinyl pressing plant operating in full swing… From the kid I was, holding the “huge” artwork cover of one of my father’s vinyls up to being the co-owner of a factory giving life to the physical art form support for my own music, as well as so many other artists’ dreams, it’s an incredible feeling to simply write about such a type of improbable and crazy project embodiment, especially after such an extensive period of blooming gestation. That’s the reason why the very instant I held the first vinyl pressed “home” in my hands it would immediately turn the 2-year-and-a-half of incessant daily work it took to set everything up, a widespread measure of collective accomplishment impossible to describe…
We were all so emotional when we arrived on site. We were welcomed with a magnificent gesture of love, as a little cocktail was waiting for us upon arrival, along with an extraordinary immersive experience, not only involving a vinyl-making procedure master class, but the invitation to make vinyls ourselves. Can you make music devotees happier?!? That’s pretty hard to beat, even more so when we saw Mikko looking like an ecstatic kid left alone in a candy shop while driving the plant’s forklift. That super funny moment of “extreme” industrial driving machinery was entirely worth our non-resting day “off” by itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mikko were to ask to stop by the plant before getting back home. We all felt like being at our own Disney World until the arrival of my mother and her friend, reminding us all that we had a surprise birthday party in a few hours… a party for which we had the responsibility to prepare the special meal, which we didn’t know anything about yet. And now, we had to rush out to the grocery store to buy whatever would fit our undecided menu, after stopping by the liquor store to buy what we needed for the drinks we had yet to determine. We all suddenly felt like, how can I say (insert a word defining a global panic of irresponsibilities)… One thing is for sure, everyone became passionately involved in the upcoming party preparation when I said: “Ain’t the festivities starting in 2 hours?!?” The general reaction was an “explicit” assemblage of not so “all ages” sort of expressions… words that immediately connected the French and English Canadians along with the British-Finnish representative through a common language right away.
Party!!!
Note: Before leaving the pressing plant, Mikko mentioned something that struck us all: “You have to be proud of yourselves. Can you believe that only a very few individuals actually own such a factory on the planet and that only a handful of people know how to make vinyl like you do in the world? You have to take a moment to fully appreciate what you have accomplished, it’s astonishing.”
To what Jeff answered: “Absolutely… Let’s do it while we are going to the grocery store and cooking…”
We all laughed and rushed out the door.
