Friendly record store owners tend to be a gem in the crates. With Adem from 33rpm records store in Berlin, Germany you’ve found at least a shiny baldhead. Who else runs an archive system for his undies, but not for his thousands of records? – This man knows his records better than what goes to his most precious parts! More than worth a chat:
Please introduce yourself: What’s your name and where are you residing?
I am Adem and i am running a small record store in Kreuzberg, Berlin called 33 rpm.
Also i am running the small 33rpm Records label which features all the stuff of my friends and lots of my own stuff, plus stuff from artist that we sign cause we like what they do, and whom are willing to cooperate on this level.
Do you have an internet site?
There is one, but nobody is really working on it.
There is simply not enough manpower to keep it updated.
We are just to busy…(laughs)
The Website is: www.33rpmRecords.com
We are also on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/33rpmrecords
Check it out.
Which music styles are you selling and since when?
I‘ve been working in a record store since the 90ties in a city smaller city called Bremerhaven where i was also running my own store. It all started with pop music, hip-hop, got into funk, evolved to jazz, indie, punk rock, rock. Its constantly spreading out to new territories.
People all the time made me check out new and different styles i would never have got into if i haven’t been working in a record store.
When i first got introduced to electronic styles I was like “fuck that techno shit„ but over the years you learn to appreciate and discover stuff that you prejudice against in the beginning. I am very grateful to have been forced to deal with all that different styles.
How many records you got in store?
A couple of thousands.
A little bird told us that you also have another store, storage of records in the city of Bremerhaven…
Mhhh….that bird is a liar (laughs) I will catch it and cut it clean into half…..
No truely i have another place where i am selling records in bremen. But its not really my place, i do it under comission in a bar where i am selling them a few days a month.
The bar is called the „Urlaub Couch Club“
Urlaub Couchclub
Fehrfeld 28, 28203 Bremen,
Deutschland
+49 421/9586370
team-orange.net
You can meet me there every first and third monday tuesday in a month.
Pay me a visit and check out bremen…
It‘s not all Berlin, Bremen also starts with a B.
Its the northern capital of chocolate and coffee. Quite a ruff place, when i describe it to people from abroad i mostly compare it with Liverpool, England. Ruff, bad weather, lots of unemployment and closed stores.
Really worth a visit!
Is it because of that situation that you decided to move to Berlin with the 33RPM record store?
No, its mainly because there is a nasty trend in Germany that everyone interested in culture and music is monopolizing in Berlin. I really used to hate that but it also forced me to move here and now i am quite happy to be here. But I need to say, there are other interesting cities in Germany, but people have the tendency to forget that!
Why did you decide to deal with records? Is it just love? Just business? Just …?
It would be absurd to work in a record store to make big money or something like that but it has always been the nicest place to be. Even before I was working in record stores I used to hang out in them. Outside the sun was shining and I was inside looking for records. That’s my way to socialize. When you grow up in a city like “Bremerhafen” where the cultural input is quite low I always felt very comfortable in those stores. Record stores always had a strong magnetic attraction to me.
Who are your customers? How old are they? Who could be your famous client?
DJ StyleWarz used to come to my store and buy records from me, but no Hollywood people..
I wish i could say Woody Allen bought a record from 33RPM but unfortunately that didn’t happen, yet…
Our customers are pretty much all aged…between maybe 19 and 50…
Some come in and ask for old Led Zeppelin records they used to have a long time ago , some ask for SIDO (laughs)
Where do you get your records from?
Some I buy from second hand markets, some I get from the distributors all over Germany themselves. That includes also some CDs, but mainly vinyl…
Do you go digging yourself e.g. at flea markets?
I can‘t really afford to do that a lot.
But when I am on a flea market sometimes I cant resist. It’s just a matter of budget.
Are you connected to other stores? Do you exchange interesting, rare records?
Just friendly connections.. Not business wise. We help us out if we can.
Do you have an archive system for your records? Where do you store them?
In shelfs… What a nerdy question! Are you guys nerds or something?
Regarding the archive!
I have a archive system for my underpants. Reds go to the left cause that color is recognizable anyhow, grey in the middle so i don‘t loose them and blue and everything else is on the right hand side.
That’s my archiving system, that helps me to keep track!
How do you recognise an interesting record?
That’s hard to say, maybe a way to answer that question is that a good record doesn’t need to look like Shaft and is sometimes poorly promoted. I guess there is no such thing as a secret formula. Intuition… that might be it!
Do you take any regular actions for preservation?
No…its mostly new records, they are sealed..
Which one is your oldest record?
I have some stock of interesting 10 inch shellacs but I have never put them out for sale yet, but maybe, if it gets through to me that there is an real interest for that I might put them out.
Is there any special record you are craving for, thats still missing in your shops collection?
Uhmm, actually to many to mention and they are to expensive on the market. I lost a very nice one by Marcos Valle, that used to be my secret weapon.. But now its gone. And i cant really tell you the exact release, cause its a secret weapon, you know..secrecy…
Did someone ever steal your records? How many and how did this happen?
It happens once in a while, but luckily not too often.
Which one is your most valuable record?
There is one record that is really sought after, that is the Hard Knocks LP.
It goes for 70 Euros. But normally we don‘t have that Japanese prices here.
Ghetto Love-Hardknocks
How do you set your prices for rare records?
I either just know from people asking or dealing with it, I also look up discogs or eBay to just have an idea, but sometimes the prices there are just not right. There are records that might be on discogs for 7, but I know they will sell in store for 15 immediately..
If people start arguing about prices and start with „but it‘s for 7 on discogs“, I always tell them to go to their computer and buy them on discogs…
Which one has got the most beautiful cover?
This one…
What will the vinyl business be like in the year 2030? Will there be just old and rare records or still new pressings?
Its hard to make an assumption on that one in these times where stuff has the tendency to change so fast. If I look at the market of old cars for example, I can see that in the long run there is a growing demand for originals from certain periods. In a recent newspaper article they talked about fakes of art pieces that are 99.7 percent as good as the original and still people want the original.
I guess, hope, it will stay the same with records, but its really hard to predict!
Are you also a DJ/Producer? What is your artist name?
Yeaas, i am playing many instruments, that’s my passion and together with my label its an important part of me. I would say its the other half of me besides the records thing.
Some of my projects are:
BANDS: Faruk Green, Edwyn Tokyo (R.I.P), The Iadeouts
SOLO: Jeff Özdemir
Thank you Adem!
“After reading the interview Adem insisted we’d let you, the reader, know there are about 120 written mistakes and about 40-45 mistakes regarding the content. First and foremost, Adem doesn’t have anything to do with music. Find out the other 39-44 mistakes and win a Snickers.”
33rpm Records / 33rpm Store
Wrangelstraße 95
10997 Berlin
Opening hours:
Monday&Tuesday closed
Wednesday 14-19
Thursday&Friday 12-19
Saturday 11-15
Photographs by Sebastian Marggraf
thomas drewes
Januar 19, 2012
nice report about adem,plese dont forget our lucky fishtown in north of germany and do write bremerhaven that way,it´s not an f* word