Tones of Vinyl
The Podcast
The pressings. The people. The obsession.
Chalino Sánchez, a Death Note, and the Gunfight That Made a Legend
Elijah Wald
Chalino Sánchez was handed a note onstage in Culiacán, Sinaloa on May 15, 1992. The next morning he was found dead in an irrigation canal. The grainy clip of that moment, the "death note" video, has millions of views, and our guest doesn't believe it's what the internet says it is.
Elijah Wald wrote Dylan Goes Electric, the basis for the Oscar-nominated A Complete Unknown. He also hitchhiked across Mexico with a guitar and wrote Narcocorrido, the first book to track down the corrido songwriters themselves.
We get into what a corrido actually is, how Prohibition-era smuggling turned it into the narcocorrido, the Coachella shootout that made Chalino a legend before the murder made him a martyr, and why kids in LA compared him to Eazy-E while writers reached for Tupac.
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Sea Nomads, a Vanishing Drum, and a Rhythm That Crossed an Ocean
Salin Cheewapansri
There's a theory that a rhythm born in Africa crossed the Indian Ocean, through Madagascar, out into the Pacific, and washed up in Thailand a few hundred years ago, and that it's still in there, buried in a folk drum most people outside Southeast Asia have never heard of.
Salin Cheewapansri started on piano, switched to drums because the teacher was cooler, and was doing session work in Bangkok by her teens, before studying journalism in Ohio and landing in Montreal. Somewhere in between, she turned herself into an on-the-ground anthropologist: tracking down the Urak Lawoi, sea nomads whose lineage stretches from Madagascar to Papua New Guinea, and recording music that's maybe one generation from disappearing.
What came out the other side is Rammana, just reissued on marble vinyl. It's not a straight field recording either. She builds modern funk grooves and jazz phrasing right into the old rhythm, so what you're hearing is that buried beat and where she's willing to take it.
Field Notes, Vinyl Walls, and the Art of Making Things That Last
Aaron Draplin
Aaron Draplin is the founder of Draplin Design Co. and co-founder of Field Notes. He's designed for Nike, Patagonia, Ford, Esquire, Burton Snowboards, and the Obama administration. He designed a US postage stamp. He's done concert posters for Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell. He wrote a book called Pretty Much Everything that's in its thirteenth printing. And he runs his entire operation out of a backyard shop in Portland, Oregon.
In this episode we start with vinyl and end up somewhere much deeper. We talk about creativity, collecting, letting go, and the kind of work ethic that comes from watching your dad treat every single person in the room with respect. Aaron Draplin is the real deal. This one's worth your time.
The Man Behind Big Pink
John Simon
Before there was Music from Big Pink, before Cheap Thrills, before Leonard Cohen debut — there was John Simon in the room. One of the most important producers of the late 1960s, Simon shaped the sound of The Band across three records, produced Janis Joplin best-selling album, and helped birth the jazz-rock movement with Blood, Sweat and Tears. But John Simon is not just a producer. He is a musician, a songwriter, and a performer who still tours today. In this episode, we sit down with the man Robbie Robertson said fit like a glove and hear the stories firsthand.
From Calcutta to the Grammys
Souvik Dutta
Discover how a tech professional turned a bedroom music blog into a Grammy-winning independent record label. In this premiere episode of the Tones of Vinyl podcast, we sit down with Souvik Dutta, founder of Abstract Logix.
More episodes coming soon