By Roman Contreras
Staff Writer
Place the ‘Needle to the Groove’ and let the vinyl spin. In July of 2014, Allen Johnson set out to open his record store, Needle to the Groove. In doing so, Johnson continued his love and dedication to music in a different form.
Tucker Gootee, sales manager, describes Needle to the Groove as a record shop that caters to the “music nerd.” Gootee emphasized that the store carries so few CDs because it wants to focus on an experience that only vinyl can provide to a listener.
When asked what makes the vinyl experience so great, both Gootee and Johnson replied the sound quality is generally better and the tangibility of vinyl connects the listener to the music on a deeper level than MP3s ever could.
With the success of his record store, Johnson, whose real love for music began during his college years, started the record label, Needle to the Groove, with a business partner.
The label focuses on Bay Area artists looking to share their music with a broader audience. Johnson said the label’s focus is on local underground artists such as B. Lewis.
This is to keep their artists’ work within a limited run and control the quality of work to maintain a specific standard.
During his college years in the early 2000s, Johnson began experimenting with sampling in order to produce hip-hop beats on his Korg DDD-1 sampler.
Discovering his love for producing, Johnson began working under the name “Overflow,” saying it stemmed from the overflow of ideas he would have surrounding the creation of his music.
By 2003, Johnson had successfully produced his first record and by 2006 he had production credits on around 30 records.
Johnson recounted the job as “exhilarating–” getting to tour, record and engineer sounds for different artists.
Unfortunately, Johnson struggled finding artists who shared similar visions for his music, thus leading to his exit from the mainstream music industry.
Gootee, who has been with Johnson at Needle to the Groove since the early days of operation, credits his love of music to his older brother.
“You grow up listening to whatever they are listening to,” said Gootee.
Gootee has taken his love of music and put it into his DJ and videography work here in the Bay Area.
For Johnson, deep soul, gospel and blues are his go-to genres for listening on vinyl. Artists such as O.V. Wright and Johnnie Taylor are among some of his favorites.
Gootee, on the other hand, prefers genres like jazz fusion or vapor wave when playing a vinyl record. Regardless of the artist or genre, both agree that music on vinyl reigns supreme to other mediums.
When questioned about the store itself, Johnson stated that they aim to offer selection, quality, and customer service. He proceeded to add that Needle to the Groove is “not really a record shop, but a music company startup.”
To Gootee, Needle to the Groove is unique because it supplies records that one may not be able to find anywhere else.
“It is pure record culture,” he concluded.
