Young Collector: Madelief van de Bor Crosley Radio Europe

Young Collector: Madelief van de Bor

In the ‘Young Collectors’ series we find out why these youngsters are collecting vinyl and we ask them which records they love the most. We start off this series with Madelief, who is a 20 year old Art and Economic student living in Utrecht.  
What do you love about playing records? 
Before you even get to the listening part, you're put to work. Remove the record from the sleeve and place it on the record player. Because of this you are more focused on what you want to do: listening to music. This physical product adds an extra connection you have with the artist. What you see is a final product from an artist who put their heart and soul in it. You can enjoy the artistic artwork and how the style of the cover works with the music and the story it tells.

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Why do you collect vinyl? 
I’m someone who likes to browse around interior and second hand stores. Vinyl attracts me because I can find records in many different ways. This week for example, I bought the limited edition Tame Impala at a record store, but also found a Wham! record at a second hand market in a little place called Eemnes.  

You're also collecting your identity over the years. When I was fourteen, I was a big Kensington fan and bought all their records. Nowadays I don’t listen to them anymore, but it’s nice to see what I liked at that age, so I will always remember.

What was the first record you bought? 
It was an Arctic Monkeys album called ‘Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not’. My best friend was an admirer of the band and I liked the song ‘Marty Bum’. When my best friend and I were going to Amersfoort I bought the Arctic Monkeys record in the Velvet record store.

Crosley Radio Europe | Young Vinyl Collectors Series

What is your favorite album cover? 
‘Little Creatures’ from Talking Heads. The original painting is made by artist Howard Finster. Tibor Kalman is the Graphic designer of the album. I can look at this artwork for hours, there's so much going on. For me, this is really a work of art. All the small stories you can find on the cover are so cool, but also a little bit creepy. 

Do you think the artwork is in tune with the music? 
Yes, absolutely. They use freaky sounds in the songs and in one song someone begins to scream.

Crosley Radio Europe | Young vinyl collectors series

Which album has a special meaning to you? 
This album is so cool, look at it. Boy and Bear is a band from Australia and my sister listened to their first album a lot. I thought they were cool and found out that the band was playing in Annabel in Rotterdam. Online I saw that they were selling a limited edition album during the tour and I instantly wanted it. When I listen to this album It reminds me of my teenage years and that I traveled to Rotterdam for the first time, with my niece, to see this band from Australia. 

Crosley Radio Europe | Young vinyl collectors series

What are your favorite record stores? 
I live in Utrecht and Plato Utrecht is my favorite store in the city. I like Diskid Zwolle, they file their records by genre. Me and my friends are a big fan of new wave and that genre is at the front on the right side in the store, that’s where you’ll find us. The owners also know a lot about new wave, I can ask them anything. And in Arnhem there’s De Waaghals, who has a lot of cool second hand records.

What is the coolest record store you ever went to? 
I went to a second hand record store in Copenhagen called Accord. This store buys second hand records once a month and the price depends on how long a record is in the shop. I bought my best Bob Dylan there record for €4,-, I loved to browse around. 

If you had to choose: buying second hand or new records? 
Difficult question, but I would choose buying second hand records. I think it is cool if a record is well loved before I buy it. For me the traces of use indicates other people took the effort of listening to the album as well. They had the same experience as me, enjoying analog music. 
Crosley Radio Europe | Young vinyl collectors series
How much do you spend on buying records? 
Don’t tell my mom where my pocket money goes! No, all jokes aside, It depends. This month I spent more than usual, I bought the new Tame Impala and found the MGMT album. But there are months I only buy one second-hand album. 

What is your advice for people who want to start collecting vinyl? 
Check out your local record store and browse around in their second-hand collection. You can find so many cool things. Like my ‘favorite album cover’ record. The Talking Heads album costs me €6. Second-hand markets are also perfect, like the one in Eemnes. Normally I don’t go there but I found two new records to add to my collection for a few euros. This second-hand hunting gives also an extra fun factor to the experience of collecting vinyl.

 

Thanks again to Madelief, we loved talking to you! 

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