Podcast: The Calling of the Black Noise

How Nico Sanchez built a monument to his passion for all to share.

podcast by Drew Jelinek

In this podcast, Nico Sanchez tells a passion driven story on how following music led him to building a community, and later how he gave that community a home in the heart of Bellingham.

Click here to check out Jelinek’s story on Black Noise

Transcript

0:12

Welcome to Klipsun out loud. podcasts from Western Washington University’s award winning students magazine Klipsun. The theme of this issue is passion. I am your host Drew Jelinek. The topic of today will bring you through the mind of mind of Nico Sanchez, a man whose siren call has shaken the status queo of local music for years, a call to all music lovers, a call better known as the Black Noise.

1:06

I just turned off the record player

1:13

I have always loved music for as long as I can remember, I grew up with music always being appreciated and played in my house. And you know, for as long as I can remember, music was just something that I was always passionate about. My grandfather really likes music. He was really into classical music. My- my family’s from the Philippines and my youngest. Some of my youngest memories are of him just like playing classical CDs, he had a pretty extensive collection of classical CDs. My parents always played music around the house, and they always enjoy to like, just dance and play music with their friends. There’s a lot of Earth Wind and Fire and like Michael Jackson and Prince and stuff like that being played in our house. So it was always appreciated. And I was always passionate about it. From a young age, I started making and experimenting with music. in like elementary to middle school, I think I started playing guitar around that time. The reason I love records so much is I was making a lot of beats in late high school. And a lot of the beats that I loved were just sample oriented beats, you know, beats that were samplings jazz records and soul records and kind of like taking something from the past and recreating it into into something that’s your own. And through that I just fell in love with records because I discovered so much music through vinyl. So much music that I couldn’t necessarily find on Spotify or YouTube, it was just a different and unique experience for me to go to a record store and come across music in a physical form. You know, it was really rewarding and, and cathartic in a lot of ways too. I think one of the favorite, one of my favorite personal records that I own is an original copy of giant steps by John Coltrane. And if you’re into jazz, you know how much of a legendary recording that is. But the reason it’s special for me is because it was gifted to a friend of mine, Jonathan Sherman, who passed last year, he was the manager of everyday music and I worked under him for a year. And his passing was also like a huge reason and inspiration as to why I opened the store. He was just such a passionate and kind of individual who really wanted to share music and make it accessible and affordable. And, you know, whenever people would walk into everyday music, and he was working, they would always say there was no ego involved, you know, which I think is like something that’s associated with record stores, is snobbery and kind of like being pretentious and egotistical. And just believing that you have a better taste in music than everybody but at the end of the day, the mission is just to share music and just appreciate it you know, so I think that’s what he did. And he was true to that. And you know, that’s something that we that’s an essence and spirit that we try and carry in our store. But yeah, I guess in terms of other favorite records, I’m just into goofy shit like I definitely hold near and dear to my heart the first record I ever bought. It’s just this weird Earth Wind and Fire funk compilation and there’s like mushrooms and a weed leaf on the cover of it. And I think I was just drawn to that when I was a young kid. So that’s just something that I think is hilarious and that you know I hold near and dear you know my personal record that I released melodramatic in 2019 is is something that I hold near and dear to my heart. It was it was a huge goal of mine to be able to put out my own album and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Other than that, you know, I think I see things that come through the store every day that I like fall in love with, or I find a new appreciation for I think I’m like constantly appreciating new things. And I’m always changing with the seasons, what I’m listening to. And you know, it’s just a reflection of kind of where I’m at, in my life at the current moment, I think.

5:28

We moved up here to go to college. And I was really into hip hop and making beats at the time, and I was throwing shows and just attending a lot of shows, but I was basically throwing shows with this network of people that ended up becoming my really close friends and inspiration. And they are some of the people that become became like the founding members of our label. And we were just kind of altering shows collectively, and being very competitive with one another and just like, making music together and sharing it at the shows, but it was just happening so frequently, that I figured we should put a name behind it. So that’s kind of when Black news Records arose. It was just a second, it was an afterthought, and just something that I thought would help solidify us or like, help me refer people to us, you know, because we would always throw shows and people will be like, Oh, what’s, what’s the, what’s the collective? Or what’s the group? Or I don’t know, what, what are you guys called. And I would just be like, Oh, black noise records, you know, so it just kind of is something that was just, you know, I thought was a necessity just to give us a name, but it’s kind of grown into something way bigger than that. I thought it just rolled off the tongue nicely. But it’s kind of like, you know, the polar opposite of white noise sort of thing. But I think a lot of it also stems from my love and appreciation for black music. You know, I think Black Community Music is overlooked a lot. And I think it’s not given enough credit when Black Americans were foundational on what American music is, and foundational, and what popular music is. So much of it is rooted and influence from black music. So a lot of it comes from that too. But I think it just sounded cool, to be honest. So how did we end up from being a record label into opening up our own flagship store. And basically, like I was telling you, I started the record label in 2016, when I was when I was graduating from Western. And we were just kind of trying to put out music from that point on and just be a record label. And my, my focus and goal was to put out vinyl just because I’m such a huge vinyl, junkie and fan. I just, it was such a dream for me to put out a record of my own. So it felt appropriate to try and put that out through black noise and grow the label. But just last year, my friend opened up a gallery on Bay Street, Geheim Gallery. And it was super inspiring to see a friend of mine just opened up a physical store and kind of, you know, take his passion to the next level and legitimize it and try and make it a viable business. And about a year later, the spot right next door from Geheim, opened up for rent. And I kind of just loosely told him that I think that would make a perfect record store. And he convinced me to try and make it happen. And shortly after I spoke with my sister who’s super business savvy, and she volunteered to be my partner. And we ended up signing the lease. We opened up the storefront three, three months later. And now here we are. I spend every waking moment of my life here, it seems, I mean, I’m so wrapped up in it, but you know, it’s voluntary, like, it doesn’t feel right if I’m not here for a day, because I am always wanting to just make the store the best possible store can be. And, you know, as somebody that’s, that’s young and starting their own business, you know, I didn’t have a lot of money to start this off. So I poured all my savings into it. My sister kind of matched me and put in some money as well and my parents like believed in what we’re doing. So they were able to give us a little bit of money to help us pay the first month’s rent. But, you know, being someone that’s young and doesn’t have a lot of money or a safety net to fall back on, you know, I really was just passionate about what I was doing and just believed in it and yeah, it results in me putting putting in a lot of work and putting in seven days a week sometimes but you know, there’s there isn’t really anywhere else I’d rather be I’m kind of living my dream and I’m just honored to do it. I think I’m in it for the long haul. I think I’ll always be doing this. I don’t know whether I’ll always be doing it in this sense like I’m running a physical storefront but I think music is just such a strong part of who I am that I can really picture myself doing anything else you know. So I think whether it be making music or just trying to produce music or mix music or you know, sell music or obtain music I think in some form I’ll I hopefully will be involved in music in one way or another for as long as I can.

10:28

That’s it for this edition of Klipsun out loud. Podcasts from Western Washington University’s students magazine Klipsun. I’m your host Drew Jelinek, thanks for listening.