Memorabilia: Collecting Sounds With... Andy Votel (Part I)

Andy Votel's first musical passion was hip-hop, which intrigued as well as attracted him: he wanted to find out how that music was made. Thanks to his resourceful father, he discovered that it was based on loops, and that many of them were samples from other songs. That was the start of his obsession with discovering sources, and of his scouring of records that were probably not earmarked for him at the time (the late eighties) given his age, 14, and location, Manchester. While his friends got excited over Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, Andy explored jazz recordings released on labels such as CTI Records and soundtracks by composers like John Cameron and Krzysztof Komeda.
Over the past twenty years, Andy Votel has travelled far and wide in a quest to buy as many records as he could. Some have ended up making it into his works or DJ sessions, and others have found their way into the catalogue of Finders Keepers, the cult label he co-founded with Dominic Thomas and Doug Shipton. His personal collection of vinyls, which he admits to measuring in cubic metres rather than numbers, makes him an acclaimed 'archaeologist' of unusual records, even though he refers to himself as the world's worst archivists and admits that he can spend hours looking for a particular vinyl at home, sometimes even buying a second or third copy because it's quicker.
Andy's main obsession is pop, particularly of the twisted and psychedelic kind. He feels an affinity for artists who have been sidelined by mainstream culture, and is particularly drawn to records that are written on, personalised or dedicated, because they tell a story. An unusual case worthy of study, in spite of everything, he doesn't consider himself a fetishist. His main motivation is to listen to music, and the only way to get the music he likes is generally to buy and collect it.
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