Collector Talks with Aimee and Alec of Objects & Sounds

The start of Objects & Sounds

Aimee has a background in marketing and Alec is a web developer. Their mutual love for music was the start of Objects & Sounds. Aimee: The idea behind Objects & Sounds was actually just out of our fascination and love for music and storytelling. Alec: Because of our background in web development and marketing, it felt natural for us to start an online record store.

Could you tell us more about categorisation of moods, how does that work? 

Aimee: Most of the music we like is so difficult to box in genres. Whenever we put on a record at home, we ask ourselves “what mood are you into?” And that’s kind of how it all started. We were looking for a way to describe the music that we like and found out that our state of mind best describes it. Alec: We started creating our moods by asking ourselves two main questions: Is the music warm or cold? How calm or how active is the sound? Combining these two questions resulted in 8 distinct moods. For example, Lost in Dreams is a combination of calm and cold and Having a Blast is a combination of warm and active.

Do you have the same taste in music? 

Alec: Both our tastes in music are quite diverse. We listen to a lot of different music, although I lean more towards the warm sound while Aimee more towards the cold sound Aimee: Yeah I think that's the main difference. The mood in our store we both really love is Lost in Dreams. That’s where our tastes really overlap.

What does vinyl mean to you in your life? 

Alec: Listening to music on vinyl makes the experience more special. With streaming, music is so fleeting. You sometimes don’t even know which album is playing. With vinyl, you connect more with the artist and the label. You have something physical in your hands and can read the stories of how the album came to life. It's a more active way to engage with music. 

Aimee: When we used to travel, we always loved going to local record stores and discovering which records people are listening to. We like bringing home vinyl as a souvenir from our travels. It’s an interesting way of discovering music. Also because we are interested in branding and storytelling, we really appreciate the thinking process that goes behind creating a record. It’s a complete experience and there are a lot of creatives collaborating during the process. That for me is a big factor why we appreciate vinyl. You get more of a community feeling.

Do you wish to integrate that community feeling into the store? 

Aimee: Absolutely that's the end goal of Objects & Sounds. For us vinyl is a means to an end and it gives us the ability to do what we like, which is connecting with artists, labels and with other people who are also interested in music. Alec: At the end of the day, music is made by people and the stories behind the music they make is what makes it interesting. That’s what we want to capture and share with Objects & Sounds.

How did your vinyl collection start and how did it evolve over the years?

Aimee: It is quite recent for me. I was moving around a lot, so it wasn’t really an option for me to carry a record player and records everywhere. As soon as I knew that I was going to stay longer in Belgium, that’s when I started. The first album I bought was Clouds by Gaussian Curve. I really like that collaboration between Gigi Masin, Young Marco and Jonny Nash. I knew I wanted to have that record as my first one. Alec: For me, it started out with my parents’ handovers. My first record player was an old one from my dad and he had records from like the Talking Heads and The Beatles. You could see, looking at the quality of the records, how much it was played and enjoyed. The Beatles one had a lot of scratches for example. But now, I mostly collect listening music and am very selective about what I buy on vinyl. 

What is your dream for Objects & Sounds?

Alec: We would like to invite people to discover new music. That’s why the moods are a good way to categorise music. We want to encourage people to be more curious and explorative. Our hope is that people will search with their emotion, instead of their mind. That is the experience we want to give people. 

Thanks to Aimee and Alec for this inspirational conversation. If you want to know more about Objects & Sounds and mood categorisation check out their website.