Meet the member: Rarekind Records

rarekind

Rarekind Records is rare indeed. Situated on Trafalgar street, this Brighton ‘real world’ record shop houses a wide collection of used and new vinyl within the Hip Hop, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Afro, Latin, Reggae, Dubstep, House, and Techno genres. Although described as ‘the best in Brighton’’, the shop is loved by music lovers across the world, shipping internationally daily. We spoke to the ever-so knowledgeable owner – Ewan about the origins of the business, what being independent means to him, and more…

How was the business founded?
Rarekind Records started as part of the Rarekind Gallery, which was a graffiti art, supplies and customisation set up in the early 2000s by a graffiti artist called David Samuel with a Princes Trust Loan. I started working in the gallery part-time helping to push the music side of things.

How has the business changed or grown over time?
In 2007 we moved to the current location on Trafalgar St with the records on the top floor and the Gallery downstairs, and a year or so later David decided to relocate to London and I took over the whole building for Rarekind Records.

What is it like to be an independent business?
Being an Independent business is important to me. I like to think that we are helping to continue the long-standing tradition of independent record shops that promote and push music they like. As far as I’m concerned it’s vital that independent and underground music is able to co-exist alongside the mainstream, and records shops have always and hopefully continue to play a role in that.

What goods and/or services do you offer? How are these unique?
Over the years we’ve expanded the types of music we sell, and we now sell a little bit of most genres of music. Where we differ from many shops is that we stock both brand new releases and old rare and collectable records.

What inspires you? 
Music is in itself the inspiration, both new and old. One of the great things about records as a physical format and about second-hand record shops is that they encourage you to find things you didn’t know about, there is a never-ending amount of great music to discover, both new and old; there’s possibly more great music being made now than ever before.

The shop’s customers are also pretty inspirational, it’s nice to be able to cater for like-minded people who enjoy music of any type in this format.

What are your plans for the future?
No real specific plans for the future, just more of the same – more records, more music!

Take a look through their website to get a feel for what’s in stock or visit their Trafalgar Street store. If you can’t decide on the perfect music gift, why not give someone special a Goodmoney voucher for Christmas and they can use it to treat themselves to a record of their choice!