Interview- Kris Howland of Heady Wax Fiends
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years then you have heard that vinyl is a pretty big deal these days. 30 years ago, vinyl was well on its way out. Retailers were clearing out their inventory in favor of compact discs that were all the rage. Now there has been a resurgence in vinyl for both listening and collecting. Vinyl has been beating out cds and digital music in various different categories for the past few years now.
Vinyl has gotten so huge that major labels have been ramping up their production causing many delays at the plants for releases going out as far as a year (thanks Adele). These days it’s pretty rare to see an artist announce a new album and not have vinyl as a format being offered. Some labels are offering up subscription services. There are services that specialize in just that, such as Vinyl Me Please (VMP) and Magnolia Records. Oftentimes, they offer exclusive color vinyl only found through them.
Out of all that, there has been one club that has begun to take the vinyl collection world by storm. That club is known as The Heady Wax Fiends (HWF). HWF started as a group on Facebook for music and vinyl fans alike. They have since expanded to their own vinyl club. Spearheaded by Kris Howland, he and his team have been working hard to secure exclusive vinyl working in conjunction with various artists and labels. Recently I’ve had the honor to interview Kris exclusively for The Amp.
First off I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. You’re a busy individual, so the time you’re taking is appreciated.
Q: Let’s start off with telling everyone a little bit about yourself. How did you first get into music? What was the first album you bought for yourself or received as a gift?
A: I was raised by two massive music fans and grew up in a house where music was constantly being played. I didn’t know there was talk radio until high school because we were always jamming out to the big 70s and 80s bands every time we were in the car. The first cassette I bought with my lawn mowing money was Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits. I run/help a landscape company these days so I guess in a way I’m still buying music with my lawn mowing money.
Q: What kind of music would you say you listen to the most?
A: I would say that I listen to a wide variety of genres, but 90s alternative, singer songwriter and Americana dominate my day.
Q: Obviously vinyl is the preferred format. After vinyl, what is your preferred format to listen to?
A: I listen to music whenever possible, however possible. I’ve never been and never will be a format snob. I’ve collected live concert recordings in lossless formats much longer than I’ve collected vinyl and I still probably play my digital collection more often.
Q: Desert Island albums, everyone has their favorites. What would you say are your top 3 desert island albums?
A: The good ole desert island question. Can I sneak some extra albums into the gatefolds? The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, I could listen to that until the vultures came for me and I’d still hear a new bell or whistle every spin. Talking Heads - The Name Of This Band is Talking Heads, my favorite band and I love the live format. This album has the benefit of showcasing two distinct periods of the band with disc one being the early four piece lineup and disc two featuring the post Remain In Light big band era anchored by Adrian Belew. The third spot changes often. Tonight I’ll go with Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, I seem to need to put this album away after every late night spin session.
Q: Heady Wax Fiends, it’s rapidly become one of the biggest and best vinyl groups on Facebook and continues to grow. Tell us a bit about how it got started.
A: I used to help run another group on Facebook and things got sideways and I found myself on the outside looking in. I knew I couldn’t survive the lockdowns without a group to chat about records in, so I started my own. We started as a real life friend group and grew organically. It was important to the admins I started the group with, Brandon, JT, Josiah & Blake, to run a group where new collectors felt comfortable. No bullying over a passion. No gear shaming and absolutely no being a dick.
Q: The name Heady Wax Fiends, I’ve seen people comment that they sometimes didn’t pay attention and seen “Heady” and “Headly” or “Fiends” as “Friends.” I did the same at first. How did the name come about?
A: Hahahaha. Brandon Liss thought he was in a Facebook group called Heady Wax Friends for at least three months and he was a day one admin. The name really comes down to me deciding on the porcelain throne one day that we needed to be able to laugh at ourselves. My friend group likes to use "heady" as a term of good natured ribbing endearment whenever one of us gets too far out there. Wax was used to piss off the “the plural of vinyl is vinyl” crowd. I stole Fiends from that Dave Bruzza tune, “Blood Sucking F(r)iends.” I thought keeping the (r) was a little too on the nose. Just don’t tell Dave. Basically the entire name is poking fun at the typical attitudes of superiority that you’ll find in this hobby.
Q: Let’s move on to the club. There’s a lot of enthusiasm behind it. How did the idea of the club come about?
A: David Johnson asked what record club he should join and I jokingly responded that he could PayPal me $40 a month and I’d mail him a record. We were immediately encouraged by the membership to give it a go. I reached out to Erik Myers of Ridge Runner Records to ask if he wanted to help the admin team try this crazy idea out. Five or six weeks later we shipped our first record, Kendra Morris - Nine Lives, to 200 brand new subscribers. Last week we shipped our ten thousandth record in less than two years.
Q: Dear Lord that's a lot in a short time. What was the initial reaction by the team when it was realized you had shipped out that many?
A: I think the initial reaction to seeing a number that big was where do we take this next? Should we be looking to expand next year? Or do we concentrate on ironing out some of the issues that are typical with a new business venture?
Q: People love the picks. Even albums from artists that were unknown to some, people really enjoy them. Explain the process in deciding what albums make the cut.
A: The admin team all bring ideas to the table for the releases. We are constantly checking on artists and managers to see what’s coming down the pipeline. Once we have a solid lead we will get a sound cloud link to take an early listen. If we decide that the membership would love it, then we get serious. The biggest hurdle is timing. We’ve passed on some great albums because they were coming out when we already had another album lined up. Once the artist agrees to let us have an exclusive variant the real fun starts. We’re usually anywhere from 9-10 months out. I’m working on a deal this week for a May 2024 release.
Q: To piggyback on the previous question, what album has had the best response/highest demand?
A: We do an exclusive color variant record of the month and then we also offer additional exclusives in smaller runs. I’d say Goose - Undecided and Kitchen Dwellers - Muir Maid have been the crowd favorite record of the month titles to this point. Fruition - Just One Of Them Nights and John Craigie - The Apocalypse Is Over have been the most popular Fiends Fault Exclusive Series titles so far.
Q: Looking to the future, what does it hold for Heady Wax Fiends, both the group and the record club? Is there anything that you can share with the readers today?
A: The most important thing for the group is to maintain those core values. That group needs to be a place where somebody can grow from wanting to collect vinyl records to being obsessed with their vinyl record collection without anybody being a dick to them. We’ve never wanted to be the biggest vinyl record group and we’ve never tried to be the biggest vinyl record group. We’ve always wanted to the best vinyl record group and we will continue to try to be the best vinyl record group. The club has some really great releases coming up that we can’t quite share with your readers yet. We do have the first ever vinyl repress of Bela Fleck - Drive coming in November. Look for a few more releases in 2024 in that same wheelhouse. We have a huge album coming from a more contemporary artist that will also be made available for our subscribers to add on to their November purchase. The biggest goal going forward is to not get too big, too fast and concentrate on bringing the best releases we can find to our loyal membership.
The current list of HWF releases are:
( * denotes a release that is Exclusive to HWF)
HWF - RC 2022:
#001 Kendra Morris - Nine Lives
#002 Kitchen Dwellers - Wise River
#002B Cutler Station - Meat, No Sides
#003 Naughty Professor - Identity
#004 Oyo - S/T EX
#005 Ultrafunk - Meat Heat*
#006 Funk You - Moving Forward*
2023
#007 Goose - Undecided (with exclusive print)
#008 Polyrhythmics - Octagon*
#009 Kitchen Dwellers - Muir Maid*
#010 The Nude Party - Rides On*
#011 Abe Partridge - Love In The Dark*
#012 John Inghram - John Inghram*
#013 Cutler Station - I Wanna Build A New Machine*
#014 Neighbor - Neighbor*
#015 LeSpecial - Ancient Homies*
#016 Say She She - Silver*
#017 Bela Fleck - Drive*
#018 TBA (some time in August, street date late November)
Fiends Fault Series
Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver*
Town Mountain - Lines In The Levee*
Fruition - Just One Of Them Nights*
The Jive Turkeys - Bread & Butter
Sunny War - Antichrist Gospel
Kendra Morris - Babble*
John Craigie - The Apocalypse Is Over*
The Pink Stones - You Know Who*
Rodney Crowell - The Chicago Sessions*
Susto - My Entire Life*
William Matheny - That Grand, Old Feeling*
Oyo - Another Round
Kendra Morris - I Am What I’m Waiting For*
Madeline Hawthorne - Boots*
Follow the links below to find more info on Heady Wax Fiends:
