Q&A Remix With Fritz Myers

The Q&A Remix is a frequent column on IHTOV in which people from all walks of life answer a set of pre-written questions about their vinyl collection. Today we welcome composer and producer Fritz Myers.

Have you ever bought a record just for the artwork?

Yes! I bought The Mood Mosaic The Hashish Party at an outdoor market. Great buy. Strange record. It’s French funk/dance/electro. Side 1 and Side 2 aren’t even the same stylistically. It’s fun.

What is your most memorable vinyl buying experience?

I was visiting two old friends in LA a year or two back. I started my career there. They stayed and I took off for New York, but for a couple years, we hung out at one of our apartments every weekend, smoked weed, made food, and listened to vinyl for hours. During my visit we were walking around downtown after dinner and went into a spot – I don’t remember the name but it was a big store. Lots of used vinyl. I bought a couple albums, but the experience of wandering the aisles talking with those guys, catching up on who we’d become lately; conversations about kids and work peppered with “oooooh, look at this…” makes it a special memory.

What’s the first area you head for in a record store?

I feel it out. I can go in looking for one thing, but a display or what’s playing on the store system may lead me to a different section. I’m a sucker for the bargain or ‘other’ sections because that’s where I find records I didn’t know I was looking for.

What’s the most treasured album in your collection and why?

I have test pressings of some albums I worked on in various capacities. I keep the ones that are meaningful in some way, but those are museum pieces for the most part. I have an original pressing of Stan Kenton’s Cuban Fire, which is music that had an outsized impact on me in high school. It’s huge, loud, grand, groovy music. There’s something about the vinyl I don’t get from the digital masters, which I guess is the whole point of this website?

What one record in your collection would you be most eager to share with new friends?

Maynard Ferguson MF Horn 2. It’s kitschy – they cover Hey Jude, Theme from Shaft, and do a killer version of Country Road (by James Taylor; not to be confused with John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads).

Are you a completionist when it comes to artists? Which artist do you have the most records from?

Not at all. I tend to go through phases with bands/artists, so it’s rare that I’m into every record. I love albums and their quirks and the lore behind them. I have Wilco’s great 3 album run of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky, but that’s unusual. If I’m counting my partners’ records, then Paul Simon (who I adore as a songwriter and artist) would be the real answer.

What is/are your white whale records, something you have your eye on but haven’t been able to find?

I’ve been looking for Dr. Dog’s Abandoned Mansion on vinyl, but it was a limited pressing for charity that I wasn’t even aware of when it was happening. Copies go for $300+ last I checked.

What is your greatest “score;” could be on value or just rarity or something you were looking for the longest?

I just got an original UK pressing of Dark Side of the Moon in great condition. It’s just an amazing sounding record - I was looking for a copy that wasn’t a small fortune for a good while.

Do you have a favorite live record?

My favorite live record is Miles Davis Four and More Recorded Live in Concert. The story from Davis’ biography is he decided to donate the groups fee to charity without telling anyone and there was an intense argument backstage when he revealed they were playing for free. I don’t know if that has anything to do with how hard the group plays but it’s got phenomenal energy and swagger.

Who/what got you hooked on records?

The ritual hooked me. I work in music so I’m immersed in it all the time. Choosing to listen is important to me and the simple act of putting on a record is novel enough for me to make the experience unique.

What are your first memories of listening to records?

I remember my parent’s living room on Long Island when I was 5 or 6 listening to the Grease 2 soundtrack. I have very few memories from that time, but I can conjure the look of the vinyl being impossibly black and shiny and the grooves on the record being extremely fine, yet well-defined and the feel of the dust brush on my fingers. I remember being thrilled by the big cast numbers. I didn’t fully understand how it worked so I’d call to my mom to restart the side. After a couple times she showed me how to move the needle. I was terrified of breaking the player. The pops my clumsy 5 or 6 year old hands would produce with careless needle drops scared the shit out of me, but once the music started I was back to dancing around.

What’s your favorite record to listen to on headphones?

Run the Jewels 4 is definitely up there. It arrived during lockdown and I listened to it a ton when my partner and I would have alone time. My first listen was on headphones and I remember hearing the line, “never forget in the story of Jesus the hero was killed by the state” and saying, “oh shit” to myself and my girlfriend shouting, “what?” from the other room.

Tell us a little about your favorite record store.

I love an old record shop, which is more a genre than a specific place. Record Surplus in west LA is great.

What’s the weirdest record you own?

The Copper-Plated Integrated Circuit by Walter Sear. Sear was the founder of Sear Sound, a pretty legendary recording studio in midtown Manhattan, which is still around. I’ve worked there a few times as an engineer. This record came to me through my partner’s Uncle, who is a real audiophile and vinyl collector. He handed me the record and said, “this is weird. You might like it”. It’s not terribly weird but it’s a few of Sear’s compositions and arrangements of poptunes of the time including Hey Jude. In the liner notes I get the sense that Sear is trying to put synths on equal footing with acoustic instruments. He was a real advocate for synths, which probably had something to do with him being an early distributor of Moog synthesizers. I love playing people that record because of the sequence of looks that progress from confusion, to recognition, to amusement.

How has your record collection and appreciation for vinyl evolved over the years, and what has influenced your tastes?

The strangest development is the sheer amount of Christmas music. The Phil Spector Christmas album, Sinatra, Dina Washington, Dean Martin, Benny Goodman, Harry Belafonte. During lockdown my partner and I were alone with our two cats for a good long stretch and we covered our living room with an absurd amount of Christmas lights and bought every Christmas record that seemed remotely appealing. I was crushed when Beach Boys Christmas arrived and it sucked.

What’s the last record you played?

Yehuhi Menuhin Bach Violin Concertos. Another gift from my partner’s Uncle. It’s an old His Masters Voice lp. I put it on this morning to do emails.

Fritz Myers is a composer, audio engineer, and creative producer. His film scores include And the Worlds That Surround, The Becomers, Sushi Girl and Little Sister, named one of the 25 Best Films of the Century So Far by Richard Brody of The New Yorker. He has contributed music to notable podcasts, including the second season of Serial and Eric Marcus’s Making Gay History. In theater, he co-created The Bakken Formations: Tales From the New West with playwright Clare Drobot and provided original music for Chisa Hutchinson’s Sex on Sunday.

He is also a sought-after recording, mixing, and mastering engineer, recording and mixing over twenty projects for composer Nico Muhly including the BAFTA-nominated Howards End, two seasons of Apple TV+’s Pachinko, and the Lightroom immersive installation David Hockney: Bigger & Closer. He has mastered albums for artists like Thomas Bartlett, Olivia Chaney, Josh Kaufman, and Alex Sopp. Connect with him @fritzmyers on instagram or bluesky or at platitudemusic.com

I Have That on Vinyl is a reader supported publication. If you enjoy what’s going on here please consider donating to the site’s writer fund: venmo // paypal