Meet Dean Reid, The Man Behind Canada’s Only Operational Vinyl Pressing Plant

Dean Reid, founder of Calgary's Canada Boy Vinyl, Canada's only operational vinyl pressing plant, has spent twenty years fucking up his hearing: working construction and rocking out on the bass guitar. Nonetheless, he still swears that vinyl is the only way to listen to music.

He started the venture in 2013, but Canada Boy only recently opened its doors in September 2015. It has been a labour of love for Reid, dedicated to ensuring that Canadians will never have to settle for CDs. However, his passion is also matched by pragmatism: he's paid close attention to vinyl's explosion from niche to mainstream market over just a few years.

The writing is on the wall. In April of 2015, the UK launched their first official vinyl chart, amid runaway sales, and last month THUMP reported on vinyl sales actually outperforming streaming services. Canada Boy Vinyl is not only capitalizing on a surging market, it is also proudly bringing vinyl manufacturing back to Canada. The nation's only other pressing plant, RIP-V in Montreal, shut down nearly a year ago and sent their machinery to a manufacturer in New Jersey.

Reid's hope is to provide an all-in-one production facility for artists: from fully analogue recording at Canada Boy's very own on-site recording studio, Magnetic North, to distribution with their sister company, Rebel Alliance.

THUMP spoke with him on Skype this month about Canada Boy and all things vinyl.

THUMP: You're the only vinyl pressing plant in Canada, right?
Yeah that's right. All I can say to that is I'm going to do it while it lasts, because I can't be the only kid in town with that idea.

If trends continue it will get more competitive.
I'm getting a lot of positive support; these random plant owners are phoning me up and giving me pats on the back. It feels great we share a genuine love of vinyl and for sure there's always going to be that competitive element. We're all in business and we've all got to put food on the table, but more it's like there's plenty of room in the sandbox. If there's' anything that's going to kill vinyl, it's that people are sick and tired of waiting for four months to get their records.

Did you follow the resurgent vinyl market or did you just have this idea that you wanted to start a pressing plant?
It didn't just happen by chance. In August 2013, I had spent the last twenty years prior to that working in the construction industry in Calgary and I was getting pretty burned out at my job. I started doing a bunch of research into it and I could see that the market was trending: going up and up. I was like, you know, this is probably a pretty good time to put the wheels in motion.

When I put my first business plan together and was shopping around for investors to try and raise capital, I ran into dozens of people who just thought I was insane. Or how many times they said, "People still buy records?"

What's the first record you owned that you put on non-stop?
When I was a kid, the very first record that I ever got that was my own record was a Beach Boys record. I think it was called "Endless Summer" or something like that. It was in the 70s. As a kid, the Beach Boys was like the coolest band on planet Earth.

Do you have an expansive record collection on your own?
When I was a kid growing up we had records; that's where it all started. Up until the time we got CDs. We all kinda drank the kool-aid back then and got into the CD thing. I probably own 600-700 records that are my own records.

Do you have anything particularly rare or odd in your collection that you're proud of?
I've got an original copy of Public Enemy's Bum Rush The Show. An original copy of It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. I have some pretty cool Iggy and The Stooges bootlegs that came out back in the day. I don't care that they sound like garbage. Bootlegs like that are pretty precious.

What's one album you must listen to on vinyl over any other format?
My answer to that is: all albums. No, but say we're listening to test pressings or trying out new stereo equipment or listening to cuts we're doing on the cutting lathe, the one album I always go back to as a reference is Meddle by Pink Floyd.

That's funny. The album I think of when listening on vinyl is Dark Side of The Moon.
There's something about those old Floyd albums. If you're listening to anything from back then, yeah, you should be listening to them on wax, for sure. Meddle is that album for me. It's my reference point. It's my benchmark.

What do you hate about this new vinyl culture?
What do you hate about it?

I hate that you can go into clothing stores and buy records.
If anything, in a weird way, it's validating. People who've always had records and listened to records, we're just doing our vinyl thing and it's no big deal. I see what you're saying. It's super trendy and stuff, but it's more to me like, yeah well, "Welcome. Now you get it."

You get some vinyl collectors where it's very pretentious—

There's always going to be those kind of people out there that are like "I was into it when no one knew it was cool." My hearing is pretty much destroyed from being in construction and playing bass in front of amplifiers for twenty years. I don't have that acute sense of hearing. I'm no audiophile, by any stretch. If it's a good song I'm into it. I've got old Beatles records that look like they came out of the bottom of a kitty litter box. It's so scratched, but I don't care. I like the songs, man.

You can find out more about Canada Boy Vinyl and all their available services at their official website.