Inside a Record Store:
DiG Store
DiG Store
interview
Roma Pavlov
22 FEB 2021
illustration
Kostia Smirnov
english
Boris Ageev
When you visit a record store, chances are you either come and leave or get to really appreciate the place. Every little aspect counts: from a greeting to good interior to the background music that you recognize. Regardless of the setting, though, it all comes down to the selection. Some try to please everybody and lose their longtime supporters over supplying what’s in demand, and vice versa, an overtly nerdy location might barely last for more than two years. To some exceptions.
On July 10, 2010, Grisha Eniosov and Petya Chinavat, who owned Plastic Cave distro-shop at the time, teamed up with Vanya Smekalkin, owner of the online store Long-Play, to start DiG Store. Today, it's one of the most attractive vinyl stores in Russia.
As part of Deep Cuts’ series on the independent music businesses in Russia, we talked with Petya Chinavat about the importance of crate-digging, mutual support, and the future of DiG.
The store’s team consists of five people ― David Datiko, Lyova Zhitski, Denis Ryabov, Vanya, and Petya. Grisha Eniosov unfortunately passed away in 2016. His annual garage music festival called Proof of Fuzz is a special occasion for every fan of the genre. Nowadays, it is organized by his friends and takes place on dates near his birthday.
So, we need some context. In 2010, vinyl was fairly unpopular in Russia. Melodia, USSR’s powerhouse that at some point had been printing out at least 200 million records yearly, hasn’t pressed a single record in fifteen years. Sales had been growing since 2007, but by 2010 it came to a mere 1/7th of today’s sales. There was no vinyl manufacturing in place until the mid-10s, only indie music labels were testing the ground back then — the industry giants were not interested in selling records since the 90s and for independent artists, due to the small number of manufactories, the price of pressing was too high.
So, we need some context. In 2010, vinyl was fairly unpopular in Russia. Melodia, USSR’s powerhouse that at some point had been printing out at least 200 million records yearly, hasn’t pressed a single record in fifteen years. Sales had been growing since 2007, but by 2010 it came to a mere 1/7th of today’s sales. There was no vinyl manufacturing in place until the mid-10s, only indie music labels were testing the ground back then — the industry giants were not interested in selling records since the 90s and for independent artists, due to the small number of manufactories, the price of pressing was too high.
Petya explains his desire to open a store with such unsaleable goods at the time by the greater value of vinyl as a medium and an art-piece. “It takes a lot to release a record. For starters, you have to do special master for pressing your music on vinyl; you work with the music a lot more when it meets vinyl, both as a musician and as a consumer. I have a lot more fun with a well-made and well-recorded vinyl record, and just as much with an old and reliable record player, or maybe an old receiver that I somehow got my hands on. I think of vinyl as a piece of art which is also efficient.”
What sets DiG apart from the rest is the store's continued emphasis on the second life of old records and its curatorial approach to selecting the store's assortment. It makes sense since most of the early stock came from personal collections. “I hated pop-music back when we first started,” says Petya, “I didn’t feel anything when listening to it. It’s not the same ten years later: things that I despised back then now sound really enjoyable. Even with all the changes, we still don’t sell that much popular music. We don't mind if some of the pop artists have photoshoots in our store, though (laughs).” Musical awareness and communication with customers through music plays a big role for the DiG's team – for example, every week they pick one favorite record and put it on the ‘Staff Picks’ shelf.
“We love discovering new stuff. Isn’t that amazing when you listen to somebody unknown, and then ‘boom’, he has an interesting tune? Double the points if you can't find it on streamings or even youtube — it’s that undiscovered. It’s always nice to dig deeper while also digging wider.”
Petr Chinavat
Smokey Haangala
Aunka Ma Kwacha
Aunka Ma Kwacha
Staff Picks
(28 DEC 2020)
“What’s crucial is when you like something, and also want to share it,” says Petya, “the same goes for the equipment ― you’re interested in a certain time when, I don’t know, amplifiers with long arrows were all the rage. That is what you’re trying to bring to the store. Finding new music and new hardware is a daily interesting work.”
According to Chinavat, the idea of starting DiG was inspired by the culture of music stores in Europe. Chinavat got introduced to it during his tour as part of the band called The Cavestompers, in which he played with Eniosov at the time: “We were all grown up, and we wanted to do something new. A crucial moment for me was our trip with Grisha and the guys to Europe. In 2009, we all went on a tour and noticed that every city had a record store; even a small French village had one. That was amazing to me.”
The Cavestompers @ Ryazan' — 9 APR 2011
Photo: Denis
Photo: Denis
On DiG’s rough start, Petya says this: “The first year or so, we didn’t make any money at all. We did nothing but investing. It was really fun, though: we had so much energy and desire to do this, even if we didn’t have that many records. But even back then, we showed our strength in our engagement with customers. We had events and listening parties, and then we would throw after-parties. One of the feelings from our first year was that we suddenly got a ton of new friends. It was all ever-going, like a river. We felt like rock stars, rather than a commercial entity.”
Even though a music career is notorious for being financially inconsistent, there were no regrets when Petya opened up a store with his friends. “We started when I was 25, and I had tried a ton of different things before that. At some point, I just realized I wouldn’t get far without music.”
“Music is truly powerful. It impacts people, even if they don’t pay attention to it,” he says, “I noticed that anybody could come to the store, start going through the crates, put something on our main speaker, and right there and then that person brings a different vibe. Music is how we communicate with each other.”
Even though a music career is notorious for being financially inconsistent, there were no regrets when Petya opened up a store with his friends. “We started when I was 25, and I had tried a ton of different things before that. At some point, I just realized I wouldn’t get far without music.”
“Music is truly powerful. It impacts people, even if they don’t pay attention to it,” he says, “I noticed that anybody could come to the store, start going through the crates, put something on our main speaker, and right there and then that person brings a different vibe. Music is how we communicate with each other.”
The Cavestompers is not the only musical activity of the DiG team. The store has its own label for like-minded artists, each member of the team DJs regularly. Lyova creates music under the name Koyil, and Petya is the frontman of the band called Veterok. For Petya, the store was a vital force behind his work: “DiG heavily influences my music. All those records that I’d heard almost daily formed my taste and sense of the sound. [Veterok] and DiG are very connected because of it.”
The store also doesn't forget to support the local scene — since the first day there have been dozens, if not hundreds, of live performances in its walls. For three years between 2014 to 2017, the guys operated a concert space for new and lesser-known bands who grew to be among the most recognizable names in the local Moscow scene. “I personally follow the whole scene,” says Petya, “I'm subscribed to different blogs and try to follow what's going on at festivals. We've had a lot of live shows, supporting local artists is very important to us.”
While Moscow has been the largest European city for a long time, it isn’t that famous for its tourist attractions. For record stores, tourism is one of the primary sources of income. Look at the biggest vinyl shops globally: their locations are massive tourist destinations worldwide. From Berlin to London and Paris to NYC and LA. Petya noticed, «[that] people often treat themselves with vinyl when they’re on vacation.» With tourism being a seasonal thing, DiG still has a lot of support from music enthusiasts, who keep the entire business afloat. “The most important thing for us is people that appreciate music. Gladly, there are quite a few of them in Moscow, and we are very grateful for them.”
The community, which quickly formed around DiG, has repeatedly supported the store in all kinds of ways. It could be small things like moving records to out-of-town festivals or showing support during actual extortion. “In 2012, we rented space through a third party. We’ve been there for two years until one day some dudes came in and said, ‘get out.’ Obviously, we didn’t – we pay rent for that place. They didn’t show any documents, just tried to shake us. That was not nice. We didn’t want to give up a location that we thought was ours. The guy that had rented it for us didn’t have a formal contract with the original owner of the place, so finally, we moved. That is where dozens of people came out to support us. The entire thing was a lot for me and for the store, too.”
The restrictions faced by stores during the quarantine in the summer of 2020 were certainly no exception — during the pandemic, DiG began selling virtual certificates that allowed people to dig around in the stock of the store among the unsorted records that had not yet hit the shelves. To Chinavat’s surprise, people came in numbers: “I don’t think they wanted to dig through our stock that much. I believe that people just wanted to help us.”
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Despite multiple crises, changes of location, and other things big or small, Petya expects nothing but positive from 2021: “We are always here for the local scene. Now we’re figuring out the distribution process for Russian albums around the country and abroad. Often artists and labels print out a bunch of records but then don’t know what to do with them. That is where we want to help. Other than that, we’d like to facilitate the process of selling equipment. It’s great to allow people to get into vinyl with a great setup right away. We offer different presets of record players, amps, and speakers — people can just come pick them up and start spinning by the end of the day. We are also looking into a festival for this summer. Stay tuned.”
