1 YEAR OF QUEER!!! 🎂🎉🥰
by Joseph Perry
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Well, that’s a wrap on our 1st bday celebrations! As we move into year 2, we can’t help but feel a bit reflective (cue emotional montage scene). 🥺 Here’s some of the things we’ve learnt running a small, queer-focused business over the past 12 months:
1️⃣ There’s plenty of room to celebrate queer music
When starting out, we didn’t know of any record stores focusing solely on LGBTQIA+ artists, icons and allies. Although there were some who shone a light on the under-represented corners of music (shoutout to @suffragetterecords and @feministavinyl), the overwhelming majority skewed towards a straight, often male, audience. Attending our first record fair as a publicly out brand (the name’s a bit of a giveaway 😉) was especially nerve-wracking for us. But the amount of love and support we’ve received has been - quite frankly - overwhelming! 💜
2️⃣ There are SO many great queer music stories out there
Although sourcing great quality vinyl can be tricky, being very specific with the music we stock has helped sharpen our own knowledge of queer (and queer-coded) tunes - it’s been an education, honey! 🤓 Artists who we had never even HEARD OF before are now on regular rotation in our house. Legends like Patrick Cowley, Arthur Russell and Wendy Carlos had never entered our musical orbit until last year, so to help spotlight and share their stories with others has been super fun! We don’t get it right everytime but hey, we’re learning!
3️⃣ Community has been everything
As much as we love selling online, our markets and pop-up events are really where we’ve found the most joy. Hearing the audible gasp as someone rummages is something that can’t be recreated online. Plus, through amazing events such as @gaystuffmarkets and @midsummafestival, it’s made us feel more connected to our own BEEEAUTIFUL rainbow community than ever before! 🌈
So what does the next 12 months hold? One thing we allllways get asked is “where is your physical store?” At the moment, this isn’t a viable option for us (but definitely something we’d love to explore in the future.) We want to hear from you too - what do you wanna see next? Let’s have a Kiki! 💬
1️⃣ There’s plenty of room to celebrate queer music
When starting out, we didn’t know of any record stores focusing solely on LGBTQIA+ artists, icons and allies. Although there were some who shone a light on the under-represented corners of music (shoutout to @suffragetterecords and @feministavinyl), the overwhelming majority skewed towards a straight, often male, audience. Attending our first record fair as a publicly out brand (the name’s a bit of a giveaway 😉) was especially nerve-wracking for us. But the amount of love and support we’ve received has been - quite frankly - overwhelming! 💜
2️⃣ There are SO many great queer music stories out there
Although sourcing great quality vinyl can be tricky, being very specific with the music we stock has helped sharpen our own knowledge of queer (and queer-coded) tunes - it’s been an education, honey! 🤓 Artists who we had never even HEARD OF before are now on regular rotation in our house. Legends like Patrick Cowley, Arthur Russell and Wendy Carlos had never entered our musical orbit until last year, so to help spotlight and share their stories with others has been super fun! We don’t get it right everytime but hey, we’re learning!
3️⃣ Community has been everything
As much as we love selling online, our markets and pop-up events are really where we’ve found the most joy. Hearing the audible gasp as someone rummages is something that can’t be recreated online. Plus, through amazing events such as @gaystuffmarkets and @midsummafestival, it’s made us feel more connected to our own BEEEAUTIFUL rainbow community than ever before! 🌈
So what does the next 12 months hold? One thing we allllways get asked is “where is your physical store?” At the moment, this isn’t a viable option for us (but definitely something we’d love to explore in the future.) We want to hear from you too - what do you wanna see next? Let’s have a Kiki! 💬