Five For Five with Jenn D'Eugenio
Jenn is an account representative at Furnace Record Pressing, where she works helping bands, as well as both major and independent record labels to manufacture music on vinyl.
She's been dedicated to the art and creation of vinyl as an enthusiast / collector for over 18 years.
I found Jenn on Instagram and reached out to her when i found out she is the founder and curator of 'Women In Vinyl’; a site to empower women working in the vinyl industry and hopes to evolve this into a non profit to help young women who may be interested in this career path achieve their goals.
She does good work, promotes (much needed) equality in the record enthusiast scene and has a killer record collection.
Follow Women In Vinyl here: https://www.instagram.com/womeninvinyl/
1. For an unspecified reason, you have to leave town tonight and have room for only 3 records. What are they, and WHY?
I am really bad at these questions, I’m too indecisive. Today they’d be:
- Black Sabbath ‘Master of Reality’
- Elder ‘Reflections of a Floating World’
- Monkey 3 ‘Sphere’
But those could switch out any at time for Causa Sui ‘Euporie Tide’ / Earth ‘The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull’ / Uncle Acid ‘Blood Lust’ / Grails ‘Black Tar Prophecies Vol 4’ / or My Sleeping Karma ‘Satya’
There isn’t any reason why these over others, other than they’re my favorite and most listened to records, so if I were to have to start a foundation to build off of again, I’d start there. Even as I’m typing this though I’m thinking of so many others not in the list above like Led Zeppelin ‘Houses of the Holy’ or Dark ‘Dark Round The Edges’ so I’ll move on.
2. Most prized vinyl possession?
My Black Sabbath collection, in particular the Master of Reality variants. I’ve been working for years to find as many different ones as I could, and I’ve been lucky to have a lot of people help me with this by letting me know when they run into them. I’m trying to uncover more of the stories to all the different covers and pressings that were released either officially or unofficially.
3. If anything, what frustrates you about collecting vinyl AND what is your favourite thing about collecting vinyl? (2 part question - sorry)
I’ve never thought about what one thing I love as far as collecting records is, it’s just been something I do. It’s my preferred way to listen to music so I collect in the same way someone that downloads their favourite albums would. I enjoy the sound, the tactile quality, the artwork, the variants, they’re pieces of art both in how they look and what is on them. It’s just a part of my life from work to home.
A frustrating thing for me personally I’ve talked about before, which is why I started ‘Women In Vinyl’. The thought that some people have that women can’t be / aren’t as passionate about collecting, or about vinyl in general is ridiculous. I’ve heard all kinds of things, seen the discrimination personally in some shops or online and wanted to put a stop to it in my own way.
Another thing that I’ve not experienced personally but I’ve thought about lately that I think is turning around was this idea of this competitive almost superiority nature between people who were just getting into collecting and those that have been forever. I have seen it online or have got messages from people afraid to ask publicly, questions like how to set up their turntable or what the best way to clean their records may be (for example) because they’d look too much like a novice. I think social media has been great to help with the international community aspect and sites like Vinyl Factory and their FAQ posts for “Everything you always wanted to know about vinyl but were too afraid to ask’" are a good resource as well.
Aside from that a more universal thing that can be frustrating are the flippers / exclusivity built into some releases without a regular version more widely available. I think we all know those stories so I won’t go on.
4. Last LP/7/10 or 12inch you purchased?
The last record I purchased was Irata’s 12” EP ‘Vultures’ I had to backtrack on their releases because their new record ‘Tower’ is coming out and I’d not heard them before. I work as an account rep at Furnace Record Pressing and am lucky to be the working with the label on pressing the new release, when I heard it I had to dive more into the band.
I’m also still waiting on the Green Lung ‘Woodland Rites’ record to get here.
5. Are you able to separate the "art" from the artist? Do their actions outside of music affect whether you can listen to their music?
It depends on what it is I guess and if it were a solo artist or a band. Art is created by an artist so I think they two go hand in hand. That said with music I listen to more bands vs solo artists so it’s a group effort and I don’t really listen to a band for the artist if I’m honest. I may check something out because a certain musician is in it, but I fall in love with the band as a whole for what they’ve created and then then sometimes the people behind it. I never stopped listening to Pentagram for example even though Bobby isn’t a great human, I don’t care for him to put it nicely, but it’s not the band’s fault he is the way he is. I think we can all agree though it’s preferred to be a good person and make good music.