DETROIT (WXYZ) — If you own a record player, you’re part of a huge boom in the business.
Now, while doing something for the very first time in Motown, Jack White’s Third Man Records is hoping others in the industry will step up.
“They’re not just vinyl records,” said Eddie Gillis, Operations Manager of Third Man Pressing. “They’re handmade, they’re handcrafted. The artwork that goes with it, the feel, the holding it in your hand.”
On this day at Third Man Records in Detroit, a treat, the making of Jack White’s upcoming album.
“These are actually going to be for our vault members. So, it’s not even going to be sold in the store,” said Gillis.
“She’s making the blend,” said Gillis explaining the record the process. “A little PVC pellets are a combination of something like a clear and then a blue.”
“You have high-pressure steam, so he’s putting like that little ball in there in his hand. Placing the label in the label is actually pressed into the vinyl. It’s part of the record, so he’s put his labels in with the piece of BBC that’s been heated up to about 300 degrees,” Gillis added.
Then a quick little visual inspection as he places it on the spindle and just to make sure no dust got in there and the record looks good, making sure it is flat and doesn’t look like a potato chip.
“I feel like there are some similarities between making bread and making it vital,” said WXYZ’s Brian Abel.
“There is. I’m still trying to figure out a way to how to make a pizza on this thing, but for a panini at least,” joked Gillis.
This “baking” of Jack White’s new solo record, one of many albums pressed at third man – including a first for Motown records.
“We’ve done a four LP Supremes box set that was pressed here in Detroit and two LP David Ruffin set that was also pressed here in Detroit. And aside from the fact that they’re both amazing releases that are absolutely essential in anybody’s collection,” said David Buick from Third Man Records.
“It’s also really cool because those two releases the box set The Supremes box that was actually the first Motown record to ever be pressed in the city limits of Detroit,” said Buick.
“How does that happen?” asked Abel.
“Well, yeah, I don’t know there. Like we didn’t, we weren’t, you know, we were in Detroit, was busy, you know, manufacturing automobile parts,” said Buick.
It’s possibly a sign of a changing dynamic – and a problem: a need for more pressing plants.
“When the interest in vinyl kind of died down around the advent of CDs like they slowly started closing them down all the plants. The money guys were like here we got to close these down, and nowadays that, you know, people are present. They’re basically coming out, you know, records are coming out on vinyl or digitally. And the demand is huge,” said Buick.
So much so that Jack White himself – is making an earnest plea to the industry’s top labels.
“A small punk band can’t get their record for eight to 10 months, and I now ask the major labels Warner Brothers, Universal, and Sony to finally build your own processing plants again. As the MC5 once said, you’re either part of the problem or part of a solution. Thank you!” said Jack White in a plea he recorded and posted on the Third Man Records website.
Third Man said it’s really simple, it’s a plea for everyone to join hands a bit. Be in it together. Help make room for everyone, so that small punk band does not have to wait behind major artists after major artists who are printing hundreds of thousands of their newest album.
Jack White’s tour begins in Detroit on April 8th at Masonic Temple.
