Opinion

Aided by the resurgence in vinyl, it appears that anyone can put their music out on wax these days. Mike Mettler approves of enabling artists, both young and old, to pursue their dreams

News flash: the vinyl revival isn’t going away. Not only are veteran artists all about the medium, but younger-gen musicians are flocking to vinyl in ways we couldn’t entirely foresee. Time was, if you weren’t a component of the major-label machine or hooked up with an independent label with widespread distribution, putting your music out on vinyl was a pipe dream. Not anymore.

Wax off, wax on

In recent years, indie-minded artists have figured out how to press their life’s work onto vinyl – in limited quantities and at limited expense – due in no small part to upstart pressing plants willing to meet them halfway. Take vocalist/guitarist Murray Attaway, formerly of Guadalcanal Diary, a pioneering, cult-favourite 1980s alt-rock four-piece from Marietta, Georgia, which released four modest-selling but critically lauded albums through Elektra. Soured on the music business once the band petered out, Attaway took a three-decade hiatus from recording before re-emerging in mid-2025 with his second solo album, Tense Music Plays.

For this, the musician enlisted Disc Makers of Pennsauken, New Jersey, to cut a few hundred LPs for him on vinyl, which were then released via his own label, Moon Ray. ‘The dynamic range is there’, Attaway said to me last summer. ‘The music had to sound genuine, not manufactured. I’m aware my vocals aren’t perfectly on pitch, but that’s the way I sound now, not like I did some 30 years ago. I worked hard to get my vocals back in shape, so putting this album out on vinyl was the best way to convey that honesty.’ The signed first pressing of Tense Music Plays on orange vinyl sold out, so Attaway went back to the press for a clear version.

Then there’s Willie Nile, a long-respected, gritty singer/songwriter from Buffalo, New York, who released a trio of critically acclaimed LPs on Arista and Columbia at the turn of the 1980s, then bounced around indie labels for years before doubling down to do it more his way instead. Nile’s latest and 21st overall album, The Great Yellow Light, was pressed in the Czech Republic and released through River House Records in June 2025. ‘Vinyl is king’, Nile told me last spring, in no uncertain terms. ‘I pay close attention to what I hear on my test pressings because putting vinyl on is like going to the church of rock ’n’ roll. Vinyl is the main way I want people to listen to my music. When they drop the needle, I want them to hear that this person cared about what they were doing – and meant it.’

It’s not just veteran artists who have wax dreams dancing through their heads. Hailey Ezzell is a 24-year-old singer/songwriter based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, whose passion for vinyl knows no bounds. Nothing was going to stop Ezzell from releasing her debut LP, Queen Of The Airwaves, on vinyl, so she went with London-based elasticStage to make it happen, essentially on demand.

Sonic youth

‘When I first started listening to ’70s and ’80s music in middle school, it was my dream to just own a record on vinyl’, Ezzell told me in January this year. ‘I’ve been playing piano since I was eight, so once I began writing and recording my own music, vinyl was all I wanted it to come out on. I usually write the lyrics and the melodies at the same time, and I know how the vibe should sound. On “Love You Tonight”, I wanted Maxx [Palmieri], my guitar player, to do three solos – one like Eric Clapton doing “Little Wing”, and the last one like David Gilmour’s payoff at the end of “Comfortably Numb”. This song was meant to be heard on vinyl.’

If Ezzell’s acute love of vinyl is any indication, the kids are definitely alright when it comes to the continued viability of the format. Viva la LP!