We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dave James. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dave below.
Dave, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hops that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
So, my mental health issue is drug addiction. I’ve been clean and sober since January 2007. My brain is wired a little differently than most people, so I’ve been dialed in to a 12 Step program since just before I cleaned up my act.
Through this, I stay connected to others who think and act the way I do, or can do, and this support system has helped me stay reasonably grounded for all these years.
It’s allowed me to start a second record store, after I ruined my first one in my heroin years. And through recovery and getting back into the music scene, I got married a little over five years ago, which is my greatest accomplishment.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I own Factory Records in Costa Mesa, California. It’s a little mom and pop vinyl record store that I opened in 2010.
I’ve been in the retail music industry since 1988, and had my first record shop from 1991 to 2006. My drug addiction ended that one, and I thought that the vinyl and CD game was over about that time due to emerging platforms like Napster and devices like the iPod.
But vinyl wouldn’t go away, and gained popularity yet again, mostly with millennials, in 2008 or 2009, and its popularity has been growing ever since.
I got back in the game in 2009 with a job at a local chain CD/DVD store that also had a small vinyl selection, and saw some potential. By April 2010, I was back in business with my own shop.
Factory Records has done really well over the past 13 years, and is a major player in the Southern California record store community, despite its size (maybe 400 square feet if I’m lucky).
We are deep in the Record Store Day/RSD Black Friday game, we get loads of limited edition colored vinyl pressings all year long, and we keep thousands of classic titles in stock. We also have amazing used/rare vinyl drops all the time and get visitors from all over the world.
I still have a huge passion for what I do, and I’m grateful others appreciate what Factory Records has to offer.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the first, most impactful thing would be being a paperboy from the age of 10 to when I was just over 15. I learned all sorts of responsibilities doing this. I know newspapers are a dying breed these days, but in the early 80s, just about every house has a paper delivered to it on a daily basis. I learned accountability and accounting skills, and how to deal with people.
And next up would be the three-plus years I worked at a local independent record store before I opened my first shop. I didn’t start at this shop expecting to open my own place a few years later, but I was so passionate about what I was doing at this store – Music Market Costa Mesa – that looking back, it was like a three year college course on how an independent record shop works.
I think third would be what I learned and still learn in 12 Step recovery. I definitely did well at my first business – Noise Noise Noise Records – before I screwed everything up with drugs, but being in recovery has taught me way more than just that I can’t do drugs. I’m a better, kinder, more empathetic person today, and I also look out for myself.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
This is kind of a California thing, but when I need to calm down, I love to go swim in the ocean. Summer and early fall is horribly slow at my shop. It’s just how it is, yet I never can get through these months without stressing myself out.
But I’ve found that if I go to the beach late in the day when the tourists have gone home and things are quiet there, I can just go relax in the water and my mind calms down. I’ll focus on catching a few waves or watching dolphins while enjoying the mix of warm sun and cool water.
I’m not good at meditation or any of those hippie techniques to quiet the mind; this is as close as it gets. And unfortunately the nice beach weather doesn’t last all year, but when the water is freezing and the sun is lost behind clouds, I’m busy at work, enjoying the hustle of my busy season.
I guess if there’s any advice to give from this, find your own variation of my dip in the ocean. There are probably millions of ways to do this; something unique and tailored to anyone willing to find it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @factoryrecordsdavenoise
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/factoryrecords92627?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Other: Tiktok = @factoryrecordscostamesa Threads = @factoryrecordsdavenoise
Image Credits
Factory Records Costa Mesa
