Zac Bouvion's love of music fills his time—and lots of space.
You're a manager at Fingerprints, and you do some of the buying. Do you buy with a certain market in mind?
I do. We all kind of have specialties. Bill does most of our indie buying. Dennis does a lot of our hip-hop and dance, and I do mostly punk rock and avant-garde stuff. We're lucky that we're pretty diverse. We have a lot of kids who travel a little bit to go to Fingerprints. We've been pretty lucky that we can go a little outside the normal and still be all right.
What's the philosophy behind the punk rock buying?
We're lucky that it's not a lot of the real trendy, mainstream stuff. We have a lot of customers who look for old reissues and more classic kind of stuff, which is definitely better for me. It's kind of sad. When I was first interested in punk, I was really excited by the whole “anyone can do it” aspect. But I think as it became easier and easier for anyone to do it, the attitude got mixed in with people that weren't too genuine about creating something original or different. It just got watered down with a lot of sameness.
As far as the avant-garde, is there a specific group you're buying for?
Sometimes I'm afraid I'm not really buying that stuff for anybody. [Laughs] We do well with avant-garde jazz. We do well with limited-edition noise, kind of current stuff—CDRs and limited-run vinyl stuff. People are pretty open at this point. I think a lot of kids are looking for something different and trying some new stuff.
Obviously music's a big part of your life, given your job. You've also got music-related tattoos like a 45 rpm record insert.
I've been working in record stores just about 10 years now. Music's always been a big part of my life.
Are you a record collector too?
Yeah. It's a great opportunity working there because you see a lot of stuff, but sometimes you have to remember you work at a record store, and you don't make a whole lot of money. I've been lucky that my fiance and my family have been accepting that I have a lot of stuff and sometimes there's not a lot of room for it. I probably have about 15,000 pieces between vinyl, CDs, 45s.
Have the digital and Internet changes in music affected your collecting?
It softens the blow a little bit when you're looking for real, real rare records because you can pick up the CD reissue and make sure it's something you actually want before spending some serious money on a record unheard. But it kind of drives you a little more too. Sometimes you'll hear something on CD and think it's great, and it'll set you off on a hunt to find an original. But I think it's a good thing. I'm not a vinyl elitist. It's all about the music. It sounds corny, but I would be just as excited to turn somebody onto a CD reissue of a rare record as to talk them into buying a really valuable original.
Are you seeing changes at the store thanks to the Internet?
It's definitely a really scary time for the industry. I like to have faith that the people who stay true to it, and really care about the music, and keep true to what their business started out as will be successful. But I think time will really have to tell. The record industry's freaked out like this a couple times in the past, and we're all still around. It really depends on how adventurous people want to get. It all comes back to having a love for the music. If the buyers and the owners really care about music and watch the way things are changing, trends in the industry, I think you'll survive.
Have any favorite local bands?
There's a band I really like called Indian Jewelry. I think they're great. There's a lot going on, but I'm a little disappointed with Long Beach bands. Some of them don't get as adventurous as I'd hope, and the ones that do never really leave Long Beach. But there's always great stuff going on everywhere—you just have to dig.
TO SEE WHAT ZAC'S BEEN UP TO, BROWSE THE PUNK ROCK AND AVANT-GARDE MUSIC AT FINGERPRINTS, 4612 E. SECOND ST., LONG BEACH, (562) 433-4996; WWW.FINGERPRINTSMUSIC.COM.
