Independent Record Pressing opened last year amid a growing demand for vinyl records Watch video
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP -- In the early 1970s, Dave Miller helped his father build record-pressing machines, but never imagined that, four decades later, he would once again be working on them.
But here in a nondescript industrial park, those very machines are noisily working their magic, spinning vinyl pellets into 12-inch records. Independent Record Pressing, one of a dozen record-making plants in the country, launched last year amid a growing demand for vinyl records.
"Old is new," said Miller, the plant manager. "You look at a CD, you stick it in, you play it and that's the way it goes. But a record, you feel it, you look at it, you look at the artwork and you can hear a difference in the music."
Last year, 16.9 million LPs were sold in the United States, a 28 percent increase over the year before, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Another sign of its growing popularity is Saturday's Record Store Day, which is now in its eighth year of celebrating independent record stores.
Independent Record Pressing is a partnership between Darius Van Arman, a co-founder of Indiana-based Secretly Group, and Dave Hansen, general manager of Epitaph Records.
The pair enlisted the help of Miller and Sean Rutkowski, a veteran of the music industry, to run the plant. They cater to independent labels and their current order list includes records by Mac DeMarco, Refused, Rancid, Bad Religion and The Offspring.
Once the plant reaches full capacity, it will have six presses running and hopefully be able to produce 8,000 records per day and up to 1.5 million a year.
But pressing a record is no easy task. Vinyl compounds are poured from a bucket into a hot extruder and then melted down into a hockey-puck-size disc. A label is glued on each side of the puck and it is placed between the stampers -- nickel plates made from the master. The pressing machines then squash the pliable vinyl into an album. Once it cools, the flattened plastic is pushed out onto a trimmer, where any excess vinyl is cut and the disc is dropped onto a spindle.
But the slightest variation -- be it the compounds, the labels, the stampers, the machines, the weather or even the employees -- can mean a record has to be scrapped.
"Without a doubt, manufacturing vinyl records is the dirtiest, worst, most annoying part of the music business," Miller said. "You can babysit drunken bands who throw up on themselves all day long and it doesn't compare to this."
The records are checked for sound quality issues before they're brought over to another crew, who assembles the finished records, sleeves and jackets and packages them for shipping.
Dawn Scheideler, who oversees the assembly and packaging tasks, said there are checks and balances at each step of the process.
"My biggest thing is making people happy because I know how much this means to them," she said. "Back in the day when that was the only medium, it didn't matter so much ... but nowadays, they're looking for a perfect-looking record.
"We can press 24 hours a day, seven days a week and sell every record, but keeping it a consistent, good record is the hardest thing," she said.
Scheideler began working at Independent part-time in between her runs as a school bus driver, but about a month into production, transitioned to full-time.
"I didn't even collect records now, but once you're working with them again, it takes you back," she said, recalling her teenage years when she memorized Barry Manilow and Billy Joel songs from vinyls and 8-tracks.
Today, songs can be streamed and downloaded for free, but she said people who collect records are drawn to the format's richer, warmer sound.
"They're looking for that connection," she said. "There's nothing like it and I felt that. Anybody that works here needs to have that. ... It's not just somebody who likes music; it's somebody that makes that connection of where that all started."
Scheideler likened the sound of a record to the comfort of sitting in front of a fireplace.
"You're getting that warmth, you're getting a crackle warm sound," she said. "The people that are buying these are buying it for the sound ... they're buying it for that special connection."
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.