2 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Safe and sound: Orange County's oldest music store reopens in Laguna
Wave Baker, a longtime employee of Sound Spectrum, will tell anyone who listens that the place has 'an energy of its own.'
So when the Laguna Beach-based record shop, which opened on South Coast Highway in 1967, closed in October, Baker had a feeling it wasn't over.
Whether it was more than a feeling, what happened next was more than he hoped for.
A music-oriented family came forward with a bid, planning to revive the business and restore the building. James, Audrey and Sadie Jean Wilcox, siblings who grew up in the nearby city of Tustin, worked together to reopen Orange County's oldest music store.
After spending more than two decades working under the original owners, Jimmy and Edith Otto, Baker was asked to remain on staff.
'In a sense, I'm a bridge from the old to the new,' Baker said. 'I met with them, and we got along, and they wanted my help. I said, 'Well, I come with one condition — my left and my right arm. Travis [Garman] and Niloo [Aghaseyedali] were part of the old, and now we're all three part of the new.'
James, 28, recalled visiting Sound Spectrum during surfing trips to Laguna Beach. In December, when he learned the iconic record store had closed, he called Wave. Within a week, the family had submitted an offer that was accepted.
'At the end of the day, a record store sells music,' James said. 'The special thing about this store is that it has sold music for so many decades. It sold music through the vinyl era, through the cassette era, through the CD era, and then all the way back again.
'In my opinion, the special part about this store is that it's past trends. It doesn't need to sell off of these trends. It can just keep selling music that touches people's hearts.'
As for the responsibility that goes with inheriting a legacy of 57 years of service to the community, James said that Jimmy Otto created a business that could stand on its own.
'Jimmy was very much someone who could stand on his own, and he made his store stand on its own,' he added. 'We hope to keep that same energy, really forever. We believe that this store is so sacred and special. The special thing about music is that it does last forever.'
James also called it a 'special moment' to have the keys to Sound Spectrum passed on to his family by Edith Otto, who also gave them a tour of the store.
Audrey, 30, who is due to be married this year, compared the commitment to preserve a community staple to a wedding.
'There's like this union,' Audrey said. 'I have this connection with the former owner. … I feel like the Sound Spectrum itself is like a being of its own. I feel less that I'm the one that's deciding what happens to it and more that I'm listening to what it needs, being more like a steward to what the store wants, listening to that and making it happen. That's been my biggest source of inspiration is just what … everyone needs.'
The Wilcox family's music industry experience has been driven by a burgeoning career for Sadie Jean, 23, as a singer-songwriter. James and Audrey, both of whom have business backgrounds, have helped manage her career. She has nearly two dozen shows lined up in Europe this fall, and she's preparing to release her first album later this year.
Sadie Jean revealed she has been writing songs from a young age, but she was unsure if her family would embrace that side of her.
'It was so funny because once I told people I could sing and write songs, my family was like my biggest champions,' Sadie Jean said. 'Now they manage me, and my siblings manage me. My career became like a really big family thing, and my parents go on tour with me. All of a sudden, we're like a music family after being so like not at all.
'I think it just made so much sense when we found out that the record store in our community that we love was about to be gone forever. It felt so serendipitous. It was like a calling that we had to take it on and save it because music is built into our family culture now.'
The return of the record store was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday evening, music pumping as people perused the aisles stocked with selections of vinyl, CDs and posters spanning the decades.
Local artists also collaborate, leading restorative efforts at the store. Amanda Burke touched up a mural by Bill Ogden, and a display by Brighid Burnes in the front window depicts musicians jamming away on various instruments.
'I saw many fathers or mothers say to their kid, 'I bought my first record here in the '80s,' Baker said. 'I want that little kid to be able to say that to their kids 30 years from now, long after I'm gone. I know the importance of that feeling. … That's what I want to keep. That's part of what I want to help survive.'
