Thanks for asking. I'm Riley, and I run Glitter Records in Brisbane. My shop is in California Lane in Fortitude Valley. I also manage a warehouse operation and online store with over 34,000 unique sound recordings.
This collection includes vinyl long-playing records, CDs, seven-inch singles, cassette tapes, video tapes, Edison cylinders, and shellac discs. Some of these were made more than a century ago. Preserving this music and keeping it in circulation is my passion. Buying collections is a big part of what I do. Archiving music and making sure it finds its way into the right hands is also an important part of my work.
Why do you do it?
It's a philosophy as well as a passion. Music matters. History matters. Keeping it alive, keeping it accessible, finding the beauty in it, this matters. Glitter Records is my personal statement of support.
What do you love about the city you live in?
The music and the people.
Where did you go for your last holiday?
I don't travel much, but stepping outside of your routine can bring fresh ideas.
What's your favourite item of clothing?
Warm jumpers.
What was your favourite TV show as a kid?
The whole experience of television in the 1990s is worth noting, especially given how much our habits have evolved.
Do you remember 'Cheez TV' and 'Saturday Disney'? Cartoon showcases stitched together by energetic hosts, rapid-fire skits, anime, and pizza commercials, a kind of postmodern mosaic of pop-culture. Every week, they reset and refreshed. I'd often watch sitting beside my brother and sister. It was a family ritual.
If you could time travel for a day, where would you go?
I recently discovered the Beijing Memory Project – an initiative dedicated to reconstructing lost cityscapes in the present.
It left me with this thought. What if we mapped the evolution of Brisbane record stores across time? Imagine stepping into a virtual reality recreation of Heslop's Phonograph Depot in 1907 or trading jazz records with the 80,000 American soldiers stationed in Brisbane during World War II – at that time, one in four people in this city was American.
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook for us?
A warm curry.
What's the best lesson you've ever learned?
Resources are all around you. Family, friends, overlooked objects. The things people call junk. Some of the best things in life are right in front of you. The secret is taking the time to look.
Tell us something about yourself that nobody knows...
Every morning before the sun comes up, I read four pages of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and two from Samuel Johnson's 'A Dictionary Of The English Language'. I plan to finish both within the next 50 years.
Are you happy with your work/life balance?
Happiness comes from meaningful work. I also invest in friends and family, making sure my relationships can grow alongside everything else.
How do you define success?
Thousands of small efforts stacking up over time. Like water carving out canyons, it sometimes takes years, decades, centuries, to get something done, But eventually? It changes the landscape completely.
What's your spirit animal?
I have a stone owl by my bed. A student gave it to my dad, who was a teacher, many years ago. It represents knowledge, patience, and curiosity. Things I try to embody, but let me tell you a crazy little thing.
Hidden far away from this owl, somewhere in the deepest depths of the garage, there's a purple Brazilian toucan. He's lying on his back and wearing a big straw hat. We used to wrap it up as a joke and gift it to my uncle, my mother's brother, on holidays. He'd sneak it back to us on birthdays. This went on for years.
The tradition faded, but we never quite managed to let him go. Every now and then, that crazy toucan surfaces. So, to answer your question, somewhere between the owl and that Brazilian toucan.
