Hello Désirée ! Please introduce yourself !
Well, my name is Désirée Hanssen, I live in The Netherlands and I have a crush on vinyl!
You recently founded Lay Bare Recordings, which has a small but nice catalogue. What did you do before, and what made you take the step into the world of labels?
I run my label besides my regular job. In my day to day job i help people who are going through a tough time. I show them that even if you have lost your job or if you have a lot of problems, there are still more options to get yourself back on track. With my label i want to unveil great bands and their records, so that as many people as possible can discover and enjoy their great music. It’s about giving people a chance. With the same attitude in my regular job, I want to give unknown bands a push in the right direction.
The stoner / todays heavy psych scene is on the rise when bigger labels seem to sign these acts as well. How come it took the genre 15 years in the underground to get this break ?
Maybe because the other genres are getting smaller or just because there is not one scene anymore. A lot of music is divided in to sub-genres. To me the whole scene got fragmented.
I read somewhere you’re a big fan of Frank Marino, a guitarist todays collectors are pretty unaware of. Please namedrop us another batch of great 70’s guitarist that surprisingly seem unknown these days.
That’s a tough one to namedrop unknown guitarists. My favs are well known, like Ted Nugent, Eddy Van Halen and The Allman Brothers.
When it comes to collecting, which music do you mainly focus on?
Actually I don’t focus on one particular genre. At the moment i concentrate on harsh noise, industrial rock, dark jazz and doom. Heavy 70s and some good old country are genres that always deliver a smile on my face.
Sorry to be such a jerk, but few females seems to collect vinyl, but you seem to be very dedicated. How come the interest is so big compared to your fellow sisters around the world ??
Haha… Fellow sisters? Well, I don’t think you are aware how many women nowadays attend gigs and collect vinyl. If it comes to collecting i don’t think it has anything to do if you are a man or a woman. Its about passion and interest.
Since you come from Netherlands, I suppose you paid a visit or two to UTRECHT, one of the best record fairs in Europe. Have you got a special record you managed to pick up from there?
I help out the guys from the label Burning World Records. As their stall-ward, i sell their records on fairs or festivals. Since a couple of years i work on the record fair in Utrecht. So yeah, I am familiar with this fair. I found me some nice records of April Wine, Tangerine Dream, Budgie, Humble Pie and some nice jazz records. Dropped my eye on a record of Désirée, a German prog rock band from the 70s, lets see next time if I wanna pay €80,- for it…
Please tell us about the collector scene in Netherlands these days!
I know there are a lot of collectors in The Netherlands and of course all over the world. But I am not really part of a scene or any scene at all. I buy records because i love the music and vinyl. And because i love to attend gigs i buy a lot of vinyl directly from the bands.
How many records do you own today?
Still not enough! LOL!
Please tell us the story about 3 of your all time favourite records that will follow you into your grave….
If I could take a record player into my grave I would definitely take the next records with me:
I AM THE COSMOS from CHRIS BELL, just a perfect little gem!!!
CORONER – no release in particular, to keep banging my head and
IRIS DEMENT – INFAMOUS ANGEL, to shed a tear once in a while.
So, finally, how do you see the future of record collecting ??
Well, first of all, thank you for spreading the word about this wonderful item and having me on your blog! There always have been record collectors and either way its popular to buy vinyl or not, there will always be a crazy bunch of people who keep collecting those shiny pieces of wax. At least I am, for sure!
Record Collectors Europe 