The Vinyl Drug: A Conversation with Chad Kassem

After vinyl saved his life, Chad Kassem decided that everyone else needed to hear why

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This week I’m talking to Chad Kassem. After kicking a drug habit, Kassem — dubbed “the wizard of vinyl” by The New York Times — started Acoustic Sounds in 1984. In the decades since, his company has become one of the most important vinyl manufactures in the United States, reissuing albums by every legend from Aretha Franklin to ZZ Top. I think his love for vinyl is best illustrated by something he told CBS Sunday Morning when they asked him what he would do if nobody bought the old blues records he was reissuing: “I guess I’ll just sit here and listen to them by myself.”

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In a in a recent New York Times profile, you described yourself as “trying to save the world from bad sound.” I love that quote. Why are you so compelled to do that?

Well, I know how much better every record you ever heard could sound if it was done properly. Every time we remaster a new record — which is almost every day — we just look at each other and are like, “Damn. I've been listening to this record since I was a teenager, and I never heard it like this. It's unbelievable that this record was a number one, and nobody ever heard how good it really is.”

Are there any particular records recently that you remastered that gave you that experience?

The ones that come to mind are ones that we haven’t announced yet, so I can’t say. But 40% to 50% of the time, I think our remasters beat the best version you’ve ever heard up to that point.

Chad Kassem [right] with turntable specialist Chad Stelly

I know that you not only want to save people from bad sound but that great sound saved your life. Can you tell me a bit about that?

I had a drinking and drug problem. I moved to Kansas to get sober, and I started collecting records as a hobby. That hobby turned into my business. Music is a natural drug. If you get high on a gram of cocaine, it lasts a night. You spend the same money on a record, and it lasts a lifetime. You get that natural high over and over again.

I've done every drug in the world. I've never gotten the feeling that great music gives me from a drug. Basically, I switched addictions. Instead of buying and selling dope, I buy and sell records. Instead of using dope to get high, I listen to records to get high.

You began your business in the height of the CD era, and you’ve weathered many format changes, including everything from digital downloads to streaming. What do you think the continual appeal of vinyl is for people?