Since opening its doors to the public for the first time in 2007, Woei has left its mark on the international sneaker and streetwear community with several collaborations including Asics, Patta, and Stüssy along the way.
But the interests and passions of the Woei crew reach far beyond just shoes and apparel; Besides providing the streets with the latest from Nike, Adidas, and Co., music has always been at the heart of the store. Considering the highly curated playlists and mixes that can be heard in the store and hosting some of Rotterdam's most notorious parties, the belief that music unites is deeply ingrained in the Woei DNA.
Based on this deep connection, we want to shine a spotlight on some of our favorite local musicians to talk about what sparked their passion for music and hear their take on common dilemmas in the music industry.
For episode #42 of WOEI FM, we met with the founders of Off-Beat records.
Scroll down for the interview and live set they did for us over at Operator Radio!
Foremost, thank you for being the first WOEI FM Store Visit! Could you please introduce yourselves to us?
So we are Boaz and Chris, the owners of Offbeat, a store specialized in supplying second-hand records to the DJ community! Boaz is mainly in charge of maintaining the shop stock and Chris is in charge of all things community-related and insane in-stores. We both DJ under different aliases, namely Pokko Elective and O;Riordan.
When did you open the store, and why did you choose the name Offbeat Records?
The physical store has now existed for 1,5 years. Before this time we hosted online record auctions on Instagram, auctioning off oddball records, stuff that hits a little differently or is somewhat outsider-ish and unconventional! People placed their bids based on sound clips, but the track ID remained a secret. We let the ears of the people determine the price, so sometimes a 50-cent record was sold for big bucks and a more expensive record went far below the Discogs market price! Through this idea we happily found a community that appreciated all the oddball digs!
You guys have been real vinyl heads for a while now, when did this spark come to life?
Boaz: When I moved to Delft to study I started to acquaint myself with DJing through my roommate and fellow (Pokko elective) DJ mate David, who already had a drive-in show back in the day. My dad had a big wave/post-punk/reggae record collection that we started to mix from a record player with no pitch to one with pitch. Some favorites from my dad’s collection were ‘Joy Division - Tear Us Apart’ and ‘Pablo Gad - Bloodsucker Dub’. Our set-up later evolved to two pitches, but we stuck to the analog format. My mom thought records were too expensive and encouraged me to only buy records that cost less than 1 euro, as “this was the value of a record, right?” By doing so I had to constantly dig ‘de kringloop’ (thrift stores) which broadened my record taste not only searching for obscurities but anything good worth playing. It wasn’t until we really started the record shop that I properly first listened to the bigger names such as Moodyman etc.
Chris: I grew up in a family filled with a love for music and always music around me. My dad grew up in London/Brighton and was a teenager during the uprising of the punk scene, at the same time his interest in jazz-funk, dub, etc.. started. My mum sings in an all-female acapella group and my brother is as big of a music freak as I am. Which means I was always exposed to beautiful music during my upbringing.
My brother was the one who really kicked things off—he started mixing records at home after a family friend from Chicago gifted him an old DJ bag full of records. Watching him play sparked my interest, and I began hitting up local record shops and ‘kringloops' to build my own collection. That journey really started when I bought my first record: Deodato’s Love Island LP from a local shop!
You guys have both been DJing for a while now. Could you explain a bit how this started for you both?
Boaz: As there was not much going around in Delft regarding our taste, the scene had to be created from scratch. Born out of necessity, we formed a group namely De Luv Nan that hosted illegal raves next to the river ‘de Schie’ in Delft. This organization soon became a tight group of friends that stimulated each other to find the next coolest hit! Other people involved in the delft scene were tango sound system now running Time is the new space and Pim and Proper, fellow host of Operator. So people did find their groove in Rotterdam nowadays :).
Chris: I have to thank my brother, Tom, for this one. It was when I was 16 when my brother started DJing more and more and started to get his first local gigs. He got me really intrigued and I remember I always played records from his collection and practiced mixing records when I was free early and he was still at school. Now, 10 years later, we’ve been DJing all around the country together, I’m happy we share the same interest in music styles and ways of telling stories within DJ sets.
Could you maybe tell us how life was back in Leiden? And what made you decide to go to Rotterdam later on?
We started the store in the former Maxi Radio studio, as it brought in all the DJ’s. This was a good breeding ground, we mainly sold our records online but were open on appointment on Mondays. When Maxi had to move we were forced to do so and soon opened a shop in Rotterdam where the buying and selling really got out of hand.
The collection in the store is really well filtered with music and genres coming from all over the world, do you guys see the store as a reflection/extension of your own music interest?
The store somewhat reflects our own taste, as we tend to handpick the occasional oddball records and go the extra mile to buy stuff that we personally feel attracted to. But more importantly we try to reach retired good DJs that have been curating the good stuff for a long long time and getting them to part with their records, so their records will live again with the new dj generations.
We are not necessarily after clones of our taste but hope to offer the right ingredients for people to create their own, slightly spiced by offbeat ;)!
As for the location of the store, how did you guys find it since it’s a “hidden gem” spot?
Through a mutual friend we came in contact with Celine, the owner of the store above us “Ceno Classics”. She was a former raver and down for a combined shopspace. Through splitting the rent it did not feel like as much of a leap to open-up a physical shop with opening-hours. We’re glad we did as now we both flourish. She is supportive of us and the music and it is funny how sometimes we play a wild new find on the stores soundsystem and she comes running down, no way! Is this that __ record, haven’t heard it for ages!
Besides the store itself you guys also organize regular Friday instores right? Are you also gonna do more when it comes to hosting nights?
The in-stores are a moment for everyone to make time and come together. This has always been our initial goal with the shop, to create a community space for music enthusiasts to meet. The in-stores will definitely continue but are going to be extended with club nights, hopefully a place where house, jazz, drum ‘n bass, techno, and disco heads meet on the dance floor!
Could you maybe show us a few recent dug-up records you guys are proud of?
Boaz: I recently have been looking for outsider dub cuts, so many good crossover tracks have been made from ambient dub to more proggy dub. You name it and mostly the UK was on it!
Chris: My personal collection is not genre-specific, it ranges from Japanese ambient music to west coast electro, and from 60’s Yugoslavian modal jazz to 80s dub music. So when I dig for records, I usually don’t dig for specific sounds whatsoever. Here’s some special records I found this month that I finally was able to scratch from the wantlist.
Early wave/electro/experimental album which includes this crazy proto house/electro cut:
Amazing space-disco burner, just keeps going on, and gets crowds going too:
Groovy dub heater which is easily mixable in a house/club set!:
Very laid back jazz-funk groover with some killer drum breaks and fender rhodes business:
What can we expect from your upcoming Operator Radio set?
We tried to bring a mix of genres of ’70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s records, all with that jazzy breaky atmospheric downtempo mood. We live in an age where everything is available so we might as well make good use of the past to create something new and exciting right?!
Are there any plans we need to look out for?
The shop might soon go above the ground :)
Do you have anything left to tell the readers?
Thanks for your support throughout the last year, this way we can continue to supply cool stuff and become a pillar in Rotterdam's amazing music scene.
We couldn’t have done it without the amazing offbeat team: Aysia, Bobby, Roeland, Paco, Tijmen, David, Jonas, Mauke, and Paula!
