Recorded history

>> If the record store is on its way out,
nobody told Eduardo Cabral, whose St-Denis vinyl vault Primitive is still going strong after 20 years

by SCOTT C

While people continue to debate the rise of digital files and the fall of vinyl platters, and any number of small, local record stores have come and gone, Montreal’s Primitive Records is celebrating 20 years of brisk business on St-Denis. Owner Eduardo Cabral has made sure that serious crate-diggers and music lovers have had somewhere to go in Montreal over the years, opening Pop Shop on St-Laurent as a companion to Primitive three years ago. This week, Cabral celebrates Primitive’s anniversary with a party at Salon Daomé and an eclectic mix of the great music that has driven the store’s success.

Mirror: So how did you originally get into the business of selling records in Montreal?

Eduardo Cabral: Well, I was a DJ from 1980 to 1989. I had been thinking about opening a store, and met this guy who asked me to go into business with him. We opened a little store at Sherbrooke and Bleury called Underground in 1983, but we didn’t have the same ideas, so I split and opened a store on St-Denis. It was right across from where Primitive is now, and was called Rebop.

M: And it was right across the street?

EC: Yes, and when I saw the space for Primitive was for rent, I took it. That was in 1987. I opened the store with $500 and that’s it.

M: Wow. And 20 years later, that’s not bad for a $500 investment.

EC: I had an uncle from the U.S. who gave me his record collection when I was very young, so it made an impression on me. When I began to buy records for myself, I was 12, 13 years old, and it was all about soul music at that time. Everything from Wilson Pickett to Otis Redding, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and all the big names. We used to go dancing on the weekends and it was all soul music in the clubs. Montreal was a big soul city from about 1966 to 1969, but when I opened my store, new wave and the alternative music of the time was very popular. Stuff like Blondie and Elvis Costello was selling.

M: When did you start to diversify and offer a wider variety of sounds in the store?

EC: Every year, it would change a little bit. We were more into the ’60s and ’70s sound in the beginning, but then we got into more soul, funk, jazz and blues stuff. As you know, the store is now half black music, and half rock and alternative.

Fresh perspective

M: You’re one of the few stores in Montreal that predominantly stocks vinyl now.

EC: Yes! You know why? It’s because that’s what we sell the most! You wouldn’t believe it, but CDs only make up 10 per cent of our sales. In the last two or three years, CD sales have definitely gone down for us. The interest in vinyl continues to grow, with people coming from everywhere to shop at the store. We’re getting a reputation outside of Montreal, and vinyl is not drying up like a lot of people seem to think.

M: You must have had some famous people pass through your doors over 20 years of business.

EC: Yes, it’s true. A guy who has come back over and over again is Dimitri From Paris, so every time he come to Montreal, he comes to the store. There’s also DJ Gregory from Africanism Records, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead came twice, the guys from Jurassic 5 and Freddie Fresh. Freddie Fresh did a book [The Rap Records 2004 Edition], and in his top five or top 10 record stores in the world was Primitive. When he first came here, I had all these old school hip hop and breakdance 12-inches that I had just bought, so he was very impressed. He was like a little kid in a toy store.

M: Would you consider yourself a completist? Someone who has to have everything?

EC: I know a lot of people think I am, but I don’t think so. I love music, and have to find new music that I don’t know about. Everything that is good, I have to have. I’m not like a nerd collector who collects stamps, but every night I’m at home listening to music or reading about music, except the nights I go out and listen in the clubs.

Primitive Records 20th Anniversary Party,
with DJs Eduardo, Soundshaper, Irma la Douce and
DJ Vedette, at Salon DaomÉ on Friday, Feb. 23, 10 p.m.