Dave Eck will tell you music’s been following him around most of his life. As he rifles through his record collection, he pulls a label with Mick Jagger on it. There’s also King Con, Neon Leon and The Cure. All are bands still releasing vinyl records. It’s a music culture Eck grew up with as a vinyl junkie. He talks about spending hundreds of dollars a week at B-Side Records on State Street in Madison. He says he can remember spending a lot of money to fuel his addiction.
Eck’s love of music led him to a career in the record industry. He’s done mixing, mastering, pre-production and a lot of vinyl restoration. He’s cut the vinyl masters for big names from Maroon 5 to the Jackson 5. At a time when vinyl was in a death spiral, Eck decided to ride the wave. His basement in his Middleton is home to a high-tech German lathe that cuts grooves on records. Eck says the magic comes in prepping the music, cleaning up every little imperfection to create what he calls a “juicy” pre-master that is very vinyl-friendly.
Recently, Eck saw the resurgence of vinyl records coming and took a gamble. He opened Waxxy Poodle record pressing company in Cross Plains. They’ve produced well over 200 titles this year alone. Waxxy Poodle is the first record pressing company to open in Wisconsin in nearly 100 years.
With the demand for vinyl records surging, Eck’s record pressing machine is always spinning. Waxxy Poodle can press a record every 25 seconds. That’s 3,500 each day. Mass producing albums is an art and a science in an industry where vinyl has now eclipsed CD sales.
“I think people are just realizing it’s better and they made a mistake,” Eck says. “It’s kind of what happened. I hate to say it, I’ve been here watching. We’ve been riding the roller coaster of the vinyl boom ever since.”
