If there are two things people really think are sweet, it’s got to be vinyl and candy. This is not lost on Mike Quinlan, one of the owners and operators of New Orleans Record Press and its vinyl club subscription service. “Vinyl is inherently cool,” declares Quinlan. “And cool shit cannot be denied. It’s impossible to not find vinyl interesting.”

Quinlan, who not only has a knack for business and marketing,  also has an eye for art. You may have recently seen his work in Sound Garden—the JAMNOLA exhibit, not the band—where he and Rachel Arrington created a floral garden art installation of over 500 recycled and up cycled vinyl records. He’s quick to jump in and help local businesses like JAMNOLA whenever he can, especially when so many small businesses have been affected by Covid. So it was only natural for him to pair shipments of locally made vinyl with candies from local confectioners in his exclusive vinyl subscription service. He calls the subscription service Sweets and Beats.

“I wanted this to be an exclusive deal just for 2021. A way for one local business, us, to help other local businesses so we can all benefit,” he explains.

Some of the chocolatiers participating in the Sweets and Beats package include Hen. E. Sweets, Southern Candymakers,
Piety and Desire Chocolates, and Bittersweet Confections. Local singer Erica Falls is also contributing her confectionary skills to the project.

There seems to be a similar way in which records are pressed to the way in which candy is made. The advanced robotic press at New Orleans Vinyl takes raw material in plastic pellets and feeds it through a plasticizer that precisely increases the temperature of the raw vinyl as it travels up the barrel. At the end of the plasticizer, a protodisc emerges and awaits placement in the record press. The protodisc looks oddly like a brightly colored crayon or bon bon.

Once the record press is ready, the protodisc is inserted by a robot and pressed at high pressure and temperature in a mold. An operator monitors the molding parameters and makes adjustments as needed.

The mold is made from an outside vendor who holds the master copy using electro deposition technology — literally the .wav files are imposed onto the  master plate. The press forms the record in about 40 seconds. A robotic arm transfers the cast record onto a cutting station where mold flash is removed and the record shape is finalized. The record is presented to the operator for stacking and adding a label as the record cools. Flash and defective records can be recycled for use again based on customer agreements regarding raw materials. Musicians can choose colors, recycled content, artwork, sleeves and more all from the Bywater area press company.

“There’s really no reason for musicians here not to be pressing their vinyl here,” adds Quinlan., who has customers from all over the world having their records made here in New Orleans including Anders Osborne, Greyboy Allstars, Bonerama
Robert Walter, and more. They have even done the pressings for The Stranger Things soundtrack and other hit Netflix series.

To learn more about New Orleans Vinyl Press and to subscribe to the Sweets and Beats program, visit their website here.