After years of operating out of factories and selling records online, Joshua Hodson-Smith, the owner of Footscray Records, has finally opened his store in the hustle and bustle of Footscray’s main shopping precinct.
In line with its centralised and convenient location, Josh has established the space to support artists and cater for fans, but also to foster a fortified yet expanding community of creatives within Footscray and its surrounds.
“We want to cater to music fans and artists of the west,” says Josh, “Obviously Footscray has changed a lot in the last 10 years or so, there are bars opening and people playing music. A lot of people are saying ‘finally!”
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However, Footscray Records isn’t just any record store. Josh has about 6,000 records in circulation in the store at any given time, making it a huge collection that often shocks people as they walk into the store.
“We’ve got about 6000 records, but we get hundreds more every week,” says Josh “I’m getting 300 more from West Africa in the next couple of weeks. We have heaps of records you don’t see in other stores, but we get in the latest pop albums and heaps of local stuff too. A lot of people don’t expect to find this type of record store in Footscray… until they walk in!”
Footscray Records boasts a comprehensive collection of diverse and eclectic records and they sell both online and in the physical store. It’s the bizarre and unconventional records that he endeavours to stock the shelves with, giving Footscray Records ‘s unique place among the records stores of Melbourne.
“We specialise in a lot of strange music; a lot of psychedelic stuff and I have a lot of original pressings of Western African stuff… People come in and say ‘Turkish psychedelia! What’s that like?!’ I know a lot of the music I bring in, but some of this music I haven’t heard either, so we kind of discover it together and it becomes this communal discovery point.”
Whether people are dipping their toes into some of the weird and wonderful sounds in the niche sections, or are into the more conventional genres, what Josh loves most about the store is the community that’s building around it.
“Footscray’s a welcoming community… that’s cool. I sell records to people that want them… and need them!” Josh says. He loves that “people come through the store, buy a record, and they talk about their story, about their connection to the record.
“I’m always talking to customers, people tell you about their history of Footscray record stores from years gone by and their personal connections to certain songs or just great recommendations.”
It hasn’t come without scrutinisation and doubt from others, though. When Josh was first planning to open Footscray Records, he was met with an attitude that suggested such a venture would fail.
“A lot of people were saying to me—before I opened the store—that there won’t be a market for a record store like this in Footscray. But everyone here has been so welcoming and there are a lot of music fans out here. Especially with the prices of rent rising, a lot of artists are moving out to the west. It’s working.”
For a moment even Josh was doubting whether the store was a good idea.
“I’ve never worked retail in my life, you know? So getting a lease had me thinking, ‘Whoa! Have I made an enormous mistake?”
But Josh has nestled into the operations of the store. So much so that Footscray Records have their first in-store gig on Sunday October 2 that will see local post-punk band Grups play, a show that came about from regular interactions and conversations with a customer, the lead singer and guitarist.
“I think I’ll just take it all as it comes,” says Josh. “We’ve got our first in-store gig on Sunday 2nd October, which is a Footscray local post-punk band, the singer comes in all the time to buy records and I just got talking to him.”
A prolonged hiatus from access to a record store in the west has firmly been halted with the timely opening of Footscray Records.
You can shop the online store here, or go in-store at 1/40 Leeds Street, Footscray.
