Hey DJ Barista! Put a record on: I Love You Coffee Shop x Inner Ocean Records

Cory Giordano and Dan Murray. Photo by Shannon Johnston.

I Love You Coffee Shop, located in Calgary’s beltline captures and brings the essence of a Japanese jazz-kissa to Calgary. Playing vinyls from Dan Murray’s personal collection from front to back whilst slinging coffees and serving Montreal-style bagels. In 2012, Cory Giordano founded Inner Ocean Records in Calgary. With over 100 artists on the label as well as an online record store, Inner Ocean Records is known for bringing in vinyl from all around the world. With the collaboration of I Love You Coffee Shop and Inner Ocean Records developing just this past June, I had a chance to chat with Dan Murray and Cory Giordano about how this legendary partnership began and the importance of showcasing international artists locally. 

REVERIE: Starting off, I have a question for Dan: How did I Love You Coffee Shop become an establishment? 

Dan: It was plan C. Plan A and B didn’t work out so I had to come up with something else. I found this space and I thought it would be a really cool cafe to have on this side of the city in the Beltline.I didn’t want to do night time stuff anymore, having DJ’d for years. I wanted to do something in the daytime. 

REVERIE: Cory, what’s the history of Inner Ocean Records in Calgary? 

Cory: I started it twelve years ago. It was very much a side hustle for the first few years and it started as a thing to release music with me and my friends but it quickly didn't become that. People were sending me stuff and I was quite active online on Soundcloud, so I would just get sent all kinds of stuff. Then, around 2016 it became my full-time job. The label is still going, but now it’s also an online record store. I also have this in-person record store. I also do a little bit of distribution for other labels and artists.

REVERIE: What led to the collaboration between you two? And Dan, what led to the decision of having Inner Ocean Records at I Love You Coffee Shop?

Cory: I think it was Sled Island and Dan sent me a message? Or Mike McDonald introduced us and Dan said, “Hey man, let’s just play Inner Ocean Records all Sled Island.”

Dan: Yeah, because I thought Inner Ocean and Sled Island haven’t had as much collaboration as I would like. And that’s my only… thing. I always thought it should be a natural kind-of partnership with two established, Calgary-based musical things. So I wanted to showcase what Cory was doing for the shop and for the people coming here, in a few months with very many people here. Then, this version of it we’ve been talking about for over a year and I think we both just had to get comfortable with the idea and our lives needed to be in the right places. I don’t even know how many conversations we were having about it because it would be a constant back and forth between “We’re doing it” to “We’re not doing it,” then I’d say, “I’m gonna do it!” Then Cory would say, “Hey now, let's do it.” I bought shelves and then Cory brought brought some vinyl and we both kind-of made it make sense. We should have started doing it a while ago. 

REVERIE: Cory, is this basically your physical shop?

Cory: Yeah? I mean I have records stocked in other shops in town, in other shops around the world, you know? 

Dan: All I ever wanted to do was open a record store. I worked at Feroshus Records on 17th Ave when I was 16. 

Cory: I never worked at a record store, so I’m just learning by doing. It’s pretty fun but I’ll agree with Dan. The record store piece could easily be a full-time job. Just buying records is a full time job and I don’t do it full-time because I have a lot of other things. It could be a full-time gig. To be constantly on the pulse to get all the stuff that’s coming out new, even the old stuff that is really popular. Popular in the sense that everyone wants access to it. You have to be on top of that. The popular stuff sells out. 

REVERIE: Dan, you also had a record label at some point. 

Dan: It wasn’t my label… I managed it. I was the label manager for Home Breakin’ Records and Punch Out Recordings which were dance music labels. We were quite big in Western Canada in the early 2000s. The answer is yes. 

REVERIE: With both of you being integral parts in Calgary music, why the vinyl and coffee connection? 

Dan: I mean for me [vinyl] was kind-of the basis of the ‘cafe’: that’s the celebration of Japanese jazz kissa’s which are vinyl cafes in Japan. The concept has become popular around the world, but I Love You Coffee is the only place in Calgary that specifically likes this. I mean, Calgary is a vinyl city, lots of people play records everywhere like restaurants and bars, but nobody has as good of a collection as we do.

Cory: But specifically the jazz kissas or any of the music kissas in Japan, it’s always the owner of the establishment playing his collection. Playing full albums from front to back to differentiate from the DJ type situation. The difference is Dan is doing the true kissa, where he’s playing his whole collection which I think is cool because you're coming in here to hear Dan’s music taste and his life’s work in collecting records. 

Dan: And the thing that makes it easy for us is we have different musical tastes but there’s enough overlap and mutual interest in most of what each other likes. I like some of the stuff Cory isn't into and he’s into the stuff I don’t like. I think it makes for a better shop because it can expand the stuff that we think is good and that we are interested in selling. 

REVERIE: You carry Japanese city pop at the store and soundtracks made in Japan, even lo-fi hip-hop which I’ve never really seen on vinyl. In your opinion, how important is the introduction of international music at a local scale in Calgary?

Cory: I think it’s key because there’s so much amazing music from everywhere and I think that is one of the best things about music compared to when we were younger. My gathering of music was limited to what you could find in stores. It was way harder to find and things were way more localized. I don't think anyone would’ve even known about Japanese city pop when it was coming out. It’s nice because every place is pulling inspiration from one another. 

Dan: Like there’s Filipino and Korean city pop. We had a compilation here that’s sold now but you can find Indonesian city pop playlists all throughout Asia. 

Cory: I think it’s also a little bit like… we wanted to do a completely different record shop in town and separate ourselves from the already great shops in Calgary. We don’t want to duplicate another shop. I want somebody to come in and look through the bins and go, “Oh my god, how is this here?” Because I know what everything is but I love seeing when someone comes into the store and they know what it is. Like a good chunk of the vinyl, you won’t be able to find it at any other store because why would any shop have this? I specifically order these things and import each one selectively. 

REVERIE: Okay, what about the type of music you're spinning on the turntable at home versus being at the coffee shop?

Dan: I don’t even have a turntable at home. I listen to music all day here, nine hours a day of listening to my vinyl. That was a big part of what appealed to me about this concept because all I wanted to do was listen to my records.

In the mornings we listen to traditional jazz, stuff from the 60s mostly. In the afternoons, I like to play jazz fusion, funky stuff like R&B, Boogie, 70s funk and then later in the day… Okay, for like the baristas that like playing rap music, that’s fine, just not at eight in the morning. There’s rock records, 130 bpm disco albums and a bunch of different world music and things. It’s kind-of just day dependent and mood dependent. I’m a very moody person. 

Cory: As a customer to your shop, I’ve never heard you play the same thing. It’s always different every time I come in here. 

Dan: I think I’m playing the same things all the time… but also because I’m here… all the time. 

Cory: It’s also your collection. To me, I never hear the same things twice. I listen to a lot of ambient and experimental music. I do listen to some 80s boogie, funk-type stuff as well. I also grew up listening to rock and I still do regularly listen to Smashing Pumpkins or something like that. This is where the clashing genre-wise comes from. 

REVERIE: In both your opinions, why do you think physical music media such as vinyl, CDs and cassettes are making a comeback? 

Cory: I think it’s important and it’s something I express to artists that “if we release a physical product. It solidifies that project as a piece of history.” Because if your music only exists in the digital space, you don’t know what can happen! Streaming platforms can get taken down anytime and then that music is gone. There’s a bit of a gap in some of the 2000s stuff because people weren’t necessarily burning CDs or printing vinyl. 

Dan: The iTunes era… It also makes me think of the artist who released an album in Edmonton in the 80s, the album is called L’Amour by Lewis. Both his albums were found at Recordland, not surprising since Recordland has everything, but there’s absolutely no copies of his release. Then, some guy at Light In The Attic, one of these big reissue labels found it and now the original copies are worth a thousand dollars because someone discovered it and shone a light on it. There are records like this all over the world that people are buying. I love African music but now it’s so expensive! Like I can’t buy it, but I can buy it now for thirty dollars at I Love You Record Store at Inner Ocean Record Store and I Love You Coffee Shop, hashtag I Love You Record Store. 

REVERIE: I think that should be the new name for the cafe. 

Dan: That’s the thing I put in all the posts. I think having such a long and annoying name is so fucking funny. 

REVERIE: Do you plan on having this collaboration as a long-term thing? 

Cory: There’s no reason to quit it. Absolutely! Keep it going. 

Dan: I think as long as we’re having fun and amicable. We figured out a way where it’s easy for my staff. They’re baristas, they don’t know a lot about the music we have here and they don’t have to. They’re baristas. All they have to do is take a picture of the records when we sell them. I think the most intimidating part of it was that it needed to be easy for staff. 

Cory: And also committing space to the cafe. Well, Dan loves records. We could really go wild down here and there’s lots of space. 

Dan: It’s a cafe! There’s a lot of space, but there’s only so much of it. Unless we start selling more records than coffee, then I’d say fuck it.