In March ’09, halcyon broke with it’s 10 year tradition of dance music purism to make room for the launch of it’s first indie-rock section. The foray into the world of Alternative Rock and the like has been a huge success, many thanks to our indie music buyer, Karim…. Like us, Karim has been an avid record buyer for as long as he can remember and has a fifteen year career in music to prove his dedication to the cause. He has worked in several corners of the music industry’s vast realm from small labels to big corporate music machines, both in New York and his home city, Montreal. Prior to nestling at the shop, he worked at the East Village’s long running Mondo Kim’s spot which, like so many good record shops in NYC, finally succumbed and shut it’s doors last February. In this interview, Karim chats about breaking ground at halcyon, why “indie” doesn’t necessarily mean rock and what under-the-radar albums should be on everyone’s watch list for the new year.

Why did you approach halcyon about adding a rock-oriented section considering that the shop has a reputation for drawing a more DJ-oriented, dance-music crowd?

I actually heard from a friend that halcyon was looking to expand into this area. It was just after I had left Kim’s so I didn’t even have time to think about approaching other stores. I also felt that it would be more interesting to break new ground in a place that wasn’t completely familiar with the music that I wanted to sell. One aspect of halcyon that attracted me was their dedication to the vinyl format above all. I knew that vinyl sales had been increasing in the last few years.  10-12 years ago the popularity in vinyl was due to the DJ/12″ market. Now it seems more geared towards full-length albums by the independent artists of today as well as reissues of classic LPs from the ’60s to the ’90s.

Indie/Rock is such a broad genre – can you elaborate more on the music that you bring in? If people are looking for classic rock can they find that at the shop now?
Indie rock is a pretty vague genre. I would say that the majority of the artists that could be described as “indie” are putting out music on an independently owned label. Although many of them eventually move to major labels or indie labels that are financed by a major.  The music that I bring in is based around that but really it’s anything that’s not 12″/DJ/dance-oriented.  In terms of indie rock I’ve brought in music by a lot of the popular bands in the field such as Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Iron and Wine, etc.  Anything on the bigger independent labels – Sub Pop, Matador, Domino, Drag City, Secretly Canadian, Warp, In The Red…I’ve also brought in a lot of classic stuff too – Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, Neil Young,.. and punk/new wave bands like Wire, Television, and Modern Lovers.

There are also a lot of excellent soul, afrobeat and salsa reissues that have been really popular this year.  Labels like Soundway, Analog Africa, the Eccentric Soul series on Numero, Light In The Attic, Sublime Frequencies and Fania. If it’s cool and available on LP or CD, I’ll get it.

What are your future plans in terms of your position at halcyon – are you planning to expand your section?
In terms of the future I’m always looking to expand by opening accounts with new labels and distributors.  The more variety and volume I can bring in, the better.  It has already grown by leaps and bounds in the first 10 months and it will grow further as the audience for the music finds out that it’s available at the shop. In terms of events, it would be nice to have a band play an in-store performance at some point. Record Store Day 2010 figures to be a big opportunity to host an event and get the word out. Anything to get people in the store and reinforce the sense of community that record stores represent.

Have you noticed a different group of people coming into the shop since you started working?
I’ve noticed a lot of new faces over the last year – a lot of first-timers or people who used to shop at the old halcyon ‘classic’ location on Smith St. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people who are pleased with the new selection and I’ve definitely turned customers on to some new music, which is always exciting to me.

What are the top selling records/CDs in your section at the moment? What are some upcoming ones we can expect to see out in January?
Anything by Animal Collective has been selling well now – their latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion is on top of every “Best of 2009″ chart.  Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear was also really popular this year.  The new album by Vampire Weekend called Contra comes out in January and I’m  sure that it will be a big album for them.  That’s probably the most buzzed about “indie” album of the moment.

Karim’s Current halcyon the shop Top Ten
1. Bibio Ambivalence Avenue
2. Prefuse 73 Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian
3. Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
4. Flaming Lips Embryonic
5. Meanderthals Desire Lines
6. The Horrors Primary Colours
7. The Clientele Bonfires On The Heath
8. Animal Collective Fall Be Kind
9. Cold Cave Love Comes Close
10. Blank Dogs Under And Under