Brown and Brown Present: Terry Skytte

I had the pleasure of meeting Terry two summers ago in downtown Vancouver as my wife and I were traveling to the west coast. I had been trading with Terry via mail for several years at this point and it was great to put a face to this mysterious metal collector I had been in contact with. He was kind enough to show me around to several great record spots

Terry is a regular on both TMCC.SE as well as the International Record Collectors Guild (Recordcollectorsguild.org - arguably the best forum on collecting out there) Enjoy!

Terry's LP Collection: Quality, not quantity as he says! (Though it's still pretty big!)

Q. What Do You Collect and Why?

A. Mainly, I consider myself a listener more than a collector, so I collect because I listen. However, admittedly there is a little more to this hobby than listening to me, as it does not explain why I must have multiple presses of a certain album in some cases. The genres I tend to focus on the most are Heavy Metal, 70’s rock, blues and punk. With metal, I am attempting to complete the entire Banzai discography (A Canadian Heavy Metal label) because many record on that label were important to me growing up and they all represent that time perfectly for me. In general, records were just part of growing up in my house as a kid. My mom was always playing Elvis and Hank Williams records and my brother had a fairly large record collection made up mostly of 70’s rock. Music was a pretty dominant feature growing up in my household.

Metallica Coloured discs, including numerous 'Creeping Death' EP's.

An unbelievable collection of Banzai LP's

Q. How big is your collection?

A. I estimate I have about 2000 records.

Q. Explain Storage /Display techniques

A. I just display them in bags on an Ikea expedit shelf. When I buy them, I clean them, play them and bag them. I am not the kind of guy to leave them sealed and box them safe from light and never to be seen again. They have to be easily accessible as I spend a lot of time playing them. They are organized by genre and alphabetical by genre. In addition, metal and punk is organized by region as well. It starts with the blues and ends with soundtracks.

Terry's not so modest CD collection

Q. What elusive gem are you still looking for?

A. There are a few, but lets just say I would love to walk into a store tomorrow and see a nice near mint copy of Rush’s self titled debut on Moon records.

Q. How do you keep track of what you have/need

A. No specific system, it is all pretty much all in my head. Sometimes I do forget about upgrades I would like, so might start making a list eventually. For record shows I usually go with a specific focus as I find it is better than running around not really knowing exactly what you are looking for.

Q. Discuss your stance using the internet for collecting? Are you only using ebay, or a combination of stores only.

A I think it would be foolish to limit oneself to just one source. I use all resources available. I’ll dig, I’ll surf the net, I’ll place wanted adds on craigslist or whatever it takes to find what I am looking for if necessary.

Q. Do you have any routines surrounding listening.

A. Aside from turning the stereo on and selecting a record no not really. Though I try to inspect a record for cleanliness before playing it. Whenever I'm bummed or having a bad day, I always listen to Rory Gallagher, Robert Johnson or Leadbelly as that music always makes puts me in a good mood.

Q. Are there any types of covers you look for, or is it all in the grooves.

A. It is mainly all about the grooves for me, but I could not resist buying Uncle Sam’s Heaven or Hollywood lp for the cover because it is a pretty risque and over the top cover. One might think the soft core porn approach might be a slightly hazardous way of trying to get your lp in stores, but they went for it. The music turned out decent on this one. However, despite this one exception, I don’t really buy albums based just on covers.

Q. Do you have a long term plan for your collection?

A. Just for it to continue to grow with interesting music! Also, maintaining it by weeding the garden once in awhile. I enjoy trading records in once in awhile if something doesn’t really get listened to or grab me long term

Q. What is the longest you looked for a record before getting it? How did you feel once it was in your hands?

A. I looked for Subhumans (Canada) Incorrect Thoughts lp for about 15 years before I finally found it in near mint condition. Like many records, before ebay it was pretty hard to find, and when I did see it, it was usually either beat up or quite expensive. Since it was local to my area I figured if I kept looking around, I would find it cheaper in person than on ebay and get the added benefit of looking it over before purchasing. I finally found it a few years ago in near mint condition and once it was in my hands, I nervously paid for it afraid someone was going to pry it from my hands. I think I must have looked like a junky scoring some smack when I walked up to the counter with it!


Q. What’s your all time favorite record, regardless of value or rarity?

A. That is a very hard question to answer, but I would probably say Metallica’s Ride the Lightning on Banzai. It was one of my first records and I have so many great memories associated with that record and even though it may not seem as extreme today as it seemed in 1984, it is still a great record and I never get sick of it. I never get tired of any of the first 4 Metallica albums actually.

Both Banzai Variations of Ride The Lightning. The black label is much more rare- quite jealous of Terry's set!
Q. What is the saddest record story you know?

A. The saddest story I know is regarding the stupid kid who had Nirvana Love Buzz in their hands shortly after it was released and put it back down because he figured $10.00 was way to expensive for a 7” and thought that maybe it will turn up again cheaper since no one likes Nirvana anyway. That stupid kid was unfortunately, me.

Though he never got the 45, Terry has quite the impressive Nirvana collection!

Q. What is the last record you bought?

A. The last record I bought was George Harrison Electronic Sound. It is a great avant garde abstract electronic record that is quite ahead of its time. Amazing that one of the Beatles was actually a pioneer in electronic sound. Also picked up Chinga Chavin’s Country Porn, ZZ Top’s First Album and Waylon Jennings Singer of Sad Songs the same day.


Q. What was the first record you bought.

A. The first record I bought was Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut. It was 1984, the summer going into grade 5. I remember I bought it at a rental video store that also sold tapes. I usually bought tapes because I did not yet have my own turntable and would need to ask permission to use my parents or brother’s system, which was a bit of a hassle. Anyway, I decided to buy it and when I got home, I was blown away by the music and Derek Rigg’s cover art. I got my own turntable shortly after and was able to play it whenever I wanted. It is still one of my favorite records and I still have it.

The Record that started it all!

Pink Floyd's first two lp's on CDN Capital 6000 series with original rainbow capital labels

Some Rare/Classic Vancouver Punk!

Thank you, Terry. A wonderful interview and I know the readers will appreciate you insight into the world of collecting!