Vinylshuffle: An Origin Story

Vinylshuffle began when I lived in a loft in downtown Los Angeles. I spent a lot of time alone at the turntables, kept company by my record collection. But people were always dropping by—sometimes through the door, sometimes through the fire escape. Living there was a bit like a musical Seinfeld.

My records were never organized, although I usually knew where to find them. Nobody else did, but that didn't stop them from exploring the shelves. Out of those evenings grew a party game we called Vinylshuffle.

Someone in the room would blindly choose a record and hand it to the DJ. The DJ had to select a track from it and mix it into the set. DJs rotated throughout the evening, each playing whatever was handed to them.

Sometimes the DJ knew the record. Sometimes they had never heard it before. Sometimes it wasn't music at all—it might be spoken word or sound effects. The challenge was finding a way to make it work.

We kept going until sunrise, or until somebody broke a needle. The combination of chance, unfamiliar records, and different DJs created a lot of happy accidents.

Now, 20 years later, I'm recreating Vinylshuffle on Twitch. Viewers redeem points to randomly select the shelf I pull the next record from.