The Current

Her dad left her 10,000 records when he died. Listening to them 1 by 1 helps her grieve

Spinning a record a day on TikTok and Instagram has helped this content creator learn about her dad and process the loss.

Spinning a record a day on TikTok and Instagram has helped her learn about her father and process the loss

A turntable sits in front of vertically stacked vinyl records
Spinning a record a day on TikTok and Instagram has helped content creator Jula about her dad and process her grief. (photopixel/Shutterstock)

Jula's father was an English teacher, an accordion player and a "shy singer-songwriter" completely obsessed with music, she says.

"He was always listening to something and almost every single memory I have of him somehow … has music in the background," Jula, 24, told The Current's Matt Galloway.

(CBC has agreed not to use Jula's last name due to concerns about her personal information being shared online, where she has a large social media following, and her personal safety.)

He also had a massive record collection — some 10,000 vinyl albums, sprawling across genres from rock to orchestral music.

When he died in 2015, Jula, who lives in Alberta, inherited the collection. More recently, she's started sharing an album from his collection each day on TikTok and Instagram at @soundwavesoffwax, in an effort to learn more about her dad and the music he loved so much.

But figuring out what to do with the room full of records wasn't easy.

Each time she'd visit her family home she would avoid the room where the vinyl albums lived, stored on floor-to-ceiling shelves that lined the walls. Her relatives suggested ways she could manage the collection — like sorting through them, keeping a few favourites and selling the rest.

"It took me a while before I even wanted to be in the same room as them," Jula said. "Even though they took up so much space and they were so big, it felt like a big loss and not a gain."

But when she moved back into that house, she put her bed in the record room and found herself confronted with them every day. Slowly, she waded into listening to the collection, starting with albums she didn't associate with her dad — before one day picking a random album by The Hollies and giving it a spin.

"I was … surprisingly, really comforted by that experience," Jula said.

Starting last September, Jula would choose album each day, listening all the way through, and sharing her thoughts on the music online. She's documented her first impressions of about 150 albums since then.

Jula doesn't research the albums before listening. Often the hit songs or artist names are familiar, Jula says, but some of the "deep cuts" are complete unknowns until she gives them a spin.

Listening to her dad's favourites — like Paul Simon or Burton Cummings — bring up memories, like dancing with her dad to Simon's Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes as a kid.

The project struck a chord with her audience, too. Her first video announcing the project has been viewed over 2 million times on TikTok; she currently has more than half a million followers across TikTok and Instagram.

Jula isn't totally sure why so many people have joined in on her listening journey, but says she expects some of her followers enjoy revisiting music that they grew up listening to, or relate to her connection between family and music. 

Regardless, she's glad to have the company. "I feel like I've created a little bit of an online album of the day listening party. And that's been such a treat for me and I think for my viewers as well," Jula said.

She's also learned a lot about music along the way — like how massively popular pan flute player Gheorghe Zamfir was in the '90s, with ads for his mail order CDs running on TV.

"The little facts about records can also be super surprising," Jula said.

The project also helped her bond with her dad, even after his death.

Being into experimental and underground music herself, Jula used to think his taste was too conventional. But finding eclectic records — like the Zamfir one — in his collections has proved otherwise. "I've been debunked on that theory," Jula said.

It's also helped her work through the loss of her father. "This whole project for me has, in a really nice way, made me deal with my grief, maybe for the first time [and] in the happiest way," Jula said. 

Her dad always wanted to be a disc jockey, Jula says, so sharing his music is a way to posthumously honour him.

"He's there when I'm talking about the records and listening to them and just in that space with me every single day," Jula said. "And it's not something I have to avoid anymore."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abby Hughes

Journalist

Abby Hughes does a little bit of everything at CBC News in Toronto. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. You can reach her at abby.hughes@cbc.ca.

Interview with Jula produced by Amanda Grant

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