Between the aroma of curry udon, Filipino food and Korean barbecue, jazz and funky music flow out of an open door on Sawtelle Boulevard. A small independent record store with a floor-to-ceiling window facing the street, We Share Records soft-launched in November and has quickly become a hub for Japanese vinyl lovers seeking community.
The store — decorated with tilted mirrors, potted plants, a wall of vinyl covers, and vintage record and cassette players — can only fit two people standing back to back as they sift through the records in the aisles. Yet the tiny space carries a unique selection, ranging from $3.99 soul records to original vinyls over $200, handpicked by store owner and DJ Tsugu Itagaki from Japanese record stores and difficult to find elsewhere in Los Angeles.
“Selling records and DJing are very similar,” Itagaki said. The storefront is an extension of Itagaki’s DJ career, which began in the early 2000s. Born and raised in Kumamoto, Japan, he brings his sensibility to Los Angeles audiences both behind the decks and through the records he stocks.
As encapsulated in the brand name itself, he curated the space to spread the joy and share his personal recommendations through an immersive experience. “That’s why our shop is called ‘We Share Records,’” Itagaki said.
Lured by Masayoshi Takanaka’s “On Guitar” spinning on the turntable, Kristie Song and Jared Gochuico stumbled upon the shop while visiting Sawtelle for the first time. Upon their request for a recommendation, Itagaki switched the record to “For You” by his favorite artist, city pop icon Tatsuro Yamashita.
“It feels nice to be in a space of physical media, getting to touch the records and learn about who’s involved in creating and curating these spaces,” Song said.
She once kept her distance from vinyl due to an inhibition about interacting with such precious media. But being able to pull out records from the shelf makes music a tangible experience.
And that resonates with Itagaki’s preference for physical media over “invisible” digital music.
“There’s a liner on the sleeve of the record where you can read how the album was made,” Itagaki said. “You can check who’s playing what instrument, and get to enjoy more.”
From reading the packaging to placing the needle on the record, playing vinyl is an act of ritual.
Visiting the store with fellow artist and friend Gochuico, who drove down from the Bay Area, Song said she considered the visit an enrichment to their bond.
“It felt like not only a way for us to explore music, but to explore our friendship,” she said. “To tap into music that we both enjoy and preserve a moment of, ‘we were in this record store listening to really great Japanese rock.’”
The records include not only imported vinyl copies of 70s-80s Japanese pop icons like Taeko Ohnuki and Anri, but also rare items such as first-pressing original copies of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Tokyo Joe” and Japanese pressings of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road.”
With his business, Itagaki hopes to bring more genres beyond the hit city pop on streaming platforms. “Many people know about Japanese city pop, but there is way more music than the popular city pop people are talking about right now,” Itagaki said, listing a combination of jazz, funk, stretch and electronic among his favorites.
Prior to having a physical store, Itagaki ran We Share Records as a vinyl pop-up for over 10 years. The roving tent and online shop that made its name in Los Angeles has finally found a permanent home.
Itagaki said he was hosting a pop-up sale when the previous tenant invited him to take over the space. A spot with heavy foot traffic and frequented by the Asian diaspora, Sawtelle seemed like the perfect place to set up shop.
Aside from running the store from Wednesday through Sunday, 1-8 p.m., Itagaki also performs as a DJ at bars all over Los Angeles and curates pop-up events like the Spring Market, a seasonal record fair with beer and skewers in downtown Los Angeles.
Maintaining his decade-long Japanese vinyl business, he hopes to share the music with a larger audience in Southern California.
“Hopefully, we will have this store forever, and have two more in different locations,” Itagaki said.