Pim Thomas is is one of the main arteries of the Brussels music scene and nightscape. A record store and distribution owner, a DJ and event curator is on a quest to build a close-knit music community in this increasingly crowded and chaotic world. And what a superb mix he made for deeprhythms, real tastemaker stuff. Many thanks Pim!
Hi there, how’s things? Can you introduce yourself briefly to our listeners?
I’m Pim, also known as Alfred Anders. I’m the founder of Crevette Records, a record store located in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. We recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of our shop, which was a memorable moment for me. It was an important milestone to achieve and gave me plenty of energy for the years to come.
I have also been deejaying, collecting records and promoting club nights for over fifteen years now. So yeah, pretty much living the dream!
What’s been keeping you busy of late?
I'm spending a lot of time in my record collection as the clubs are finally re-opening and the agenda is filling up nicely. Re-organizing stuff, getting to know my recent finds, re-discovering some older records from the collection, preparing for the upcoming gigs and while doing that, making selections of records that I want to sell to keep my collection breathing.
Do you have any fond musical memories from your childhood?
I remember that vinyl has always been a part of the living room at my parents’ place. One of my fondest memories as a kid was my little selection of records, mostly audio stories for children, that I could put on myself. One of them was called ‘Alfred Jodokus Kwak’, a little bird that always had the craziest adventures. It was my favourite record as a kid, so when I needed a DJ alias I definitely wanted to have ‘Alfred’ included in it, which now turned out to be a good move with all these alphabetical ordered line ups : )
What drove you to electronic music in the first place?
I have always loved going out, dancing and getting lost in the night, so electronic music was an obvious choice for me. I started to go out at an early age and the love for electronic music has been growing ever since.
You are an avid vinyl fan and record collector. Tell us a little about your collection and how you go about finding records to buy?
I’m quite privileged in the hunt for records as most records are finding me instead of the other way around. We often get the possibility to buy big record collections, which are the ones where you can find the biggest gems. Belgium has a rich history in electronic music, so we are at the source of some amazing collections and are lucky enough to get them offered to the store. We had collections from old Belgian distributors, famous old school residents and in-house club collections. It’s like being a kid in a candy store when going through these, because they’re filled with the good stuff.
We have also built a nice community around the shop over the years, where we sell records from the personal collection of our loyal customers. There are some amazing diggers in Brussels and Belgium who are bringing plenty of unbelievable records to the store, which is a delight for us and our customers!
I also like to get my hands dirty in other records stores around the globe. From visiting the ones in the cities when playing abroad, to planning digging trips with friends to doing a regular tour in the other stores in Brussels. As long if it involves getting my hands on new pieces of plastic, I'm a happy man. And of course, I often get lost online on Discogs too, spending a fair amount of time to look for those ear-tickling records.
As a DJ, you’re known for your extensive knowledge of music - ranging from new beat to house to early techno and everything in between. How has your collection expanded over the year?
Working in a record shop is not the best way to keep your collection modest but it’s nice to always be the first one to know about new releases that will be coming out. Listening to the pre-orders of soon to be released records is not only part of the job, but also fun to do and you get educated while doing it. The number of second-hand records passing through is also a great way to get to know a lot of interesting artists and labels you didn't know yet, varying a lot of different styles.
When it comes to my own collection, I have these different phases where I start digging intensively for a while into a certain style. While doing this I can get a sort of tunnel vision: I really want to dig as much as possible, discover the undiscovered and I tend to get a little geeky about it. It’s important to gain as much knowledge as possible about the styles you’re into.
When you select records for your sets, what’s your approach like?
I like to prepare my bag for a gig in different sessions, not rushing it but letting it come together organically. In that way, the bag is not packed with a specific mindset from a certain moment but with different moods. I always try to picture the night, the size of the club, the other acts, the overall vibe and the timeslot I’ll play.
Most of the time I build my sets around a couple of key records that I want to play that night and I try to find good records that will resonate with those. Packing a bag that gives you the freedom to go in different directions is also key as you can never predict how a night will evolve. But most importantly? Just doing my own thing, not making too many compromises, playing what I like and simply having fun playing. That feeling of joy often resonates with the crowd, having as much fun as I do.
What have been your most memorable record finds? Any good stories?
Just recently we were able to buy a complete collection from a Belgian DJ. He had been collecting records for over 25 years and he had an excellent taste in everything from the late 80’s till mid 90’s ranging from Techno to Electro to some obscure Wave.
Usually, we must throw away half of the collections we buy, because it’s rubbish and we only want to keep the best stuff for the store. But not this time. When picking up the records, we got an explanation of each record from his 1500+ collection: where he found it, how he discovered it, who played it in which club back in the days, ...
It was not a quick encounter, but he gave us some great insights about a lot of cool records. It does not happen often to find collections that you can buy in their complete form and not only a part that the seller wants to get rid of.
When going through these collections, it’s reading someone’s life, in a musical way. It can be intimate and personal but mostly interesting to relive a part of someone’s live by discovering their vinyl collection. Having these opportunities makes me feel blessed.
While going through this collection I found a lot of cool stuff for my personal collection that I have been playing a lot lately. All the other records will find their way to the crates of our shop for other diggers to discover and play.
I just need to ask, how’s your vinyl record collection organised?
The main part of my record collection is sitting in shelves and is organised by genre: 80’s/90’s House, Techno, Breakbeat, Electro, New Beat, Wave, Ambient, Jazz, etc.
Apart from that, I have two big crates on each side of my DJ booth where I put all my latest finds. These are crates where I can flip through like in a record shop, so it’s easy to access and browse through. The records in here are mainly the ones that I will use to make my record bags for the weekend or just like to listen to in my living room.
All my records are stored in a custom-built record shelf that is the centrepiece of my living room designed by Clauset & Dekeyser. It’s nice to be surrounded by your records all the time and have them safe and sound in a beautiful shelf. I find it important to have a record collection that is organised and therefore easy to access, so I can find the record that I’m looking for easily.
Who are the artists and DJ’s you think deserve more attention than they get currently?
Boudewijn Ericx and Rino are the next generation of passionate diggers here in Brussels. They have both been interns at the shop and recently launched their label ‘Pinguin Society’. They are both great DJ’s and passionate about electronic music and vinyl culture.
Another one of my favourite DJ’s is Walrus, he’s our second hand manager in the store and runs the label ‘Basic Moves’. He’s like a walking encyclopaedia and taught me a lot about music these past five years.
I’m happy that I can call these beautiful talented souls my friends!
Let’s talk about more about Crevette Records. How did you get started?
I started Crevette Records five years ago back in 2017 as I had the feeling that Brussels was missing a record store where the scene could come together and connect. My dad always said that the most rewarding thing to do in life is to make your job out of your passion and I always had been dreaming about opening my own record store, so I decided to take the leap and started Crevette Records.
It was quite frightening in the beginning as I didn’t really know what I was doing, I was passionate about records, already collecting and playing them half of my life, but never ran a store or a business before. Eventually I had to figure things out along the way. We opened the shop with a lot of passion and an appetite to learn all the other stuff that comes with. It turned out to be the best decision of my life. The store has been growing ever since and we’re currently working with a dream team of four passionate people that share the same love for wax.
The capacity of the shop has tripled since we opened our doors. We always kept on building new crates to add more records. But now we’re at full capacity I think, we really used every possible square inch to store records. The shop has both new and second hand records that are carefully selected.
Every record lying in our bins needs to have a purpose for someone. Therefore, we’re not simply putting in all records that we buy from a collection, but we always make a specific selection of what we want to offer the people visiting our store. We also have a big backstock of records, so you can find a daily dose of new records in our crates. We’re changing complete crates on a regular basis to a brand-new selection of records so that our weekly visitors always have some fresh stuff to go through.
I have met so many great people along the way and I go to ‘work’ with a big smile every day. I wouldn’t change this for anything in the world!
Pretty quick after the opening of the shop you also launched Crevette distribution, can you tell us something about that?
One year after we opened the store, we also decided to start the distribution. At that point a lot of our friends were about to start a new label. Instead of guiding them to another distributor we had the idea to start one ourselves.
In the beginning it was more a family affair, us distributing the records of our friends. But now, four years later it grew out to something much greater.
We’re currently housing and representing over forty labels. From some really established ones to some fresh and interesting upcoming ones. It was an obvious choice for us to not ‘only’ be a record shop but to be involved in the complete process. From helping with the production to distributing the records and from selling them in the store to playing the records out in the clubs.
It is really rewarding to send a box full of records you distribute to some of your own favourite shops on the other side of the world with the knowledge they’ll start a new life there.
Let’s talk about Brussel You have been involved in various aspects of the local music scene in your city. Can you talk about your beginnings? What’s the scene like today?
In addition to running the store we also promote club nights, do stage hostings at festivals and have a radio show on Kiosk.
Our scene is really buzzing and interesting, living in Brussels is really inspiring to me. There is a lot of cool stuff happening the last couple of years and everyone is working together to build and maintain our close-knit community. It’s nice to see all actors working together and it really feels like one big family. Everyone is connected in one way or another.
We have a good mixture of interesting club nights and events hosted outside the general clubs; some cool underground parties are happening every weekend. Kiosk Radio is also doing a wonderful job promoting the sound of our city on the world wide web. We have some well curated festivals like Horst and Listen Festival and a lot of new record stores are opening lately. In that way, we have everything that a city needs to have a vibrant scene.
So the mix, can you tell us a little something about that?
The mix is recorded on a Monday, after a party infused weekend: still a bit fuzzy and with a lot of coffees consumed while making it. I wanted to create something that has a clubby drive but is also nice to listen to at home or just wherever you would like. Something that could soundtrack a journey into space with a lot of quasar samples and outer worldly vocals.
Many thanks, anything else?
Thanks for asking me to record this mix, I had a lot of fun doing it. See you on the flip side!
DJ profile
Alfred Anders
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Crevette records | Soundcloud
Collector, curator, connector, risk-taker－ Alfred Anders is one of the main arteries of the Brussels music scene and nightscape. He has been guiding ears and dancefloors for the last decade as a DJ and more recently as the founder of Crevette Records. He’s constantly crafting, shaping, and executing big plans in the quirky capital city he calls home.
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