Owned by Kitchener-Waterloo native Nenad Vitas, the ironically named Extra-Large Records opened in January this year and sits tucked away in a small room at the back of Lost Vessel’s second location at 13 King St. N.
“They step into here and they’re like, completely taken by surprise,” Vitas said.
Vitas began his collection at a young age with Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan, and his fascination with physical music naturally grew into owning his own store.
Ultimately, he was approached by Az Heatley, one of the owners of Lost Vessel, and Extra Large Records was born.
Most of the records in their collection come from Vitas’ friend Andrew Panday, who sourced over 7,000 of what Vitas estimates to be almost 10,000 total records. A portion of these records are on display in the store, split up into genres such as jazz, folk/country, R&B, soul and more.
This large variety of styles and genres allows Vitas to feed his personal passion as a music lover, and, as a bonus, he can look through his collection for samples to use as he spends much of his free time producing music.
“[This] is giving me a chance to sit down, skip through tracks, find something that I truly enjoy, and then kind of debate whether or not to put it for sale, to pass it on, to keep for myself—it’s a pretty big process when it comes to that,” Vitas said.
Extra Large Records works as a place for physical music to be not just appreciated but also perpetuated and protected. Any collector, amateur or veteran, knows that physical media requires extra care to ensure it survives in the long run. Records can easily scratch, break and even bend beyond repair.
By adding another space for physical music in the community, Vitas is helping make music more accessible.
“Sometimes, you can’t find that album on YouTube, you can’t find that album on Spotify, you can’t really find it online,” Vitas said.
For more information, visit @extralargerecords on Instagram.
Leave a Reply