Chris Energy and The Giant Record Box

Many East Londoners and record collectors will be accustomed to the familiar sight of Chris Energy tending to his record stall on Brick Lane at weekends. When I first met him he told me this wild tale about how he lived in a warehouse with over 100,000 records. 'Prove it', I said.

A few months later, as he finally opens his door to us and leads us around his home, we are left with no choice but to nod in awe when he says he 'lives' his music. Because it turns out that Chris Energy really does live in a warehouse stacked with towers of over 100,000 records, and today is our lucky day as we enjoy the rare privilege of a personal tour from the collector extraordinaire himself.

Softly spoken and articulate, his dusty fingers point out various rarities from music's recent history as we look down from the balcony that constitutes his modest living quarters.

How on earth do you know where everything is?

How do I know where everything is.....? Basically it took me 2 years to box the records, and as I was boxing them I separated them into categories. I put them in storage, into containers while I had this building opened up and a new roof laid down. And then I brought them back. So I know genres of music, but not where specific tunes are, if that makes sense.

Does that make it difficult if someone asks for a specific record?

Well, I know what I've got, it's just a matter of how long it would take to find it [smiles]. Basically it starts of being jazz, soul, disco, rap, drum n bass, electronic music and then it ends up being Chicago/Detroit stuff. But this is really my stash- I add to it, I draw from it, the only part that's organised is that [points to two long shelves of records] and when you actually see my with an organised store at the Vibe Bar. It's kind of a conveyor belt system, it just goes round in a loop.

So how do you know what records to take out with you?

It's just experience. I've been dealing with music for 24 years now man, so week in, week out, as you travel and learn. That's how I've learnt basically, from travelling, from speaking to people and working in music. I've worked in all aspects in music- I've DJed, I've produced, I've done radio, I've run a shop, but my staple is vinyl vinyl vinyl.
When I left school my dad bought this building. There was a shop next door called 'Hit and Run Records' and that's how I was started. I was 17 at the time and ran that for 3 years. That sort of ended up turning into a youth centre environment and I did learn a lot about music, how to deal with distributors and all the rest of it. Afterwards I closed it and built a studio here, started producing music....and here I am now, still here, still renovating the building and still working in music.

You're not producing music anymore?

Not the way I was. I did it for 9 years full time, from '91 to '99, I got to a certain point...I was quite young when I started and when you're young you can afford to...not waste time, but you can afford to spend time doing something you enjoy. But the older you get the more you try and earn a living from it and that's where you can start to become unstuck sometimes, if you're not lucky. And you do need luck, it's not just about making the music- the best music often never sells anyway.

You've said that you could relate to Domu's recent retirement from music.

Yeah, I went through a stage where I made music 5 days a week, 10 hours a day for about 8 or 9 years. I released stuff on various labels and got to a certain point where I had 3 album deals....they all kind of when wrong for various reasons and I kind of reached that point when I knew I had to change what I was doing. I do regret it a little bit...I do still make stuff but not the way I was before.