Record Room in Bengaluru Gives Vinyl Culture a New Home

Located on Magrath Road – close to Bengaluru’s central haunt, M.G. Road – Record Room is designed like many other modern pubs, with one big difference; past the island bar and a few tables is a DJ station and two other turntables with headphones and amplifiers around them. On both floors of the space, vinyl records – at least 200 LPs – are the mainstay in almost every direction you look.  

Record Room – which opened earlier this year – doesn’t lean on usual music cliches in terms of design, because it perhaps knows just how serious the regular vinyl collector is. Whether inducted into the LP collection craze recently or in the game for decades, the unhurried yet excited look on collectors’ face is reflected in the comfy ambience of Record Room.  

Then again, it can easily become a party hub, given that they’ve begun hosting events such as Friday Night Flips, Vinyl Jukebox and My Handpicked Mix to get people to go beyond crate-digging and celebrate their favorite music. It’s a welcome distinction that Record Room can claim, at a time when most pubs and bars will stick in a resident DJ without much thought going into curating music that will create a persona for the space.  

Nakul Bhonsle, Akshar Halgali and Karthik Chandrasekaran – seasoned entrepreneurs in the brewery industry – are behind Record Room. Bhonsle is the founder of Great State Aleworks in Pune, while Halgali and Chandrasekaran founded URU BrewPark in Bengaluru. Chandrasekaran, for his part, has also been a DJ for long, building up his own vinyl collection. He says Record Room has been five years in the making. “While we were brewing together circa 2018, Nakul casually joked we should open a craft beer and vinyl bar since we had a common love for both. Before he could speak further, I opened my laptop to reveal the mood board of a vinyl bar I had created a while ago,” he adds.  

From Billie Eilish, Metallica and Eminem to Anoushka Shankar and Kiss – there’s no discrimination or snootiness at Record Room. Because how else will a business thrive commercially? New LPs are brought in every month – both old releases and the latest in the market. The vinyl area also boasts a limited-edition white turntable dedicated to The Beatles’ White Album. Chandrasekaran hopes that vinyls become mainstream in India but for their collection, they did have to thoroughly source LPs in the face of pandemic-related restrictions over the past two years. The co-founder credits their sourcing to their network of friends and family living abroad and to those with access to vinyl stores in India. “We also managed to source some great albums in fairly good condition while digging through crates at old Mumbai outlet stores. We hope to do more of this now that travel both in India and abroad has opened up. We hope to grow the collection at Record Room as we start engaging with the vinyl community. We have planned crate-digging trips to Kolkata and Delhi as well as Amsterdam and Bangkok later this year,” he adds.  

Carrying forward the music curation and programming in the first few months of launching was Mumbai-bred singer-songwriter Andrew Sabu, also an artist and event manager. He had previously connected with Bhonsle in Pune following a gig, but Sabu says he “almost instantly hopped on a flight” when he was first introduced to the concept of Record Room. Sabu, although an outgoing part of the space, outlined his goals for the space in a June interview, saying, “We have a whole plan of programs to be able to bring the community together – not just vinyl connoisseurs but vinyl-curious, music-loving customers too. Bengaluru has a great music scene and we feel that a place like Record Room will help nurture a love for vinyl and further grow a community of music lovers in the city.”