From underground metal to mainstream pop, Adam Bartlett has spent a decade building a record store where every music lover belongs.
An Oshkosh native and Oshkosh North High graduate, Bartlett started working at The Exclusive Company on his 17th birthday. He played in bands, hosted a late-night radio show on WRST while still in high school, released records through his own label and worked in music distribution.
But of all the ways he's made a living in music, working in a record store has always been his favorite.
In September 2016, Bartlett opened Eroding Winds Record Shop in downtown Oshkosh, building on an online business that specialized in underground music. Today, Eroding Winds has a second location in Appleton and carries thousands of records spanning nearly every genre.
For Bartlett, the appeal of a record store goes well beyond what's in the bins.
We caught up with him to talk about the enduring appeal of vinyl, the discoveries waiting inside Eroding Winds and why he thinks downtown Oshkosh deserves more love.
How did Eroding Winds get started?
We were already renting a space for the online store. The whole plan was, all right, well, if we're paying rent, let's just put some record bins in here, and we'll see what happens.
Ultimately, the goal was to grow it into something bigger. Being such a small market, it was uncertain how successful that was going to be, especially with The Exclusive Company still around at the time.
We tried to carry more experimental music, underground music, heavy metal, punk, things like that. Stuff that was a little underserved in the area. It wasn't necessarily a huge market, but that's what we liked. And because we were selling online, we could carry as much of that stuff as I wanted. We'd always be able to move it online eventually.
What can someone expect to find when they walk into Eroding Winds today?
We carry everything. We have one of the largest selections of metal records, punk records and experimental music in the state. But we also carry all of the most popular Billboard Top 200 artists, a deep catalog of classic music, country, rap, rock, whatever.
When The Exclusive Company closed in 2022, we stepped up our selection to fill that void and carry something for everybody. We have new records, used records when we have them. Used records are super hot, so the cool stuff sells really quickly. We'll sell every used copy of a Pink Floyd record on Saturday. We've also been expanding our CD selection. We want to have a wide variety of everything, something for everybody.
Some people might find an independent record store intimidating, especially if they don't know much about music. What kind of experience do you want customers to have?
A lot of people's impression of record stores comes from High Fidelity (2000 movie starring John Cusack as a Chicago record store owner.) There's this preconceived notion that it's an elitist environment. That's absolutely not going to be the case here. We all know a lot about music, but we don't care if people like what we like. We don't care if we don't like something they do. The number one thing I tell everyone when I hire them is, "Nobody cares what you don't like." People come to a record store because they're having a bad day and want to buy records to feel better, or they're having a good day and want to keep it going. Nobody has to come here. They're coming because they want to do something that makes them feel good. We have people come up and say, "I'm kind of embarrassed to be buying this. This is my guilty pleasure." Shut up with the guilty pleasure stuff. That doesn't exist. No one should feel guilty about liking something.
I'm 43 years old and into heavy metal, and I went and saw 311 in 2019 after loving them in high school. That show was awesome. Fourteen-year-old me inside was super stoked. What is there to be guilty about?
In a world where nearly every song is available through streaming, why do people still buy records?
There's something we call the ritual of listening to a record. You have to physically grab it off the shelf. You have to put it on the turntable. When you put the needle in the groove, you're part of the process of actually playing the music. I think that has a lot of value to people, being physically connected to something that's so important to them emotionally.
All these other formats came along: eight-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs, streaming. They made music more convenient. They made it portable. Streaming is probably going to be the most convenient thing until they can beam it directly into our brain implants. But there's still something about records that people want to experience and going to a record store is part of that. Flipping through the bins, putting your hands on the records, interacting with the staff, finding something you weren't looking for. That's all part of the ritual, too.
You've described a record store as an art gallery. What do you mean by that?
It is an art gallery.
We have rows and rows of records on the wall that catch people's eyes initially with the artwork. I view almost all music as art by nature. You're there to engage with art, to physically connect with things that affect you emotionally. That's the job of art.
One of the most fun things we do is go to people's homes to buy record collections. Some of these records people have had since high school, and now they're retired and getting rid of their stuff. You get to hear their personal stories. You see their eyes light up talking about their youth, when they used to be DJs, or the first record they bought when they got back from the war, or the records they got from their parents.
It's all about connecting art to personal emotion, personal history and personal experiences, and using music to reconnect with those things. That's why I'm doing this. I've always loved connecting with music as an art form.
After 10 years, what has surprised you most about Oshkosh's music lovers?
The musical tastes here are far more diverse than I ever thought. When we first opened, someone walked in with two crates of records. They said, "I don't know if you want any. I heard you liked heavy metal stuff here, so I brought them down."
It was one of the most incredible collections of first pressings of extreme heavy metal, early black metal records and really rare soundtracks. Stuff I never would have thought this person had sitting in their basement. That was my initial experience of realizing, oh my God, this stuff is just hanging around here. It keeps happening. People walk in with five boxes of progressive rock records from the '70s, and we're like, we're buying these. These aren't even going to hit the floor. Everyone who works here is going to want them.
What makes me most proud is that so many people tell us how important it is to be able to find music locally. Being able to have something for people that they never thought they'd find, or showing them something that becomes their favorite music, makes me more proud than the business achievement.
Finally, what are some of your favorite places in Oshkosh?
This is something I'm very passionate about. I don't think people appreciate what's going on in downtown Oshkosh as much as they should. I've traveled a lot, to Chicago, New York, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Miami, Los Angeles. There's no other place I've been where you can park in one spot and have so many different kinds of independent businesses within a block or two. You can grab coffee, go to the comic shop, the used game shop, the vintage T-shirt shop, the record store, the rock shop, the hardware store, the meat market, Bleak Boutique, the pet supply store. And there's great food. For as small as Oshkosh is, to have this caliber of businesses downtown in one or two blocks is insane. People who live around here and don't come downtown think there's nothing to do. What are you talking about? You don't even have to buy anything. Just come down and look around.
The entire stretch of downtown Oshkosh rules.
About Eroding Winds Record Shop:
Owners: Adam Bartlett
Address: 436 N. Main St. Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901 – Downtown Oshkosh
Website: Eroding Winds
Opened: September 2016
