In an affluent suburb of Nashville, Franklin TN with the population of 75,000, Luna Records located in The Factory at Franklin, Becca says, “sorry if it’s hard to hear me because of the music playing in the background”. Located about 21 miles South of Nashville, it’s population has vividly increased since 2013, attracting many businesses and is now the seventh-largest city in Tennessee. “Love this Record Shop!!! Had a great selection of all genres. Loved the iconic 80's and 90's poster wall decor!!! I'm an 80's lover, and this place did not disappoint. The staff was knowledgable and friendly. This is rare in a world full of Record Store snobs!! This place is my new favorite!!!” a review from one of their customers on their facebook page. Along with their 4.9-star rating, and only five other record stores in Franklin, Luna Records is the hot spot to go.

 

“We just surround ourselves with the things we love so like the walls of our shop are just covered in posters of things that we love and people who inspire us so everybody feels comfortable when they come in.” I’m not even in the store, I am on the phone interviewing Becca and as music is playing in the background I feel like I can actually see the posters of music and artists covering the walls. Looking on Luna Records website, it also gives a friendly vibe from all of the pictures of customers and musicians playing in their store. By now, Luna Record shop is portrayed to give off good vibes to their customers as they walk in and get to jam out to records while shopping. “Some of our happiest times were in music stores, and that is something we think everyone misses and younger generations haven’t experienced” Becca worries.

 

The judgment-free, socializing comfort zone, sister owned shop will have been open for 2 years this November 7th. Anything and everything related to music, Becca and her sister Calvert are there to talk to you about it because socializing with their customers is what makes them happiest and what keeps their boutique shop running. From a young age to now, music has been apart of Becca’s life and passion which is clearly demonstrated by the way she describes her store. From over 5,000 vinyl records, cassettes, and new vintage audio put on display, Luna Record Shop will continue to buy and sell all of these items until they grow old.

 

So I’ve read on your page that music has been a big part of you and your sister's life since you guys were young, can you tell me a little bit about what got you into it?

 

Oh yes, as far as music our parents were very um, always had music on, had lots of friends that played in bands, we went to lots of you know shows when we were younger, you know at that time it wasn’t age restrictions, well we weren’t at bars but like you know lots of shows. Our parents never censored any of our music ever so it was kind of like they allowed us to play with all of their records which I would never let my son do that now, just because he would mess them up, but um they didn’t care, they didn’t care they let us come in and pick something out and play it, we were just curious about it so that’s kind of, we just did that and then eventually as we got older we had some other family members that would bring us music and I had a cousin that would bring me cassettes all the time of people I didn’t know,

 

Oh, that’s awesome.

 

and then we would start just kind of getting our own stuff. Ya so it was just there’s no censorship at all it was just you know we listened to the radio, we listened to anything we could get our hands on basically.

 

Do you have any records still from your family members?

 

Yes, I still have the whole collection saved from when I was 8.

 

What are your favorites?

 

Not limiting them, I’d have to say Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream, Radiohead The Bends, Tori Amos Boys for Pele, The Clash London Calling, Pixies Surfer Rosa, Placebo Singles Collection, Tom Petty Full Moon Fever, umm The Smiths Hatful of Hollow, David Bowie Let’s Dance, and Violent Femmes Violent Femmes.

 

Wow, so you must have a lot.

 

Yes between me and my sister, we have quite a lot.

 

And can you tell me the story of your store, like how it got started?

 

Well, we’d always wanted to do a business together and I wanted to have a record store since I was little, I used to like actually set up and play in my parents house and we would like to lay out all the records and all the tapes and get monopoly money and be like “come buy stuff from me!” And uh but then after a while you know it was kind of like that went away for a minute as far as being a child. A lot of record stores closed so then all of a sudden I kinda was like well I feel that now’s the time for me to do it if I’m ever gonna do it so, I talked to her and I was like we were originally gonna have pop-off shops and I was like we always wanted to be in business together we both love music, I’m gonna force you to do this with me. And she was like okay and so we started to have pop-off shops, we did one, we did one pop-off shop and I was like nope I hate this I need to be in a place where I can talk to people all the time. And then we were selling our line and I, this was still some kind of socialization on a regular basis but I was like nope, I hate this. We have so much good stuff and people need to be able to see it and it’s hard and so within like three months after we had originally set up a business license and everything we left.

 

That’s awesome! Are there any other record stores nearby?

 

There is another shop close by that sells records, but isn’t a full on record shop. Most other shops are located within Nashville which is about 25 miles away.

 

That’s great for you, and what type of people usually come into your shop and what do they usually look for?

 

Um, we have like a variety of age it goes anywhere from teenagers to 70 years old. Um, it’s really diversified it’s all over the place here. Especially where we’re located it’s very diverse as far as the age and there’s um many people look for a classic rock. Any classic, classic rock, classic country, classic jazz, you know all that kind of stuff and then we also have new vinyl as well and so there’s new artists and things like that, but classic rock HUGE classic rock is definitely our number one selling thing.

 

Awesome! Do they usually tend to come back again?

 

There are a lot of people who come in over the weeks and the ones who tend to spend the time to get to know us and get to talk to us for a while over music usually always come back. We get great reviews where you can see them say they can’t wait to come back because of how comfortable and relaxed they feel in our store while talking with us.

 

That’s great! Do they always look for new things when they come in and have a lot to explore with?

 

Yes, they definitely always come back and spend more time in the store than they did the first time just looking around at everything. We have plenty for everyone to look at.

 

How many records are in your inventory?

 

As far as what we keep on the sales floor we keep 5,000. Rotations going pretty much. It’s about 5,000 records, we usually have about 3,000 that are not on the floor at any given time. Um, we clean and play all the records so that means we have to clean them and then listen to them before we price them. So it takes a lot longer to get them out on the floor, and we want to have a constant rotation of records so there’s always something fresh so we keep the store small and we just rotate out. Yeah, we sell a lot of records and we get a lot of records so...

 

Oh yeah, so you buy a lot too?

 

We do, we buy records from people who actually do a personal collection who bring us their collection or something if their father or somebody that has given it to them, um we buy records almost every day.

 

And what’s the best record you’ve found from buying?

 

Ummm, I guess it kind of depends on your opinion, the most valuable record we have ever bought and sold was an autographed Johnny Cash record, and we sold it for 500 dollars.

 

Oh, that’s so cool! So have you guys had an increase in sales after having the biggest selling year of vinyl?

 

Ummm, no I mean it’s definitely like doing what it’s supposed to do if that makes sense.

 

Yeah, where do you see your store in 5-10 years?

 

You know, that’s a hard question. That’s a hard one, um, because you know a lot of it has to do with what happens with vinyl, and right now it’s the only thing that can format making any money as far as you know, artists and record labels. Um people say that it’s coming back now and it never like fully went away. They always press records but they didn’t have resurgent the last year has been on an upchuck but eventually that will go down again. But, as long as we got people buying music, especially teenagers and stuff that have never physically bought music before, that’s kind of what it’s all about for us, so as long as we can do that, that’s what we’re gonna do.

 

So that’s what will keep you still working there even if there’s a decrease in sales?

 

Yeah I mean as long as it can function, as long as it can withhold that’s what we’ll do.