Erin Gavin and her father opened Purple Dog Records in 2014 on 4th Avenue and Center Street. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, their building was sold and they were forced to either relocate or close their doors for good.
“The building was sold by our landlord we were told that she was not able to stay where she was. So then all of a sudden we’re stuck with, okay well where do we go now, and I had been friends with Charlie from Sound Summit…” said Erin Gavin, Co-Owner of Purple Dog Records.
Sound Summit is a recording studio located on Washington Street in downtown Naperville. Owner Charlie Dresser uses an indoor venue right beneath the studio for live music performances.
Venue with a Vacany
With the pandemic keeping everyone at home and the future of live music performances unclear, Purple Dog Records and Sound Summit decided to work together in harmony.
“Erin reached out to me and I imagine she had seen that the venue we were doing down there was not doing any shows at that point. So she proposed the idea of, ‘if the space isn’t being used we’re looking for one, do you think could work?’ and so yeah I said definitely,” said Charlie Dresser, Owner of Sound Summit.
Purple Dog Records has now moved to that performance venue, previously known as “The 105”. It’s a pitch perfect pairing.
A Musical Duo
“We’ve got alternative, new wave, you come around here, so it’s alphabetical you just sort of make a loop around,” said Gavin.
A music partnership that hopefully won’t have to split up any time soon.
“Hey I think it could work out for kind of a long term thing and we kind of strategized the room so that, you know when live music comes back around safely and if we start doing shows again it looks like it won’t be too much of a headache to make that happen.”
Music lovers collaborating to put a spin on selling records and live performances.
Naperville News 17’s Ryan Skryd reports.
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