John Kunz | Owner | Waterloo Records And Video | Austin
John Kunz
Owner
Waterloo Records And Video
600A. North Lamar
Austin, TX 78703
HOW HAS WATERLOO CHANGED MOST SINCE OPENING IN 1982?
I’m going to change this around. The real question is “How hasn’t Waterloo changed?” When we opened up in ’82, it was a pre-CD world. This goes back to the pre-shrinkwrap days. We always let people hear what they wanted. I’m still really proud of that service we offer to our customers. Then from 25 years ago, we have always had everything arranged A to Z… On the internet, I don’t have to type in “jazz” to buy a Miles Davis CD, I have to type Davis. We’ve always had a 100 percent guarantee. The biggest change that I think we made, [we got from] one store in town that doesn’t exist anymore, and the idea comes from the guy who used to manage that store. He made the leap from local music to calling it “Texas music.” And most record stores across the country have got a local music section, but it’s usually bands that haven’t “made it” yet. The artists that consign a CD with us are considered no different from Willie Nelson or a Los Lonely Boys or a Trail Of Dead or Blue October. They’re all Texas artists. The only place where it works is here and Louisiana. Mostly, I like having a store that offers what I would want from a record store.
HOW DO YOU INTEND TO CELEBRATE YOUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY?
That comes up April Fools Day… For our 10th, 15th and 20th anniversaries we’ve gotten the True Believers together with Alejandro Escovedo, who use to work here, and his daughters as well. We’re also [going to] have seven bands playing our parking lot April 15, and it will be a benefit for the Health Alliance For Austin Musicians, which provides low-cost, affordable healthcare.
WHAT ARE YOUR STORE’S MOST EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS AND PROMOTIONS?
Our most effective one is a partnership we have with KGSR, a Triple A station, and it’s the KGSR CD of the week. “Hear Texas Here” is a listening station that we have. And we do a Waterloo Recommends promotion that we don’t do unless we get behind it. The other one would be in-store performances.
WHAT ARE YOUR MOST MEMORABLE IN-STORES?
When Willie Nelson was playing [the outdoor venue], the Backyard, it was raining cats and dogs. When he was doing the in-store performance, he got the word they were pulling the plug on the performance. The in-store was gonna be an hour long already and he turned it into two and a half hours. And then he signed for every person for another two, two and half hours. Also Norah Jones. When we did her first instore performance ever at South By Southwest… it was a couple weeks after the record came out. It was the largest audience she’d ever played to in her life at the time. It was just so sweet because her mom came down from Dallas and her first piano teacher came down from Dallas to see her. Oh, and the Bulgarian Women’s Choir. I remember everyone being mesmerized. They were all, “Where do I get a cowboy hat?”
