Where Dakin Auret grew up, in Durban, South Africa, people still buy vinyl records to listen to house music.
“The farmers in the middle of nowhere are listening to house,” Auret said. “Construction workers are listening to house. All the beach bars, all the venues, all play house.”
Auret now sells vinyl out of the store he opened last year, Foot Work Records, in Long Beach’s East Village. Through his shop, he hopes to pass along his passion for house music, which he said is “the most universal music.”
“It pulls from jazz and hip hop and reggae. There’s all these sort of elements and it uses real instruments,” Auret said. “So it’s pulling from all these different styles, and then it’s packaged in a way that’s accessible to everyone.”
Foot Work was recently approved to sell beer, wine, sake and champagne, and it’s now relaunching as a 21-and-over vinyl listening bar.
It’s another piece of Auret’s plan to have a welcoming space where customers can lounge on furniture while enjoying records spinning on the turntable in the center of the shop. If someone likes a record, they can put it on the store’s turntable to blast it for everyone.
“I really want people to grab something they’ve never heard and listen to it,” he said.
Foot Work has one record player set up as a listening station in the store and Auret said he plans to add another one soon.
Visitors shouldn’t be shy about grabbing a bunch of vinyl records to listen to in store, even if they aren’t going to buy any, Auret said.
“I love putting the records back. It’s soothing,” he said. “And I also get to refamiliarize myself with what’s in here.”
On the first Friday of each month, Foot Work hosts a free tutorial class for aspiring DJs, teaching attendees how to use the turntables step-by-step.
The end game for him is “for people to come and buy records here, and then have a place to play,” Auret said.
At the shop, Auret said he plans to hold weekly events where he will book local DJs to perform. He also plans to host art shows and pop-up events from other record stores.
The record store is the culmination of Auret’s experience in the music industry.
Auret tried to break into the music business as a DJ and producer in his early 20s, first in South Africa, then in the United States.
While chasing that dream, he met two friends in 2013 with a similar goal and the trio opened a pop-up bar in Cape Town, South Africa, in a building that was going to become a Burger King.
Called Cassette Bar, it had cassette tapes and cassette players adorning the walls, and the three friends would play DJ sets inside.
For three months, they saw steady crowds and used that momentum to launch an event brand called Strange Loving, Auret said.
Over the next few years, they booked international DJs to perform throughout Cape Town, including beach bars, train stations, yacht parties and lakeside mansions, Auret said.
Eventually, Strange Loving decided to organize their own festival at a resort, similar to one held in Palm Springs called Splash House.
They organized successful resort festivals two years in a row, but the pandemic cancelled the third year of the event before they could turn a profit.
It also wiped out Auret’s career working for Anything Goes, a South African company that organized music festivals.
With that momentum stalled, Auret moved to Southern California to be closer to his parents and figure out his next career move.
He decided to expand his record collection in anticipation of opening up a record store, buying vinyl from anywhere he could find.
When he opened Foot Work in February last year, Auret brought roughly 800 records to the shop.
He has another 1,400 waiting at home for him to clean by hand, one at a time.
Every morning, he wakes up and cleans another 20 to 40 before displaying them in the shop for sale, Auret said.
While his collection mostly consists of house, deep house and techno, Foot Work also offers hip hop, classic rock and old pop music vinyls.
Rare records sit in a Dom Perignon champagne box that he built himself.
Foot Work Records, 400 E. Third Street, is open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. On Saturday at 4 p.m., Foot Work will host a relaunch party to highlight the store’s new ability to sell beer and wine. Krane, the co-creator of Sunday Sessions LA, will DJ.