Shane Davis (Public Records) Interview - WKCR 89.9 FM NY - Hunter Wolff

[Music]

Hunter wolf on wkcr 89.9 FM New York and

I'm very happy to be joined in this by

Shane Davis the co-founder and creative

director of public records public

records is a restaurant Cafe Bar Lounge

and Nightclub in ganas Brooklyn it's one

of my favorite places to visit it offers

so much and connects different aspects

of design culture and

hospitality and that is exactly why I

love it so Shane Davis welcome to wkcr

and welcome to the show thank you good

to be here so I'm really excited to have

you here to talk about public records

the space you've created and when I say

it's one of my favorite places to go I

really mean it and I'm always excited to

share it with other people for me it's

this perfect amalgamation of plant-based

food highly curated music highly

detailed sound systems and me much more

than that and it all takes place in one

architectural space a beautiful adaptive

reuse space I really think public

records is so unique and so rare and how

it offers so much and connects all these

elements in one space and I'm not sure

if you could find this kind of place

anywhere else in the world especially

with this level of curation and Fidelity

so I want to know what was the big

picture vision for this entity public

records in

2017 that brings us such special and

diverse experiences in

2023 well thank you for the kind words

um that means a

lot I guess the question is how did how

did we get started

yeah um man how did we get started

so I um as we discussed before I'm a

graphic designer by trade um I got

involved in sort of roundabout way in uh

hospitality and and in sort of building

uh Hospitality related real estate

entertainment um projects from a design

and a creative

standpoint and um I met my now partner

Francis Harris uh who's a DJ producer

engineer um around 20 2016 I guess

Francis had a long career in music um

also had this sort of um career on I

guess on the side in Hospitality has ran

some really incredible beverage programs

from um some iconic restaurants

throughout the years and we were just

both kind of in the music scene we're

introduced by a friend um I was sort of

at the stage in my career where I was

interested to kind of do something um I

don't know a bit more

adventurous or um you know I was working

on a lot of other people's projects and

I was kind of ready to go off and and do

my own thing and you know build

something that was sort of uh you know I

guess spiritually from my own mind more

so than you know reacting to changes and

problems which I think is great and

interesting but whatever it was time my

sort of that time in my career and um he

was at the time of his career where I

think he you know had really

accomplished a lot in music but was

looking to leverage his you know his

abilities and his talents and his vision

in really a new and a different way and

so we kind of met at this very

interesting time for both of us and we

hit it off um and just shared a lot of

interests and values you know with

regards to music and philosophy and

really just sort of all things and

really quickly developed this really uh

kind of beautiful symbiotic relationship

um he's very different very very similar

but also very very different um we sort

of I think Inspire and ground each other

in different ways and so we decided to

do a project like let's do something you

know and and honestly the idea was um we

weren't like let's go build you know

build this like big iconic you know

space or organization it was kind of

like let's do a project you know what I

mean and you know this was pre the like

you know record bars I guys or anything

like the Thematic nature of any of these

things um the idea was like let's build

a great sort of you know bar community

space um you know that had that is sort

of centered around you know sound um not

in a thematic way just in the way of a

place where you know that brings people

together through you know the power of

sort of sound and community and

Hospitality so it was never supposed to

really be that big and um we around that

time a uh someone some we knew um this

real estate guy um basically came to me

and like a lot of a lot lot of sort of

people in that space were doing at the

time um was like I have this crazy

building that I want to buy you know I

have no idea what to do with it um can

you come check it out and um it's like

yeah totally so went and checked it out

I don't know if you guys know the

history of the building but it was built

as the ASPCA headquarters uh in the

early 1900s the first ASPCA headquarters

in Brooklyn um which it had remained

until the 70s or the 80s when it was

acquired by these two music um like guys

one one guy was a church pipe organ uh

restoration

outfit and the other guy owned this

really

incredible um vintage string

instrument uh restoration shop and

Retail shop called

retrofret um which was upstairs in the

building that's the space that's now

upstairs and so they owned and occupied

this building with these two us the

guitar store actually had it was like

public facing you can go up there not

many people knew about it only like the

real guitar heads knew about it but you

would like walk in the front door up the

steps cross the roof open this door and

it was just like a shrine of string

instruments they had like an original

jeno Reinhardt hanging on the wall we

came to learn that like Paul Simon had

mentioned this place in a song it had

like this crazy cult following but like

only really for the heads and because of

that they would just have these like

insane

you know like, vintage guitar sitting on

the floor cuz like people weren't just

like stumbling in so we'd like walk in

there and we just like pick up these

insane guitars and you know mess around

with them anyway I digress a bit but you

know we went and checked out this

building and we were just like whoa you

know this is like really rare um

obviously has an incredible history an

incredible Spirit you know in terms of

what's been you the activity that's been

happening there since deception various

forms and also just from an

architectural standpoint such a unique

building typology in New York you know

you think of most buildings in New York

you know Haden you have like the 25 by

100 boxes for the most part some

variation but like that's that's the

main grid right and that's why most bars

and restaurants are kind of laid out the

same way because the parameters are kind

of set you put the bar here the dining

rooms there's really only limited

variability unless you go to like a

Midtown office building which is a whole

different thing but this building the

way it was laid out and I don't know ex

like exactly how it was laid out for the

ASPCA but you know we had this Garden to

the side with these three giant trees

and it was just incredibly unique and

you know I toured a lot of buildings in

my career and this was like felt like

something that was really worthy of you

know of

intervention and um so yeah it was you

know we really had no idea what we're

getting ourselves into but like you know

we got to do something here this and so

you know the the history the building

inspired the brand in terms of you know

public service service and music

inspired the name of the concept public

records so it was born out of the you

know born out of the building and um and

so the first phase you know we've we

we've been growing with the first phase

with the cafe the bar and The Sound Room

and um you know we sort of like carved

these uses or sort of like articulated

these uses out of this really

interesting sort of envelope and Bones

of this building and so the building

very much informed the program and and

and all that and anyway that that was

kind of the origin story yeah I mean

it's super great to hear that much

detail and it sounds like you saw that

building and you that's maybe where the

vision started and you kind of fell in

love with it totally you know but where

did the where did food come into it

because you know you mentioned your

background and francis' background but

yeah where did food come in and you

worked in Hospitality but you know going

out and creating your own what kind of

sparked the sort of convergence between

you know music design architecture and

then food as well yeah I guess first and

foremost the idea was it was you know

aim to be a community space in the sense

that sort of on all day you could start

there in the morning Random Encounters

coming into people throughout the day

and find yourself there you know later

in the evening and then maybe there like

late night in the sound or was this sort

of like all day life cycle totally um I

like the idea of like whether it's a or

a city of it feeling like it's always on

in some way which creates its own

operational challenges but just like as

an intention that was the ideas it's

like it's always there it's living it's

breathing it's evolving it's like this

this sort of Perpetual like you know

organism um Francis grew up in the

hardcore scene in the midwest so he

spent like his college days in bands

touring and like spending a lot of time

at these sort of like hardcore DIY

spaces there was like a super kitchen

during the day and then it turns into

like you know a venue at shows at night

so that was sort of like you know a big

inspiration to us was those sort of like

multi-use spaces MH um which I think you

don't see a lot of especially in the

hospitality space everything is so

thematized and like programmed based

upon some sort of like oh it's a you

know it's a taco restaurant or it's like

you know it's a tasting menu as opposed

to this thing of like you know let's

throw some ideas and intentions and like

values into a pot and then see what

emerges and hopefully what emerges is

something that's non-derivative and

something new and this is like design

right like if it's too if you have the

answer from the start it's not

interesting right you have to kind of

like create certain inputs and see what

output comes out of it and I think that

was that sort of like no way of approach

was kind of our approach to like you

know investing in ttention and seeing

what manifests in the space yeah for

sure sure I feel like which sounds very

foolish in retrospect honestly when it's

coming it's you know a business Endeavor

but that was you know we were very

idealistic at that time yeah I mean I

think one of the things that makes it so

special and one of the ways that I sort

of advertise it to my friends it's like

you know you can go there whatever mood

you're in whatever you like to do when

you go out you can do at public records

it feels welcome to you know all kinds

of people no matter what your interest

is I'm kind of curious though like what

you've learned about your audience like

over years like who is coming to public

records and how are people using the

space yeah it's it's interesting I you

know at this sort of early stages when

we

were um you know aspiring towards some

sort of future

like we

definitely we definitely thought it was

going to be appeal to a bit more of a

like solely of vard crowd and you know

you know maybe it wasn't as weird as we

tried to make it or whatever well we did

something right or we did something

wrong but very quickly it was adopted by

you know um more than just the

experimental crowd or whatever you know

however you want to categorize that

crowd and thankfully cuz I don't think

we would have made it if it was limited

to that certain audience and that was

great it wasn't like we didn't intend it

to be exclusive we just kind of thought

that that's what who we going to be

connected to it but I think we learned

very quickly that you know

people people are smarter than a lot of

people give them credit for you know and

I think public records is Testament to

that that either people connected to you

know the environment and and the spirit

of it or you know it Inspire them to

feel different ways or think different

ways or or they didn't know really what

but they felt good there and I think

that was Testament to New York and um so

yeah that I mean the consumer the

customers are really all over the place

and know we love that and someone um

someone I forgot who it was someone was

it DJ was here from uh from Europe a

couple weeks ago um actually ran to her

in Detroit and she was saying that she

was she was at public records in

Brooklyn she's like yeah like um they

like you know it wasn't as like you know

super hip of a scene as I you know I

kind of thought I was like that's great

like that's not really what and it is

you know the scene's great and it feels

good and it's sort of self- selecting in

the sense that most people but for us it

was less about like how people look and

more sort of the type of energy that

they're bringing to the space yeah

definitely and you know there's so many

different aspects of the space um you

know food and design and

music um I'm curious to know what it was

like putting the team together to make

such a special space you know you have

incredible speakers designed by Devon

Turnbull you have architecture from

Lindsay Wickstrom and Mata Forma music

provided by the whole host of DJs that

come through that space and performers

as well I've been lucky enough to see

John car Kirby and Eddie Chone as well

as Benji b a few weeks ago um so yeah

what went into kind of like finding the

people to make this place happen and to

make it such a special

place early on there weren't a lot of

people um now we've you know it's grown

quite a bit but it was I mean very DIY

at first we were doing everything

um that wasn't really the plan but I

designed and and and pretty much built

the spa oversaw the build of the space

myself yeah um for various reasons and

um you know as well as doing all like

every piece of art in the beginning

stages which was which was a lot and

Francis was doing you know all the Music

Creation booking bar perent we had to

you know just had to be super DIY I it

wanted to be you know and um um you know

we w we I think you

know that was important for us as well

um to really have you know to be able to

define or help Define at least the the

um you know the early stages before it

kind of became its own thing um

Devin um was he kind of had a cold

following back then but he wasn't you

know blown up like he is now right and

um

he we met him through some friends he

was in Clinton Hill I was living in Fort

green at the time and um I remember we

were like we were debating between him

using his speakers and like he I I don't

really I guess he was in Supreme maybe

like he had there weren many commercial

applications of his speakers at the time

um just like his house like sick setup

he had at his house and we're we're

deciding between him and this like his

company team PPI which we also really

highly respect um more commercial you

know they had done some things and you

know we were like by the time we were

thinking about that we already pretty

deep in and we're like over our heads

and we were debating and we just kind of

like you know if if we're really doing