My Journey to P.M. Sounds by Erving Johnson
A vinyl collector is bornI was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, where I developed a deep love of music and a great appreciation of vinyl. As a child, I was influenced by artists on Motown, Stax, Atlantic and other labels I heard on the local radio stations. In my teen years, I started listening to what is now called "classic rock" and I started buying albums and 45s. At that time, Sly Stone's sister had a group called Little Sister and one of the first songs I remember buying was "You're the One." I was attracted to the song's catchy bass line and drum beat. This was also the time I started deejaying at neighborhood parties and weddings.
I started listening to reggae in the '80s and had amassed a vinyl collection of the genre. But my desire to move to Los Angeles got the best of me and I sold my record collection and equipment to move to L.A. I can still hear Mom saying "you won't be able to get those records again!" I didn't take her warning as negative thinking, because I think she realized how much I loved my LPs. After getting settled in L.A., I would frequent the many record shops, thrift stores and swap meets that were around at the time. Vinyl was everywhere! Eventually, I built my collection back up and I started my own mobile deejaying company. I was kept busy doing weddings, club dates, and private parties. The money was good and helped to justify my vinyl addiction.
P.M. Sounds opens in Torrance 
In the '90s, I began listening to and collecting jazz records. I worked a steady job and deejayed on the side. I worked nights, so when I got off in the morning I would hunt for records. I did this for about 10 years, going out daily to look and buy. It was during this period that the dream of owning my own record store began to gel and four years later, the dream became reality. On January 2, 1997, P.M. Sounds opened its doors in Torrance, California. We had 850 square feet of product, primarily vinyl. In 2001, we were able to expand to the storefront next door and now the store has 1950 square feet, of CDs, audiotapes, music memorabilia - and of course plenty of vinyl!
What sets us apart?
When people ask me why P.M. Sounds is unique from other record stores, I say it's the love . . . I love what I'm doing! I enjoy finding the records as much as I do selling them and with my extensive background in this field, I know a great deal about a variety of music and artists. I listen to my customers when they talk about different artists and I advise them on various artists as well. If you're ever in Torrance, stop by and see P.M. Sounds. It is clean, brightly-lit and well-organized. In addition, I have high standards for grading and buying records, which I clean on my VPI 17f record cleaning machine (I highly recommend this equipment for anyone with a large LP collection.) Dealers and collectors from all over the world come here and shop because of our reputation of having good clean vinyl and hard-to-get titles. We have more than 20,000 LPs in stock at all times and around 1,000 new and used CDs.