Ep546: One-Step Audiophile Vinyl w Tom Grover Biery

From funding the first Record Store Day to producing limited one-step pressings of Pet Sounds, Prince, and Dr. Dre, Tom "Grover" Biery is one of the most influential figures in modern vinyl culture - Hear all about his next adventures with the vinyl artform.

Topics Include:

• Tom "Grover" Biery spent 20 years at Warner Bros. Records
• He pushed vinyl internally around 2004 when nobody believed in it
• His boss Tom Wally gave him the green light to proceed
• First pressings were Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman catalog titles
• Warner's vinyl billing exploded from $300K to $5M in 18 months
• Failure's Fantastic Planet was among the earliest titles he championed
• Neil Young gave an impassioned in-office speech about the importance of sound
• That speech directly inspired the "Because Sound Matters" brand name
• BSM is Warner's audiophile imprint; DSS covers Interscope and Capitol
• Tom now operates as a consultant to both major label groups
• His own label, Slow Down Sounds, has been running nearly a decade
• One-step pressings go lacquer to stamper, skipping generational quality loss
• Each stamper yields only 500–750 pressings, requiring multiple lacquer cuts
• Neotech's D2 vinyl compound produces exceptionally quiet, revealing pressings
• Mastering costs alone run nine times higher on one-step projects
• Sources are vetted exhaustively — flat masters, tape, or high-res files
• Artists and managers approve every test pressing throughout the process
• A newly discovered 1972 Pet Sounds master changed everything for the reissue
• Chris Bellman confirmed the tape matched a 1972 white label perfectly
• Only 6,000 copies of the Pet Sounds DSS one-step will ever exist
• Tom has been transparent about sourcing since 2005, long before the MoFi controversy
• Quality now ranks second or third in why fans buy vinyl
• Beck's Morning Phase and Tom Petty's Wildflowers one-steps surprised even skeptics
• Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom reissue came from original tapes at Warner
• Nate lobbies for Frusciante, Jellyfish, Beck's Sea Change, and Marilyn Manson reissues
• Dr. Dre's The Chronic from tape is among the first hip-hop one-steps
• Neil Young has still never done a one-step, despite inspiring the whole program
• Tom was one of the original funders who got Record Store Day off the ground
• Record stores are reporting their biggest-ever RSD sales figures this year
• His label Slow Down Sounds is releasing Terry Callier's Occasional Rain this June

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