Today we’d like to introduce you to James Siboni.
Hi James, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I played in touring bands pretty much my entire adult life, from 20 – 30 I never had a real job. Just touring in punk bands. Then when I was 30 my band broke up and I had no clue what to do with myself. I had no real job experience and I dropped out of high school at 16. It seemed like finding a job was going to be tricky.
So I had to figure out what I loved as much as playing music and the answer was records. I have been collecting records since I was a teenager and truly loved the hobby.
For a decade I had been going to record stores on tour, I had been to stores all over the world and I had grown strong opinions of what I liked and disliked about record stores. I really knew what was a good shop vs a bad one. I started to feel confident that I could make something cool and interesting that could add to the culture of the neighborhood.
After many trials and tribulations and buying A LOT of records I opened Tiger in November 2019.
We got to where we are today because of the community. We have the amazing customers that have become our friends. They really are the most important part.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Getting it up and rolling was tricky. Covid obviously sucked. But to be honest we don’t have much to complain about. I’m very grateful for where we are and I know we can handle any hurdles that we face. Tiger is very lucky to have such a good team, everyone that works here is awesome and we get through any BS that comes our way.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a local business buying and selling new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, and band merch.
I think/hope we are known to be a place for the community to come shop and hang out, talk about records, sell us your records. We are good at buying and selling records but we are GREAT at hanging out and yapping about music with other diehards.
I don’t really think about what sets us apart but I think we probably focus a lot on the community more than the average business. We like promoting concerts for local bands and friends touring through town, we like doing listening parties for new releases after hours, we do pop ups around town occasionally, we have an in house record label that releases records for friends bands, we care a lot about our store’s merchandise.
I’m most proud of our place in the fabric of the neighborhood. We strive to be a spot that elevates Riverside and the city. We are hoping to add to the culture of the area.
We want people to know we are completely obsessed with music, records, and the cultures around them. Music is the sun that our world revolves around.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I think I was a normal kid, just like all my friends. I dove DEEP into punk music, rap music, skateboarding, fashion, records and hanging out. I spend a lot of time playing music with my friends. I never cared too much about school or work. I’ve never thought of myself as a business man or an entrepreneur. I was certainly never on the honor role or employee of the month.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Tigerrecs.com
- Instagram: @tigerrecs
