NEWS

But sometimes, amid the chaos of boxes, crates and wires, the Newmarket resident stops in his tracks to hear the crackle and pop of an old record cut through. He stands with his back against the pole by the register, a prime acoustic spot, and lets the sounds wash over him.

Music is one of Pelletier’s great loves. After years of work for a local tech consulting group, the Montreal native decided it was time to pursue a passion he’s nurtured throughout his life and give back to the community he’s called home since 2008.

To Pelletier, nothing matches the feeling of hearing a record that no one’s put on in decades reverberate in a room.

“It’s finding this buried treasure and then experiencing it,” he said.

At Wrong Way Records, tucked into a corner spot of a recently renovated building at 197 Main Street S., the enthusiast hopes to bring that magic to life. The store plans to celebrate its opening Nov. 15 as not only a record destination, but a “community hub” with live music events.

Pelletier aspired to run a local store after leaving his tech job in early 2020, just weeks before pandemic shutdown started. He set his sights on a Main Street storefront that was “local and cool,” but his plan hit the back burner with uncertainty over the future of brick-and-mortar retail.

A few years off gave Pelletier time to dive into volunteering for the Newmarket Food Pantry and ski patrol work at Mount St. Louis. Then, this September, opportunity struck when he saw a unit at Main Street South and Doug Duncan Drive open up.

Working with a friend, Adam Rayfield, whose vision and goals for the store aligned with his, Pelletier is on the verge of realizing a longtime dream.

“This would be a place where people can come and feel comfortable sitting down, talking music, listening to music, and not feel rushed out," he said. "Everything is here, all the best music.”

The store will balance collector’s items with affordable used records and freshly pressed vinyls from the artists of today. It’ll carry “well-curated” sections of punk, post-punk, alternative and heavy metal music alongside diverse selections across a range of genres. Record-owners in the area can come by to sell their vinyl on consignment, Pelletier said.

Wrong Way Records won’t be Newmarket’s first record store, joining 33 1/3 Record Store, Neon Flamingo Record Emporium and Sunrise Records. Pelletier doesn’t see the other shops as competition, but rather an opportunity for shoppers to make record-shopping a whole outing with several stops — just like he did as a kid in the ’70s and ’80s.

“The way our generation used to do it, on weekends, when we were kids, we’d go record-shopping, and that meant going into the city … and you're going to four or five different places,” he said. “That's a tradition that I can see coming back.”

Pelletier now owns about 3,000 records, which he started buying as a teenager. As a young man, he went out West to be a “ski bum,” as he says, and came home to find his parents had got rid of the bulk of his collection while he was away.

The music lover found his way back to records about 20 years ago, when vinyl was just starting to pick back up, and hasn’t stopped since.

“Everything started getting repressed and reprinted, and record stores were popping up in the city,” Pelletier said. “That's when it really kind of took off.”

Vinylheads like Pelletier and Rayfield see records as a tangible piece of history that can transport a listener back to a song or album’s physical conception. As the friends went through their extensive collections, they found pieces that took them back “like a time machine,” Pelletier said — including an original pressing of the Beatles’ Abbey Road with photo inserts of the band members.

Sounds from that album and more will soon play at Wrong Way Records, which hopes to be a welcoming haven for music lovers.

“I'm so proud of this place," Pelletier said, "and I love it so much.”