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The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds

Ep546: One-Step Audiophile Vinyl w Tom Grover Biery

The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds

Nate Goyer

Music, Music History, Music Interviews

4.7 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds.

0:10.1

Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer.

0:13.5

Oh, well, hey, everyone, it's Nate.

0:15.3

Welcome to episode 546 of the Final Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. And dear people,

0:22.7

today we are talking one-step audiophile vinyl pressings with none other than Tom Grover

0:29.7

Beery, who has an amazing background. 20-some years at Warner Brothers, Tom was a main driver

0:36.4

of the vinyl revival, an architect of

0:39.4

Record Store Day, and today his ears are still doing the Lord's Work. Tom has recently

0:45.5

launched two new lines of one-step audiophile vinyl, Because Sound Matters, and the

0:51.5

definitive sound series, along with his own label Slowed Down Sounds.

0:56.3

And he talks about all of these today. And of course, with the background that Tom has and the

1:01.0

label contacts that come with it, he's doing these audiophile one-step reissues for artists that

1:06.0

could only be unlocked in the rarefied air in which Tom occupies. We're talking Dr. Dre, REM, A Perfect Circle,

1:13.1

Beach Boys, and many more are coming. Tom continues to be a pioneer of the vinyl art form,

1:19.5

and he's putting out some amazing product. Just listen up and be amazed. Now, my advice,

1:25.6

order these while you can. There are extremely limited numbers,

1:30.0

which Tom will explain. Because they are the one-step vinyl process, they can only make a

1:35.6

limited number of lacquers. So these pressings sell out very quickly. The REM one just sold out,

1:41.9

and it now goes for like several times its original price in secondary

1:45.9

markets. I just ordered the Pet Sounds one. There seems to be some left at acoustic sounds.

1:51.8

So grab one while you can. Also check out the Chet Baker release on Slowdown Sounds. It is an

1:59.3

absolutely gorgeous package. I'll put a link to that in this

...

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