Hi, I'm Joel

20 years in the music industry

Before Brighter Day, I spent around 20 years working in the music industry. I worked in A&R at Atlantic Records, became an artist manager, and eventually ended up at Sony Music running the heavy metal label Music For Nations – which was particularly special to me because I'd grown up listening to many of the artists on the label.

Music and people

Alongside Brighter Day, I also trained and worked as a psychotherapist. After several years in practice, I'm now bringing that chapter of my life to a close so I can devote more of my time to records.

Being both a psychotherapist and a record dealer might sound like an odd combination, but they've given me two wonderful perspectives on two things that have fascinated me throughout my life: music and people.

And perhaps the two worlds aren't actually that different.

Record collections can be incredibly personal. I never forget that when somebody asks me to look at theirs.

They can represent decades of somebody's life – the gigs they went to, the bands they loved, the records they searched years to find, and the memories attached to them.

Still a collector at heart

These days I spend a lot of my time travelling around the UK buying records, as well as travelling further afield – particularly to Japan and around Europe – searching for interesting records and collections.

I'm still a collector at heart. I'm still excited when I pull something brilliant out of a box. And I still genuinely love doing this.

Outside of records, I'm a lifelong professional wrestling fan and a fairly enthusiastic user of social media, where you'll regularly find me documenting what I'm doing, where I'm travelling and some of my vinyl adventures.