Move over, Jack White — there’s a new Detroit native making waves in the vinyl game. Meet Jarett Koral, who at the age of 14 founded Jett Plastic Recordings, and in the two years since has pressed records for 12 different bands.
Koral’s uncle owns Melodies and Memories in Detroit’s East Point district, so he’s always been around records. In mid-2012, he got to talking with Greg Beyer, frontman of local indie outfit After Dark Amusement Park. Beyer “was putting out a full-length record at the time, and he was looking for another label to put out the 7-inch. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it,’ without really telling anybody,” Koral said in an interview with WBTV 4 News.
The plucky young entrepreneur sold some of his own collection to fund the first pressing, “since pressing is around $2,000.” Currently at the tender age of 16, he’s not old enough to own the company himself, so his mom Noelle is technically the President. But the business is all Jarett.
He uses two different vinyl facilities to meet the needs of his label, which include creating a red decoder vinyl (like the game Outburst) that reveal song lyrics when held over the sleeve. Jett Plastic’s most recent pressing is for Macaulay Culkin’s The Pizza Underground, an exclusive Record Store Day 7-inch release of the band’s original demo, previously only available on cassette. What’s more, it’s the band’s first vinyl release ever and will be available in — wait for it — Pepperoni Pizza and Mozzarella-colored variants.
“I’m not really making a ton of money with it, but it’s cool and I have something to show for it,” Koral said. Yeah, “cool” might be putting it lightly. Check out the WBTV news report below (via ClickOnDetroit).