‘It’s a Real Adrenaline Rush’: Inside Surprise Chef’s Vinyl Obsession

In Partnership with Kirin Ichiban

“We’ve got plenty of first-press records. Too many, actually,” Lachlan Stuckey, of Melbourne jazz-funk band Surprise Chef, admits. The five-piece instrumentalists are doing what they do best, thumbing through crates in between tour stops, looking for an old sample or first press amongst the stacks. 

In a world where reissues flood the market, first press is a mark of origin and intent. The moment when the art was first physically captured: “More and more there are these old records that are getting pressed up again now. First press is the original one that they made in the ’60s or ’70s or ’80s,” Stuckey explains. “Rather than the reissue that just dropped.” 

In the first episode of GRAILS, presented by premium Japanese beer brand Kirin Ichiban (Ichiban fittingly meaning ‘first’ and ‘best’ in Japanese), the band draw a quiet but powerful connection between vinyl culture and their own creative approach. 

They make albums like they collect records, with intention, and with the long game in mind. In fact, in the studio it’s not unusual to track a song 30 or 40 times just to find the take that lands. “Sometimes it’s hard and laborious, but it’s that attention to detail and the care and respect for the thing that you’re doing.” 

Currently on tour through Asia, Surprise Chef treat each city as an opportunity not just to perform, but to crate-dig. “We’ve got to make every moment count. The time we have to dig is between soundcheck and the gig. We’ll be soundchecking, everyone’s thinking about records. And then as soon as soundcheck is done, we’ll just jet to the closest shop and dig and come back.” 

It’s a study in obsession. Googling the best local record stores, swapping new (and old) finds, pulling sleeves like it’s muscle memory. And it kind of is. “The ritual of going through the spoils after the dig, you know, it’s a real adrenaline rush.” 

Each of their finds tells a story. Jimmy Takeuchi vs. Japanese folk, Earth Rot by David Axelrod, a rare Bollywood jazz LP from a Delhi shop where they dropped the needle on the spot. “I try not to think about how many dollars I’ve sunk into this strange obsession,” Stuckey laughs. 

Along with the records they find, every release Surprise Chef put out is crafted with the physical format in mind. Songs are written and sequenced knowing there’s a side A and side B. A beginning and an end. It’s an album experience in the truest sense. 

“When we’re making records, we’re always thinking about it as a record,” Stuckey says, and bandmate Jethro Curtin adds: “There’s the physical limitations of time of each time, but how we’re actually going to tell the story and structure it.” 

“All of our listening experiences growing up were one artist top to tail and that’s always been a really considered part of it,” Carl Lindeberg says. 

Kirin Ichiban also knows the importance of that attention to detail. Brewed using only the first press of the wort (a process that extracts only the most refined flavours from the grain) it’s a beer that values the first-press philosophy: purity and craft over speed or volume. It’s a clean cut, like pulling a mint original from a crate, it feels right from the first taste. 

Along with Surprise Chef, the brewer also recently collaborated with renowned Japanese artist DJ Muro and Deus Records on a strictly limited run of first-press vinyl, produced at Tokyo’s iconic Toyokasai Records, which has been operating since 1959. The records were given away at a series of exclusive japanese listening bar style parties across Melbourne and Sydney. 

Watch Surprise Chef in the first GRAILS episode presented by Kirin Ichiban here.

Want to dive even deeper in vinyl culture? Watch this short film shot in Tokyo exploring vinyl and first press culture through the eyes of DJ Muro or head to the Kirin Ichiban Australian site.