Blackbyrd Myoozik

A longstanding staple in Edmonton’s music scene, Blackbyrd Myoozik opened up its second location in Calgary on November 26, 2015. The independently owned and operated record store is the brainchild of Arthur Fafard and has served as Alberta’s go-to vinyl destination for decades. “It was just a small independent business and then over the years it’s grown and integrated itself into Edmonton’s music scene,” explains Blackbyrd Myoozik Calgary manager Dan Hanycz.

When Fafard and his wife Louise Dirks (owner of gravitypope) bought a building on 17th Avenue to house gravitypope’s expansion, they decided to also open Blackbyrd’s second location in the building's basement. “They bought this building and they were looking to round it out so that’s where Blackbyrd fit in,” Dan says. “It’s a nice little community vibe because we’re all in this building all day together.” Blackbyrd's space is small, but it's a cozy and intimate spot with a minimalistic white walled aesthetic and shelves of new releases categorized by genre and organized alphabetically.

Dan came on board as the store’s general manager at the very start and has been running the ever shop since. He first got into vinyl collecting as a teenager in order to track down the original Mötley Crüe cover art from Shout at the Devil. “The original LP artwork was a black-on-black print of a satanic symbol – a pentagram. And the vinyl was the only version that had that artwork, so I wanted that more than anything,” Dan explains. “My parents had a turntable downstairs in their poolroom and I used to play it down there. They had records that they’d kept and I would slowly start pulling things that I cared about from that. And then I took the turntable into my room and it just went from there.”