Intermission: What Can't You Deep Fry?

Scotty Coats has devoted most of his life, in one way or another, to the eternal music medium of LPs: circular pieces of sound-producing plastic that have survived over a century, through the CD boom and digital revolution, into a strange and uncertain future. But the more he learned about the environmental impact of producing these works of art, the more he started to question his role in it. That uncertainty resulted in Good Neighbor, a radical business venture that challenges us to rethink the world of "vinyl"—and even the very use of that term.

The California native—who grew up in Mission Viejo and has resided in Long Beach for nearly two decades—has worked in just about every facet of the music industry, from a stint as vinyl buyer at Tower Records to serving director-level and managerial roles at revered labels like Stones Throw, Innovative Leisure, and Virgin Music Group. Given that he’s bounced around like a pinball, it wasn’t unusual that he’d consider another career pivot in his mid-40s. But he definitely wasn’t expecting the phone call that changed his life.