Music

Edmonton-born Ian Cheung's June Records plants roots in Toronto

by Mark Teo

Photo: Joseph Fuda

This is part of an AUX series about Canadians who’ve travelled to Toronto to pursue their musical dreams. Also, check out our feature on Newfoundland ex-pats Brutal Youth and Lethbridge-born label Mammoth Cave Recording Co.

June Records is still “a baby,” according to co-owner Ian Cheung, but in its year in operation, it’s become one of Toronto’s best record stores. And that’s because it’s not just a vinyl emporium—like the countless others within spitting distance of its College St. home—but it’s developed into an all-ages venue, a makeshift art gallery, and a veritable hub for the many, many displaced Western Canadians in Toronto.

That, in part, is due to Cheung: He was born in Edmonton, and spent time working in Calgary. And June’s deep, well-priced library—which, according to him, doesn’t have a focus, although they do have a section for independent Canadian pressings—has plenty of obscure prairie content: Here, an LP by Calgary guitar improviso Bitter Fictions. There, copies of Little Brother, a magazine founded by Alberta expat Emily Keeler. Elsewhere, stacks of LPs from Lethbridge-via-Toronto imprint Mammoth Cave.

“I never wanted to show my western roots,” says Cheung. “We didn’t want to focus on any specific thing with June. But it just happens. Artists from Alberta might have an easier time coming to here to ask me if they can stock their record, or if they can play an acoustic set to promote a show they have. And from living out there, I know a lot of the bands. My partner is from Etobicoke, so he knows the local stuff here better than I do.”

Even if it wasn’t by design, though, June has become one of the more fascinating record peddlers in Toronto—and that’s largely because of its decidedly Western flavour, which Rotate This, Soundscapes, and Cheung’s former haunt, KOPS, can’t offer. (Though bless ‘em all.) Yet for Cheung—who spent the front half of his career working for tech startups in Alberta—Toronto isn’t only central to June’s development. It was a critical part of his life, too.

“We never forget that it’s a luxury to be here. Records aren’t a convenient, [cutting-edge] format. People buy them because they love them, not necessarily because they need them,” he adds. “We couldn’t open a store like this in Calgary. The size of Toronto definitely allowed us to open up. In Calgary, you’d be going against local stores like Songbird, Hot Wax, and Record Land. For the size of the city, there might not be enough [vinyl consumers] there to support another record store.”

It’s why Cheung’s pursuing his dream in Toronto: Yes, there are dozens of other record boutiques in Toronto’s west end. But here, even when positioned against monoliths like Sonic Boom, Cheung says he—and the artistic communities that flow through June—has found a place. “And,” he adds, “We’re only just beginning.”