THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510110285
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
With his 30th birthday approaching, Drew Johansen did something that most people can only dream about. He took stock of his working life, decided he did not care for its direction and plunged into a whole new career.
Johansen abandoned a successful career in the button-down world of insurance sales, where he had moved up into the managerial ranks, and pursued a notion that had been rattling around in his mind for years, opening his own record shop.
That was 10 years ago.
Folks predicted a quick failure for a music store that dealt in new and used records, refused to cater to top 40 fans, and insisted on locating in Portsmouth.
A decade later, a slimmer, less-stressed Johansen, now 40, is having the time of his life with Unicorn Records, a well-established music store in Churchland. Unicorn Records specializes in ``alternative rock and oldies rock with a blatant disregard for anything that is Billboard, popular, or record industry generated,'' he said.
The successful entrepreneur also has evolved into a songwriter/singer.
``If you had told me three years ago that I would be standing in front of a band and singing my own songs, I would have said you were crazy,'' Johansen said.
As the lead singer with MOM, the band that he started two years ago, Johansen performs at local clubs and prides himself on the band's preference for performing only their own, original music - sort of a ``psycho-western blues-a-billy'' brand of music, according to Johansen.
If you ask Johansen how his new career came about, he just shakes his head and says, as if he is still wondering about that himself, ``It was all just a little strange.
``I really did not have any idea how it would all go,'' he said. ``It was just the direction I was heading.''
It was an out of control record collection that got Johansen started in his business.
``I had a bad record-buying habit,'' he admits, adding that he started accumulating records when he was just 6 years old. ``But I started collecting in earnest when I was in the insurance agency.''
A Florida native who was born into a career Coast Guard family, Johansen grew up living all over the country, in Puerto Rico and the Philippines. After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology at Frostburg State University in Maryland, he headed to Portsmouth, where his parents had settled.
His father, J.E. Johansen, is a retired Coast Guard rear admiral and a former mayor of Portsmouth.
A lifelong music buff, Johansen had played the guitar since he was 11 and was strongly influenced by The Beatles and other British rockers of the 1960s. Turned off by the disco that replaced live bands in the 1970s, Johansen refused to buy current records and concentrated on the rock bands that he loved.
When his burgeoning collection threatened to crowd Johansen, his wife, Gwen, and older daughter, Valerie, out of their home, he decided to use his 10,000 or more records to open a shop furnished with used fixtures from two defunct record shops and an out-of-business jewelry store. He called it his piecemeal liquidation, low-cost acquisition method of starting a business.
Several moves have brought Unicorn Records to its fourth location, all in the Churchland/Western Branch area. Unicorn Records stocks CDs and records from the 1960s to selected current releases and includes some hard-to-find recording by Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and classic rock bands.
``In the first year, all the 1950s Doo Wop, the Buddy Holley, and the Eddie Cochran were all gone,'' Johansen said. ``Apparently, I had the stuff priced too cheap.''
You still can find a good selection of classic Beatles, the Doors, and the Stray Cats, along with some lesser-known groups. Although most customers are listeners, Unicorn Records attracts a fair share of collectors too.
In his current store, the largest so far, Johansen has set up a small recording studio in the rear where MOM practices and creates their own audition tapes and videos.
MOM is a four-piece band whose current members include Johansen, a Churchland resident, Reggie Spencer from Suffolk, Steve Wilkins from Portsmouth and Jay Alman from Western Branch.
What does MOM stand for?
``It is short for mother,'' Johansen said, adding that it is not an acronym for any other meaning. The name flashed into his mind not long after his wife had delivered their second daughter, two-year-old Emily. Inspired, Johansen stenciled the name all over the band's equipment, much to the surprise of the other musicians when they arrived at the next practice.
``Things just seem to have fallen into place,'' Johansen said.
As for his collecting habit, he seems to have that under control now too. He has limited his own personal collection to a few favorites including Dave Edmunds.
``Besides, all the others are right here for listening,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Drew Johansen, left, owner of Unicorn Records in Churchland records
with his band, MOM. Other members are Jay Alman, second from left,
Steve Wilkins and Reggie Spencer.
by CNB