PORTLAND — The music might be gone from a scratched and worn vinyl record, but there’s still art to be found within its grooves.
With surgical precision, Vancouver artist Ty Givens knows how to excise it.
Givens carves into vinyl records to produce stylish silhouettes of local landmarks, comics characters and more.
“I tend to focus on things more local — sports, the area that I’m in — but I also have a nerdy side so I like to make things of anime, comic books, video games, things that people enjoy that make them happy,” Givens said.
He sells his work under his brand, 2025th Street, which is not an actual street, but a nod to his first name, comprised of the 20th and 25th letters in the alphabet. Givens’ website includes a catalog of 50 different designs, featuring everything from “Dr. Who” and “Star Trek,” logos of the Timbers and Trail Blazers, to dozens of Pokémon characters.
It takes a steady hand to slice clean lines through vinyl, and Givens uses a variety of tools, including a Dremel and drill, a wood burner with a heated utility blade and a needle file to create his work.
Most of the records he uses have been donated by 1709 Records and Everybody’s Music in Vancouver — and audiophiles, don’t fear, they’re all unplayable.
“I’m not going to destroy music that can be played when there’s plenty of older stuff out there,” Givens said. “I was also a musician for years, so music and art are two big things for me.”
Givens was a trombone player in high school and college and spent close to a decade singing bass in barbershop quartets.
“It’s a weird one,” Givens admits of his love of barbershop. “People are like, ‘You did what?’ ”
Givens grew up in Florida and moved to the Pacific Northwest on, essentially, a whim. He said he was working at a theme park and feeling in a rut.
“I got into that rhythm that I guess people get in their life where you wake up, you go to work, you go to bed, and you do that every single day,” he said. “I just felt trapped. There were no other jobs to get, there was nothing else to do.”
So about five years ago, he sold everything that didn’t fit in his car and spent two months driving across the country, making stops in New Orleans, the Grand Canyon and the redwood forests in California before visiting friends in Vancouver.
“They said, ‘Stay with us, see how you like it,’ and I just never left,” Givens said.
Givens had been creating vinyl record art for years, but things took off after he started carving Pokémon characters. In 2019, he was hosting Pokémon Go tournaments at the former Vancouver restaurant WareHouse ’23 and attracting crowds with his Pokémon carved record prizes.
Last year, he’d initially planned to set up sales booths at a few anime and comic conventions, but when those were all canceled due to coronavirus pandemic, he launched 2025th.com.
In November, Givens teamed up with Portland artist Mike Bennett for a “Pokémon Govember” scavenger hunt. Each artist made a daily Pokémon creation — Givens out of vinyl, Bennett out of plywood — and placed them at a local business that could use a boost in foot traffic. The pair posted clues about the locations online, hiding a new set of Pokémon each day for a shopper to find.
Aside from his Pokémon series, Givens’ most popular seller is a silhouette of the St. Johns Bridge.
You can browse and purchase his artwork — each piece is $50 — at 2025th.com.
