Passion For Music Created Found Sound Records

Blink and you’ll miss it but tucked away inside a small strip mall with a tight parking lot is Found Sound Records. Inside you’ll find Ralph Pichardo, a Miami native whose love of music and being around music lovers drives his passion.

Gracing the storefront is Pichardo’s own logo design for his shop, with a note to all passersby and those coming in that they “Buy, Sell and Trade Vinyl Records.”

“I have a passion for listening to and discovering new music,” said Pichardo. “I got into records back in the mid-90s through hip-hop music and sampling records to make beats.”

A Miami native born and raised in Perrine, it was his love of hip-hop music that drove Pichardo to inevitably either start rapping or making beats; he chose the latter. That led to scouring selections at record and thrift stores and flea markets buying any album that looked interesting to him, and using those records for sampling.

“A shoutout to all the classic spots for vinyl, specifically Bob Perry at Blue Note Records, a North Miami landmark, and Kelly’s Klassics (R.I.P.) in Broward,” he said. “I’ve been collecting records for 20-plus years and don’t see that changing anytime soon. At this point I mostly collect jazz, but my collection is around 800 records and a mix of everything.”

Pichardo decided to open the store in 2019, three months before the pandemic hit. Like most businesses, he was forced to close for a few months starting in March 2020 during the initial wave but opened back up in May 2020.

“I live in Hollywood and wanted a central location for folks in Broward and Dade counties. Plus, North Miami is still one of the few neighborhoods in Miami that hasn’t fully gentrified and still feels like the city I grew up in,” he said.

Pichardo found the storefront while in North Miami buying out someone’s record collection and stumbled upon the space. At the time, he was selling records online and “that was mostly to just buy more records,” he said. “Before opening the shop, I did post-production for television and recording engineering. For the last six years, I’ve done digital marketing, which means SEO/SEM/PPC for various agencies and clients.”

Even with so much going on, Found Sound is something he truly cherishes because he gets to listen to and talk about music all day to people from all walks of life. Everyone from novices who recently got into records to veterans seeking out rare and niche vinyl.

“Truthfully, opening Found Sound has been great,” said Pichardo. “Even after doing this for so long, I still learn and get to hear new things every day. Also, we get a lot of young folks, and I remember being that age and broke so we keep a large stash of $2 records lining the bins on the floor.”

Walk through the Found Sound door and you’re immediately surrounded by thousands of records in all different price ranges, in every genre imaginable. Look closely and you’ll pick up on Pichardo’s homage to the old days, particularly a nostalgic Blue Note Records sign and loads of 45s and 33s in old school boxes that surround the counter and register.

Pichardo absolutely loves the community he’s been able to create and the great friends that he’s made via music. Indeed, alongside longtime pal DJ Kems, he hosts the long-running, vinyl-only internet radio show “Above the Clouds,” which is broadcast live from the store every Saturday from 3-5 p.m. and streamed via AboveTheClouds.com.

“We regularly have guests come in and play records, and most of them are folks we’ve met through the shop,” he said of the show. The overarching goal of what he’s doing, he added, is to “maintain our current laid-back vibe and keep providing the community with music.”

Found Sound Records, 1654 NE 123 St., North Miami, 786.360.4934, Found-Sound-Records.com.