Kristopher Daniel Pinnell declared himself long before he understood what that meant. At six years old, standing in a hardware store, he insisted his father buy him Johnny Cash’s The Man in Black. It was played on a box-shaped Viking phonograph with a single mono speaker — lid on top, stackable records dropping one after another. No stereo separation. No surround sound. Just one speaker filling the room. That record spun until the grooves thinned. He sang in Sunday school and school choirs, earning solo parts while other kids blended in. At Vanier Hall in Prince George, he carried a solo that signaled something unmistakable: he wasn’t participating he was committing. At Shakey’s Pizza, when a banjo player stopped, Kristopher walked up and informed him he wasn’t finished. The piano lit up as Kristopher and his friend began to sing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Kristopher’s friend bolted halfway through. Kristopher stayed and finished the song “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The determination was already set. Today, he still spins vinyl on an analog Harman Kardon system — one of the last true analog builds of its era — the sound ringing through his living room much the way that the box-shaped Viking phonograph with a single mono speaker had. Though his studio now holds modern technology, it is the analog signal he returns to.