Meet the 17-year-old owner of Denver’s newest record store

When most folks think of a record-store owner these days, they imagine a hairy, grizzled dude in a faded R. Crumb T-shirt who can remember precisely where he was when he learned John Lennon had been shot.

Elijah Trujillo, owner of TruRecords, defies this stereotype for a very simple reason: He’s 17 years old — and no, that’s not a typographical error. But he’s as obsessed with albums as anyone who’s been spinning the black circle for decades.

“I really love doing this, because I love the community around it and I love supporting the people around me,” Trujillo says. “Music’s always been a major part of my life.”

His new vinyl mecca at 3958 S. Federal Blvd. is hosting its first big event on Sunday, Aug. 9, but it all started with deep family roots.

“I got started with records when I was 12, and my grandma, (Sharon Trujillo), got me into it,” he explains. “She inherited all of her dad’s records. A bunch of Blue Notes, things like Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Stan Getz. Funk, of course: your popular stuff, like P-Funk, Graham Central Station. Disco stuff, too. And she also listened to a lot of classic rock.”

Trujillo soon started adding to this treasure trove.

“We collect jazz and funk as a family, and we just kept building and building — going to thrift shops, going to record shops. I’ve been in the community for a while,” he says.

This sideline wasn’t typical of his demographic, and he concedes that “I never really talked to kids my age about records.” But he was business-minded from early on.

“I got suspended from school of selling snacks,” he reveals. “It doesn’t get more entrepreneurial than that.”

While attending Lakewood High School, he decided to combine his assorted interests and open up a record store of his own. But cobbling together the resources to make it happen took a toll on his academic performance.

“Last year was my junior year, and I’m not a bad student,” he stresses. “I usually get A’s and B’s, and I get all the stuff done they tell me to do. But last semester, I was focusing so much on the store that I failed a bunch of classes. So for my senior year, I have to do everything online” via GOAL High School.

TruRecords opened on June 5. Although he’s “run into some issues” getting the proper signage for the building, that should be arriving soon. Until then, he’s relying on Instagram and word of mouth. “But everyone in the vinyl community has been really great,” Trujillo says. “They want to help out and are really supportive of each other.”

As for the stock, “we try to sell some of everything,” he says.

“We try to keep our hip-hop section really good. We’re on Federal, so we want to represent that area. We also have rock, funk, jazz, and we have a huge $3 section. You can get a lot of good records for really good deals. And I bought a collection of 45s from a guy in Longmont the other day, so I have a bunch of those.”

With a two-month soft-start under his belt, Trujillo is ready to level up by way of an August 9 in-store appearance of Mr. Len, a fabled New York-area DJ renowned for his work with Company Flow, a 1990s-era underground hip-hop collective that also included El-P and Bigg Jus.

The event, scheduled for 3-6 p.m., is a promotion for Mr. Len’s “Life in Dakota” project, according to Trujillo, who was introduced to the DJ through his friend, Thick Cr8s. After a DJ set from 3 to 4, Mr. Len will hold an album drop, sell merch and sign records, “which he usually doesn’t do,” Trujillo notes.

“It’s really rare for it to happen, especially in an intimate place like this,” he says.

Trujillo says proceeds of all $3 record sales during the event will be donated to the Denver Animal Hospital via Vinyl for Charity, a TruRecords offshoot that he hopes to grow along with the store.

“We’re getting a lot of new eyes on us,” he says, “and I think they’re going to like what they see.”

TruRecords is open at 3958 S. Federal Blvd. from 12-5 p.m. on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 12-6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.