About Us

Founded in 1996, Furnace Record Pressing is known for making extremely high-quality vinyl records at our 50,000 square foot state-of-the-art record pressing facility in Alexandria, Virginia.

Read on for what separates us from the rest.

Experience

We’ve been doing this for 24 years and we’re pretty good at it but are always excited to see how we can improve the process and experience of pressing vinyl records. We care about the industry, and we care about doing it right. Amongst our diverse staff, we’ve been involved in just about every part of the music industry from playing in bands, to recording music, distribution, retail and, of course, buying records.

Customer Service

Furnace Record Pressing is what you’ve been looking for: a legit pressing plant who gives a shit. Hi. We pick up the phones, we know what we’re doing and we care a lot. Everything we’ve built (state-of-the-art facility, obsessive knowledge of the industry, smart and fun team who can suggest things you never thought of) supports our customer-centric core value.

Capacity & Turn Time

We work hard to keep our teams small and scrappy, but Furnace’s pressing operation is anything but small- we’re capable of pressing close to 10m vinyl records a year. As if that wasn’t enough, we offer pressing in Europe too. This translates to faster lead times and filling the world with happy customers.

One Stop Shop

Who has time for chasing down parts from 2 or 7 vendors for each project? Let Furnace handle all of the headaches. We offer a robust line of mastering, print, packaging and mailing services all under one roof. Jackets, Boxsets, Inserts, Download Cards and Hosting, Slipmats, Hedgehogs – we do it all.

Direct to the Source

At Furnace, pressing vinyl isn’t about cashing in or chasing a trend. Our owner has been pressing records since the 80’s and is obsessed with machines, processes and controls. This isn’t a hobby or a side project. This is vinyl manufacturing done right. We own and operate the machines so the buck stops with us.

Value

Furnace’s quick turns, responsive team and one-stop-shopping means you’ll spend less time and resources managing your vinyl production and more time on marketing, artist relations and eating / petting dogs / happy hours / hiking / knitting, etc. Time is money and we care about your time and your money.

Furnace Featured in Wired Article: The New Startup: No Code, No Problem

Congrats to Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction!

Furnace’s Own Antwan Wiggins Stars in Documentary on Netflix

Meet the only other people who wake up in the middle of the night thinking about your record

Eric Astor

President & CEO

Eric is the president and CEO. He’s our chief and if you hang out with him long enough (or for 20 minutes) you’ll hear how he started thinking about how to do things the BestFastestMostEfficient way when he was a kid collecting baseball cards. These days he leads the team here by example- working to constantly refine and improving what we can deliver. When he’s not at Furnace, he likes to surf, mountain bike and hang out with his two gigantic Bernese Mountain Dogs and his cool folklorist wife.

Ali Miller

COO

Ali is the COO and not the Production Manager. She interviewed and accepted this job in 2008 because she was bored at her corporate office job. She’s never been bored since and is excited to see what the next ten years brings. She handles a little bit of everything at Furnace if you have a problem, she can fix it. Though surrounded by music every day, Ali used iTunes for the very first time (for non work related purposes) in July 2013. She has not used it since.

Mark Reiter

Operations Manager

Mark is our Warehouse Manager. If our Lean Manufacturing program had a spokesmodel, it would be Mark. He can explain what it is, why it’s important and why you should care in 5 minutes or less. He runs a tight ship of an awesome team that has fun kicking ass and getting records out the door a little faster every time. Mark shares his non-Furnace home with wolves (ok, they're Siberian Huskies) and his awesome and slightly dangerous (MMA fighter) wife. Fun fact: Mark is the second drummer we hired (Eric is the first) and now we have five. Weird.

Emma Reiter

Production Manager

Emma’s our kick-ass production manager—and we mean that literally. She’s a blue belt and active competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If Furnace had an underground fight club, all bets would be on Emma. When she’s not keeping the presses on schedule or in her gi, Emma spends her time watching Seinfeld, drinking coffee, and going to taco bell. She’s also dog-mom to two huskies, who walk around Furnace like they own the place.

Jenn D'Eugenio

Sales & Marketing Manager

The leader of our sales team, Jenn has been collecting records for over 15 years! With all those records, Jenn keeps an extra close eye out for every Black Sabbath “Master of Reality” vinyl variant she can get her hands on. Coming from a design background, Jenn has done everything from designing kids clothes to working as a traveling rep for an art college, and is happy to be pursuing her passion for the art of vinyl here at Furnace. On the side she also keeps busy empowering and sharing the stories of women working in the industry with her blog Women in Vinyl.

Ric Sherman

Senior Sales

Ric’s moved through radio advertising, HBO films, video production and spent many years handling a large segment of the music industry’s CD manufacturing requirements. But vinyl had somehow escaped his resume…until now! When he’s not collaborating with labels, artists and managers to find the best production & packaging solutions for their vinyl and CD releases you can find him playing guitar.

Tim Nagy

Production Coordinator

Tim, one of our production coordinators, loves animals and spent years volunteering and working alongside them, with the battle-scars to prove it. Somehow he remains a DC sports fan, no matter how many times he’s let down. In his free time, Tim does a lot of reading and painting, but the one constant is that music is playing from sun-up to sun-down. He’s thankful to be at Furnace, especially since his sweet dogs Bowie and Lulu gets to be his desk mates.

David Osnoe

Customer Service Representative

David's love for cats cannot be overstated. While his dream is to be an author, he is strangely comfortable in a warehouse setting. Since joining the Production team as a CSR, he has discovered a newfound respect for vinyl and the 1,000,000 moving pieces that work together to produce the beautiful, organic sound that emerges from a record. Fortunately, his geek brain has made room for vinyl alongside video games, science fiction novels and vegetarian recipes. He looks forward to helping you with your next order!

Wendy LeBeau

Customer Service Representative

Numbers-wise, Wendy has: 1 dog, 2 awesome kids, 9 cats (most of who are feral), a love for vintage from the 40s & 50s, a collection of 78s. Besides working on our production team, she also runs her own small record label and plays upright bass in a band — both with her husband. Wendy enjoys working at Furnace because it combines her enthusiasm for vinyl with her desire to be helpful and is hoping to find opportunities to finally put that English degree to use.

Dennis Warren

Designer

Dennis is our in-house designer and pre-press extraordinaire. His areas of design interest include branding, continuity, and aesthetics. As an audiophile and musician, music influences the visual art he creates. Dennis also travels the world with his lovely wife to broaden his scope and understanding of the world around us. Oh, and his resume included a pic of him in a Furnace t-shirt. That’s some dedication right there.

Willem Ytsma

Lead Engineer

A mechanical engineering graduate and self-proclaimed record manufacturing nerd whom we fondly refer to as Tesla, Willem moved here recently and says he’s still trying to figure out how to be an adult. While he’s working that out, he continuously finds new ways to keep things fresh and interesting here at Furnace through his work on automation, engineering, and mechatronics. In his off time, he enjoys pursuing a passion for photography.

Thao Nguyen

Office Manager

Thao is our Office Manager and handles our H.R. She handles everything (which is a lot of things) thrown at her and keeps us all in line. Reruns of “The Office”, pumpkin spice lattes, top-40 music, ombre hair; if it’s super basic, she probably likes it (her words). Thao referred to Furny in her cover letter and told us she had a dog named “Ken” in her interview so you already know she’s sharp and funny and does her research.

Jessica Chinlasith

Warehouse Admin

While she’d rather be at the beach all year round, working here is the next best thing! A lover of all kinds of music, this is Jessica’s first exposure to the vinyl industry, and she can’t wait to learn more. Outside of work, Jessica likes spending time with her Yorkshire Terrier, Milo, and working on crafts.

Carol Ceglar

Accountant

Carol loves accounting and Furnace! Prior to coming to Furnace she worked in the mortgage loan industry which took her from D.C. to Colorado, California, and back to Virginia. When not being “supervised” by her dog at work, Carol volunteers weekly at a local National Battlefield Park and is the Vice President of a community band where she has been a flutist for 17 years.

Rob Jordan

Pressing Manager

Rob’s our Pressing Manager who specifically moved from the midwest to join the best record breaking team in the world. Though he’s an east coaster now, Rob still roots for the Kansas City Chiefs. He also enjoys 70s, 80s, & 90s outlaw country. Apart from music, his interests include aviation, skydiving, hunting, and Star Wars. Ever the optimist, he dislikes any thing negative...and candy corn.

Becky Anderson

Pressing Operator

Becky is one of our incredible press operators. Musically she’s a drummer and loves all kinds of music and has an affinity for 80s rock. She’s from El Paso, Texas but grew up on the east coast. Like many other on the Furnace team she absolutely loves dogs, and would adopt them all, if only she had somewhere to put them! Becky also has some serious art skills; she’s done most of her 34 (!!!) tattoos.

Danny Wright

Pressing Operator

Danny's another one of our press operators. From 180g audiophile vinyl to the crazy effects your heart desires he can press it.

Quoc Nguyen

Pressing Operator

As one of the members of the best pressing team on the planet, Quoc strives for putting the best vinyl you've ever heard. With every record pressed he make Furny proud.

Joey Trevino

Pressing Operator

Joey is a wine connoisseur turned record commodities hi-fi enthusiast. Whether it's pressing grapes or your latest project, he's interested. Joey's also a father to two stellar daughters and is an Army vet, having served 9 years.

Yeudis Ortiz

Pressing Operator

While much of our staff came to Furnace because of a love of vinyl, Yeudis joined our crew because of his love of machinery. When he's not cranking out records here, he's getting his hands on all sorts of other machines as a mechanic. If something's broken, he'll find a way to fix it.

Ray Blevins

QC Manager

Our QC manager, comes to us from another record pressing plant’s QC and plating department and knows his way around a record having been an all vinyl DJ of everything from hip hop to psych rock and collector since the 90s - he was one of the few keeping vinyl alive even when other people thought it died. He’s got that supersonic hearing and vision (his superpowers) to make sure he and his team are only providing you with top notch vinyl.

Gil Levy

Gil’s a connoisseur of all types of media and formats, which is fitting for someone in QC. He reads graphic novels and manga, attends live concerts, listens to classic country rock and alt comedy, and loves watching movies, especially bad ones, and especially on VHS. In his professional opinion, ABBA is one of the best bands ever...and he will defend this.

Minh Phan

QC & Assembly

Minh worked on our first ever vinyl assembly order with us. On day two of that job, the ceiling lights exploded (don't ask) and in the rain of tiny glass Minh put her sweatshirt hood up and kept working while everyone scattered. Don't try that at home but yeah, she's hardcore.

Aaron Keller

Inventory Manager

Aaron is our inventory manager. When he started he drove 65 miles (each way) to work and was never late and never complained. He also started at one of the worst weeks in Furnace history and is one of the few who 1. remembers the bad times 2. still loves us and his job. Aaron is a keeper.

Michael Hsu

Maintenance

Michael came on board in 2013 via his nephew who told us his name was Otis. We were confused about his nickname of ``Michael`` for about a year until we figured it out. Michael can fix anything. Literally anything that breaks, he'll put it back together and it'll probably work better than before. When he's not making machines out of spare parts and kicking ass on the finishing line, Michael is a super skilled photographer and a golfer.

Dale Lynn

Lead Mechanic

Dale's our lead mechanic and fixer extraordinaire. Like many on our team, he’s in a band and enjoys playing and recording music, which he also has a degree in. He’s also a dad to two amazing little girls.

Du Cao

Assembly Tech

A long-time D.C. resident, Du moved to Virginia 12 years ago and hasn’t looked back. Since starting at Furnace in 2016, Du has handled a little bit of everything, but spends most of her time in the vinyl assembly line. In true Furnace spirit, Du says she can’t wait to come in to work every day– rain or shine!

Quan Le

Assembly Tech

Like most of the team here at Furnace, Ms. Lee is a huge music lover. Unlike most of the team, she loves getting up on stage for Karaoke on the weekends to prove it! Working on the assembly line in our warehouse, Quan also loves cooking for friends and family and relaxing at the beach.

Hoa Nguyen

Assembly Tech

With 12 siblings and four kids, Hoa knows a thing or two about family. Now, after immigrating here from Vietnam with her kids, she’s ready to bring that family-first attitude to the Furnace team. A member of our assembly crew, she thinks it’s strange that Americans keep their trash cans in the house and leave their valuable cars out on the street.

Chi Kim Nguyen

Assembly Tech

Chi is the Annie Oakley of our assembly line. She can put together any project from a simple LP into a jacket or a box set with amazing speed and precious.

Thuy Thai

Assembly Tech

As a member of assembly, Thuy makes sure your album is exactly what you ordered. From conventional download cards and liner notes to more unusual inserts, she makes sure your album is assembled to perfection.

Hung Nguyen

Finishing

An avid world traveler, Hung is currently planning a month-long trip to his home country of Vietnam. When he’s not stamping his passport, Hung keeps things running smoothly here at Furnace by organizing our boxes of vinyl onto our expertly packed pallets to prepare them for shipping.

Tien Phan

Finishing

Tien's here to make sure your finished goods arrive a beautiful as you've been dreaming about that. Whether that's shrink-wrapped, poly-bagged, or sleeved only, they'll arrive at your doorstep looking immaculate because of Tien.

Hiep Van

A long-time Furnace employee, Hiep comes to work every morning with a smile on his face and is always happy to help out. A true jack of all trades, you can usually find him fixing something around the warehouse. When he gets off work, Hiep likes to kick back, crack open a beer, and watch sports.

Su Tran

Finishing

One of the quietest members of our warehouse team, sometimes we don’t even notice he’s here until we see all the work he’s gotten done! Focusing mostly on wrapping items to prepare them for shipping, Su is a huge help in getting things out on time. Having lived here in Virginia for around seven years now with his two kids, we are certainly happy to have Su on our team!

Nghia Nguyen

Finishing

Nghia has worked at Furnace since 2015, mostly handling packaging, but doing a little bit of everything around the warehouse. Having lived in Virginia with his three kids for six years now, Nghia looks forward to continuing to watch the vinyl industry grow from his vantage point here at Furnace.

There’s one member of the team who has worked here longer than Eric. It’s Furny, the welding dude who you may recognize because he is also featured in our logo. He was created in 2001 but born many years before that. He was pressing records before you were even born.

His physical form was conceptualized by Shepard Fairey, who you know from designs like André the Giant Has A Posse (OBEY) sticker collection and the Barack Obama “HOPE” poster for the 2008 US Presidential election. Fairey’s non-Furnace works can been seen in similarly illustrious locales such the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.

In addition to repping Furnace on all the official forms and publications, Furny has also appeared in costume as Johnny Cash, Santa Claus, and all four original members of KISS and most recently a 3-D bobblehead. He gets around.

Furny himself does a lot more than represent Furnace. He’s a visionary in his own right. His side hustle is in the self help business. He wouldn’t call himself a guru, but his followers would. If the fire burns your feet, you’re doing it wrong. It’s not all work and no play though. Furny is semi-pro in night skateboarding. You’ve probably never heard of it. Maybe he’ll show you sometime.

You’re not the first person who found themselves desperately asking: where can I get a copy of Furny’s book? Where can I get some merch with this dude on the front? What’s night skateboarding? Join our newsletter and we’ll give you the scoop.

About Us

Welcome to Furnace Record Pressing

Experience

Customer Service

Capacity & Turn Time

One Stop Shop

Direct to the Source

Value

Furnace In the News

Our Collection Of Weirdos

The History of the Furnace Logo