Life After Suitcase

Way back when I was in high school, I bought a 4 track recorder, in partnership with a bandmate of mine. We put together a little mixer and microphones and started recording some of our friends’ bands, in addition to our own. It was a great time to be making punk rock records, it was possible to make a tape and duplicate it yourself, and there were tons of bedroom labels doing exactly that.

Fast forward a few years and I had studied recording at school, moved to Phoenix, and worked as a freelance engineer doing sessions for more punk, indie, ska and garage bands at local studios, in addition to my own band, touring both as a musician and as a road manager for friends.

I spent a few years promoting concerts with friends, and we had an online store selling collectible Apple Computer merchandise (before Apple created the iPhone and ate the world.) But I always loved recording and was often cobbling together some mobile gear to record my own bands.

In 2004, with the encouragement of my wife, I launched Suitcase Recordings, taking advantage of the new affordable and portable audio recording equipment. With a computer, an assortment of mics and interfaces, and a heavy bag of cables and stands, I could go mobile and record and mix bands easily.

The next few years were great fun, I was recording lots of cool local bands, and my wife and I welcomed two babies into our life. I met some great people, and made lifelong friends.

After a decade of Suitcase, I started an online forum dedicated to mixing called mixoff.org (now defunct), which led me to do some consulting with studio owners, helping them build their own business. I wrote a short book on running a mixing business, as I was working with a lot of home recordists at this time, doing remote mixes and giving advice.

In time, this consulting started to become coaching, as I was working with creative people outside of music as well, and I pursued training in various modalities and techniques for helping people to have creative breakthroughs, improve their work habits, etc.

In 2018, my wife and I moved our family to the Seattle area, and I decided to refocus into coaching, and set aside musical aspirations for the moment.

I have been working with lots of amazing artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, business owners and other coaches, and feel like I have really hit my sweet spot in terms of what I have to contribute to the world.

I have also gotten excited about music again, and am playing guitar and writing, with an eye toward starting a new project in the near future.

If you’d like to learn more about my coaching work, you can visit johnmckaycreativecoaching.com.