Pressing vinyl in a digital world
Neil Wilson and his wife, Kathy, have always been music lovers but it was a desire for a career change that drove them to launch vinyl-pressing business Suitcase Records. Since 2022, they’ve pressed records for artists ranging from Jimmy Barnes and John Butler to pop-rock group Lime Cordiale.
Super niche can be good
“We’re one of only a few vinyl-pressing plants in Australia and we’re the only company using a low-carbon compound, which is a big seller for us. We’ve done Paul Kelly’s last two releases on low carbon. There’s a growing demand for it these days.”
Be realistic about growth
“The majority of records are imported so when we started, it was really hard to get market intel and scaling was slower than we thought. Our projections were correct in terms of operating costs but the turnover was slower. It took two years to get to where we thought we’d be after six months.”
It’s okay to refine the vision
“When we started, we just wanted to press music for independent artists. We didn’t want to deal with the major labels. But we quickly worked out that if we didn’t do that, we were going to go broke. It turns out that by pressing locally, the major labels are actually allowing us to look after those independent artists, too. The vision hasn’t really changed but our understanding of what we do has.”
My biggest lesson
“It’s important to define what success is for you. If you define it based on someone else’s expectations, you’re never going to feel like you’ve achieved it. Now we measure it in a number of ways – financial success is obviously important but it can also be looking after a little artist doing 100 records.”
Turning lived experience into immersive learning
Stuart McMinn is a Dharug and Gubbi Gubbi man and the owner and lead cultural facilitator of Gawura Cultural Immersions. What began as a family dance group has evolved into an organisation that provides cultural education and training for schools, government and businesses through song, dance and workshops.
