Real Estate & Elegant Maine Living - The Way Life Should Be

Maine's Creative Community Through Stories, Sound & Music: The Studio Portland Part II, E:24

• Elise Kiely • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Here’s a set of shownotes for Part 2 of your interview with John McArthur. I’ve kept them inviting, clear, and professional — highlighting the themes of artistry, community, and Maine lifestyle that shine through in the transcript:

Show Notes – Elegant Maine Living with John McArthur, Part 2

In this second half of my conversation with John McArthur, co-owner of The Studio Portland, we explore the artistry, business, and community that make this creative hub such a special place in Maine.

John shares how The Studio Portland supports emerging and established musicians, helping them not only perfect their craft but also learn how to treat music as a business. We talk about the quiet but thriving community of internationally recognized artists who call Maine home, and why this state offers the simple, elegant lifestyle they value for themselves and their families.

We also dive into the other creative avenues supported by the studio — from voiceover acting and audiobook production to podcasting — and how the Studio provides a professional space for people to tell their stories, reconnect with artistic passions, or leave a legacy for future generations.

Highlights from this episode include:

  • Why world-class musicians are drawn back to Maine for its authenticity and simplicity.
  • The growing communities of voice actors, filmmakers, and audiobook creators in Portland.
  • The deeply personal projects of retirees and lifelong hobbyists seeking to record and preserve their music.
  • Why podcasting is thriving in Maine — and how The Studio Portland provides the tools for polished, professional storytelling.
  • The importance of collaboration, community, and connection through the Society of Creative Pursuits and beyond.

John closes with reflections on elegance in Maine — from its vibrant food culture to its collaborative artistic communities — and shares what inspires him to keep building spaces where creativity and community thrive.

If you missed Part 1 of this conversation, be sure to go back and listen to hear the origin story of The Studio Portland and how John and his partners built this unique creative hub.

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Elise Kiely: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to the second part of my conversation with John McArthur, one of the owners of the studio Portland in Portland, Maine, where I record this podcast. And in the first episode we talked about how John and his wife and his business partners came to be involved in The Studio Portland and their efforts of creating community and helping aspiring young artists further their career in music, voice acting, or even podcasting.

And John, thank you for coming back in. I really appreciate your time. 

John McArthur: I appreciate yours, and I appreciate you being here. 

Elise Kiely: John, let's talk a little bit about the artist's perspective. You talked in the first episode how you have musicians and you have the singer songwriter contests and you bring musicians [00:01:00] or even small bands in to have that audio, visual, audio and video experience and have a live, intimate presentation that they can use as marketing for their career.

John McArthur: Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: I think that's so important from the artist's perspective. How important is that? 

John McArthur: It's super important. If you, what you want to do is make a living as a musician that, that.

There are lots of gigs out there and every venue owner, every restaurant owner gets bombarded with people who want to play there. And so how do you rise above? And so if you want 'them actually make a living in music, you have to focus on the entire business of music. So that's not only being great at your instrument and at your composition, but also at your marketing skills and at your sales skills and knowing where the revenue pockets are.

And so one of the things that I've done over the last seven or eight [00:02:00] years is coaching musicians on how to treat music not only as a passion, but as as a business. 

Elise Kiely: Because I am I imagine that those talents that make someone very good at being a musician may not translate to the business side.

John McArthur: They may not. Which means you either need a team to support you. Which means you need to be able to afford to pay people. Or have people who are so passionate about you personally that they're willing to invest in you without expectation of return. Which happens a lot 

Elise Kiely: And that's why I think the four of you, as your business partners at the Studio of Portland, bring so many skills to the table with between marketing, business, sales, a musical experience as a performer yourself.

That's a unique mix of experience and talent that you can come and bring to the artist? 

John McArthur: It is, but we also bring in other people, other experts, I've got an, I've got an artist that I book down [00:03:00] in New Hampshire that I want to bring to Maine, but he's, he just got his first gold record working with Jelly Roll.

Really? Yeah. So I've got another artist that I'm working with now that I'm hoping to help him get on that same sort of path where he is, where he can, in two, three years time, he can be on the, he can be charting 

Elise Kiely: How fun to be a part of that experience and some the launch of somebody's career.

Very special. 

John McArthur: At, but truly just one part of it, just again, it's. There's areas where we can help them, and then there's areas where we know we're not the experts, but we'll try to find them an expert. 

Elise Kiely: And so you work a lot with emerging artists, but there is a quiet community here I, that I now know of from my relationship with you, of very accomplished musicians, internationally known musicians who call Maine home 

John McArthur: Yes.

Elise Kiely: Who have come back. 

John McArthur: Yes. There, there's people here in this building who tour tour internationally and have sold out Madison Square Garden [00:04:00] and they work here at 45 Casco Street. 

Elise Kiely: So it's just that's wonderful to have. And what do you think it is that brought them back to Maine or made them choose Maine for the first time?

John McArthur: Because one of the benefits that we learned during COVID is we can do a lot of our work from somewhere else, and then when we have to be face to face, we can get on a plane or on a bus, and we can go do that. But if you want to have your, i your term is an elegant lifestyle, but if you want to have a simple lifestyle, it doesn't even have to be elegant.

But if you want to have a simple life, this is a great place to do it. And some of them are folks who've, they're raising families now. And they don't want to raise them in some of those other areas where bigger markets, some of those bigger markets. And not to put any market down, but this is a simpler place to raise your kids.

Elise Kiely: And it's, it's interesting you talk about simplicity and elegance. And I think those are synonyms. Yes. And there is a simple elegance to being in Maine and it's not flashy, it's not ostentatious. It is just simple [00:05:00] and it is easy. 

John McArthur: Yeah. And, you can join in communities.

Some of the folks that we work with here at The Studio, if they were in LA they would be, people would be flocking around them all the time here. They can join in a community and just be one of the folks. 

So it's really nice 

Elise Kiely: and allows them to participate in a, in an authentic way.

John McArthur: Yeah, very much I remember Livingston Taylor once saying that he was grateful for James because Living Livingston could walk down the street unmolested James can't. But that's, that's that's a good point. So Maine is the James Taylor for all the Livingston Taylors in the world.

There 

Elise Kiely: you go. There you go. So let's talk a little bit about the different businesses. I obviously, the music is a large part of The Studio Portland, and I frankly wasn't even aware of this as an industry. But voiceover acting and audio books is also a growing part 

John McArthur: of the business. It's an important part of the business.

This is the the dialogue replacement [00:06:00] tends to be a little seasonal because what happens is we get a, we do have, we have some year-round actors who who live here and then just go out to film their do their filming in LA or London or New York or whatever. But they have to replace dialogue sometimes, and so they'll come here to do it.

So it's, we're a lot cheaper than having to get on a plane and fly down to New York or Right. Or go back to LA. 

Elise Kiely: So it's an important part of allowing people to live that elegant, simple, elegant, Maine lifestyle and be able to do their craft. 

John McArthur: Yes, absolutely. So we've got that voice acting community which is great.

And the actor community. There's a vibrant independent film community here, and I've met a number of them through the Society of Creative Pursuits. I just love that name. So I have to say it again. But so I've met wonderful people there, filmmakers. And and then yes, we do audio books.

We've had a number of, there's a lot of authors who've worked in, for [00:07:00] example, y they were in government and they were in DC and they're tired of dc and they just want to have a simpler life, and they return to Maine. But they've written books, and their audio books are a great, great way to get your book out 

Elise Kiely: and you can accommodate that here at the studio as well.

John McArthur: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: And now I've saved my favorite for last, the podcasting. Have you noticed an increase in the number of people looking to do podcasts in the area? 

John McArthur: I have. And. There's a number of reasons for that. We are spending a lot of time in cars. And we love listening to music, but sometimes we just need a story.

And podcasts are all about stories. And so I will tell you when we have podcast recordings here, we have, we'll often have a guest here in the studio with a remote podcast producer and we'll have the guest here in the studio. And I've heard the most fascinating stories, really. Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: What are some of the subject matters of the podcast that you've heard people either be a guest on or they, that they produce here?

John McArthur: One of the [00:08:00] wonderful ones was a New York Times reporter who happens to live here 'because he doesn't want to live in New York. And he wrote a book on on the clothing manufacturing industry in the United States. And and they so it used to be huge. And now it's cottage. But here in Maine we have shoe manufacturing when most shoes are made in China.

We have a fabulous shoe manufacturer here. Elegant shoes made here. Yes. A long 

Elise Kiely: tradition. 

John McArthur: Yes. Yes. Maine this used to be a huge. Area for shoe shoemaking. 

Elise Kiely: Right. 

John McArthur: But now they're just a handful of shoemakers who still actually not only design, but manufacture and, 

Elise Kiely: and you as the owner of the studio and whoever the engineer is who's doing the board.

When the podcast you a ringside seat on all of this information, stories and history. Yes. Which must be so interesting. 

John McArthur: Yes. I had someone say they wanted to interview an [00:09:00] Apple expert, and I assumed they meant Macintosh. But they actually meant, apple as in computer, right? But it was actually about the fruit.

The fruit. And there's an expert here in Maine on on apples and all of the ancient varieties of apples that used to exist. And his goal is to recapture those. I'm going to introduce you to him someday. 

Elise Kiely: That, that would be wonderful. I just, I love the sort of hidden, subtle expertise that we have in this community.

It's so rich. We're small. We're not necessarily easy to get to. But boy, is it worth it when you come? Yeah. There's so much opportunity here if you look for it, 

John McArthur: right? 

Elise Kiely: And if you're curious and if you're interested, it's an easy place to stay engaged and to learn. 

John McArthur: Yes. And there's so much to do.

Here. One of my hopes here is to get that park pass so that I can go and visit more of the parks, because there's so many great parks 

Elise Kiely: there. There really are. And it's something that's we have a lot [00:10:00] of great state parks, and of course we have Acadia in the national parks too.

We have so much green space. Yes. And one of the things I love about Maine that it's easy to forget that we have is we have no billboards. Along the highway, and so it's peaceful. You don't have people shouting at you from billboards, and that's something, it's subtle. It's easy to, to not be aware of, but it's very impactful. 

John McArthur: It is, you're right. I think that's a fabulous thing. And it, by the way, that's why people listen to podcasts. They're not distracted by billboards. 

Elise Kiely: I think it could be. It could be. Which is why a Maine podcast could be so well, so John, any other things you could share about stories?

I know that you have a story about somebody that. Is re maybe recently retired that had an artistic past that was looking to bring that into their life now that their career was winding down. 

John McArthur: Sure. I there's a local [00:11:00] artist, I won't name them, but there's a local musician who during COVID wrote 20 songs and he's in his seventies.

Elise Kiely: And wa was he a musician by trade, by profession? 

John McArthur: No. No. But he, he had worked as a musician in the past, but during COVID. Like a lot of us, he ended up with some time on his hands. And so during COVID he wrote 20 songs and he doesn't have any illusions about making it big in the music industry, but he has a vision of leaving a legacy for his children.

And so we're going to help him record and leave that legacy for his children. So I love that. And, frankly. I'm guilty of that too. I'm not, I'm nowhere. Although I might be similar age to the gentleman who's going to do it. I'm far from retired by choice, right? I'm far from, I'm far from retired, but I had the opportunity to come in here with some fabulous musicians and take a song that my brother wrote, the fellow [00:12:00] who the fellow with whom I helped build that first studio in 1976 or seven or whatever it was.

Had a chance to record his song here with some fabulous studio musicians, some of them with some national renowned who just happened to settle here in Maine. 

Elise Kiely: Wow. And you knew them from your community building? 

John McArthur: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: So that's, I love that story. I love that story. Both of those stories and the person that.

He wrote the 20 songs during Covid love the intentionality that wanted to leave the songs for his children, his grandchildren, and he wanted to have a legacy. 

John McArthur: Right. 

Elise Kiely: And I think that's so beautiful. And you got to help facilitate that. I did. And be a part of it. 

John McArthur: I did. And I'll tell you, I have some cherished memories.

I grew up in a musical family, right? And I have a recording of my father's Aunt Chad playing Dr. Ners antiseptic march on the piano sometime back in the early [00:13:00] sixties. And I cherish that recording. I cherish the recordings that we that my brother did in this, in the seventies, that my son, Sam was able to restore. And actually made its way into a movie that my brother produced. As I have recordings of my father playing the piano, but for this man, it was about, I want to leave these songs to my grandchild. I can leave them money. I want to live, leave them a piece of my personality.

Elise Kiely: And it's a very intimate, it's a very intimate thing to leave your creation, your artistic creation. Very vulnerable. Very special to have that. And I think about people that I've lost in my life and wouldn't, I love to have something that they created that they feel very proud of and accomplished in.

And I, I do have some of those things. They're not in the terms of music or a painting, but things that they were very good at, that they were able to leave and they're very important and it's important that we share [00:14:00] that. 

John McArthur: I think so too. And, the generations span decades now who are living longer.

And people are having children later, like my grandmother was a prolific painter. And enough so that my 26 cousins, first cousins all have paintings of hers. I have a number and I've started to give them to the next generation, how special but yeah. And so the music is the same thing.

And so yes, I wanted to record my brother's song, not so much for my brother, but for his children. 

Elise Kiely: And I imagine that as people get to the twilight of their career, whether it was musical or business or medicine, whatever it was, and they perhaps in their younger years, high school or college, they played in a band.

Yes. Or they played a musical instrument, or they sang. There may be this desire to pick that vocation, that hobby, that love back up and looking for [00:15:00] a place that can help them do that? 

John McArthur: Yes. And we get that, oh, we probably get three or four outreaches a week from people really who have recently retired or they've come, they've undergone some change in their life and, they've got their business career, but they want to reconnect with their artistic side.

And so we try to help 

Elise Kiely: And they can do that on a project basis. They don't have to sign a long commitment. 

John McArthur: Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: You just want to help be a part of facilitating the expression. 

John McArthur: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's, no I love that, 

Elise Kiely: John, in your long career of being a gig musician and then being in the tech space and now running studios in New Hampshire and now The Studio Portland have you seen a change in the type of people that are coming in to do recordings, whether it be music or voice actors, or has it been pretty consistent? 

John McArthur: I think one of the things that, that, and this changed in a major way is in [00:16:00] the music recording business because there's an awful lot that individuals can do on their own at home.

There are some things that are really difficult to do at home on your own, but the barriers to entry for recording music used to be huge, and now they're not that huge. I don't remember the numbers, but something like 70 or 80,000 songs a day are uploaded to Spotify. Wow. It's crazy.

It's crazy numbers and 125 pieces of musical content are uploaded to some digital platform every day. So a high school kid, or you all even, Sam, our engineer son once turned in a musical project as a homework assignment in high school. And it was, it was a full electronic dance music thing that he had composed on his own.

The full album of electronic dance music, in, in high school. So that's changed. But what hasn't changed, I think, for a lot of people is that ability to give a very. Is the desire to create a very real experience that you get from a live performance. And that's [00:17:00] again, that you can track anywhere, whether it's in your home or your closet or Right.

But if you want that sort of live feel where the musicians are communicating to each other real time. Seeing each other. That's the experience that I had when I recorded my brother's song and a song that I wrote. And that's what I've seen when we had a, an organ trio in here and some of the other projects that we did over the last year, is that ability to create the feel, the honest feel of the music.

Elise Kiely: You know, that's interesting you say that, John, because when I did start sharing with people that I was going to start this podcast, you get lots of advice. Okay. Which is terrific. And I did have some people say, Elise, that sounds like it would be a big investment. You can buy different levels of microphones, you can pop it into your computer and find a quiet space and you could do it on your own.

Editing, software, mixing, mastering, all of that. And I get, that, that could be true. That's a different product. I wanted this is so important to me. [00:18:00] And my brand is important that I wanted it to be the best it could be. And that's it's, I'm far from perfect. And I probably need more sessions with Nancy the voice coaching, but I wanted the pieces that I am not the.

I'm not skilled at those things, and it would take me a long time to learn them. I wanted it to be polished. It was very, that was very important to me. And so there was no question that I was going to use a professional recording studio because I think we should all focus on what we're really good at and lean on the professionals for what we're not good at.

John McArthur: And I appreciate you s you saying that I was gifted a book recently called Buy Back Your Time. And it talks about that transaction that where are you buying the product or are you buying time back? And for someone like you, with the creativity that you have in your business and in your relationships with your clients, are you better at spending your [00:19:00] time investing in those relationships or in learning how to be a podcast or.

Production person. And I'm trying to get more skilled at that of figuring out where I can leverage people to buy back time so I can spend my time on the things that I'm passionate about. 

Elise Kiely: I'm particularly sensitive to that, having spent almost 10 years as a attorney in private practice as a litigator, we have billable hours, right?

So if I took. An hour for lunch or an hour for a phone call with a friend. That was an hour of billable time that I was not making. So I am very attuned to time and how important it is. And there are sometimes when an hour for lunch is great and definitely at times for an hour for a phone call is great, but you have to be intent about that.

And, I think it's very important that we lean on those who are experts and don't try to be experts where you where you're not. 

John McArthur: Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: John, thank you. This has been very helpful, very fun. As we close out, I [00:20:00] always ask some signature questions of people because I think it makes people more inviting and approachable, but you are both inviting and approachable.

Do you mind if I ask you some of these questions? Go ahead. Okay. Wonderful. Where do you see elegance in Maine? 

John McArthur: I have to say the food is amazing. I, with all due respect, I live in a quasi food desert area not in Maine. So I really love coming to Maine from the food. Okay. I have 

Elise Kiely: to ask you, your favorite restaurant in Maine, or one of Oh, 

John McArthur: oh the, yeah.

One of them is Isa, which is three blocks from here. 

Elise Kiely: Oh, that's so good. And relatively new, I think in the last six, seven years maybe. 

John McArthur: I don't even know. Oh, that 

Elise Kiely: was pre you? Yeah, 

John McArthur: it was pre me, so I don't know, but there's so many, one of the best Chinese, one of the best Chinese restaurants around is Empire.

Empire, right up the street. I, again, walking distance and why do people like coming here? Musicians. So there's that. Yes. Yeah. That's elegant. 

Elise Kiely: You, you shared with us the book Buy Back Your Time. Yes. That has been really [00:21:00] impactful to you. I, that, I have to admit that's going to be on my reading list. 'cause that sounds like it.

Like it's very had a big influence on you. 

John McArthur: It has only and recently. 

Elise Kiely: Yeah. Yeah. So this is a favorite song or recording? Is that too hard for you? 

John McArthur: Oh that's really hard. But thank you for asking that. I may struggle with this one because. I have a musician that I'm very passionate about that I actually went to high school with.

Oh his name is Mike Marshall and he played with the David Grisman Quintet which is a jazz five piece mandolin and a few other instruments quintet. But he. I did several albums of charo music, and so it was mandolin doing Brazilian sort of jazz. It's country jazz from Brazil. And so what I also get really excited, and one of the things I'd love about Portland is some of the fusion stuff that's happening here, and maybe at another time we'll go into the more detail on that.

But we've tapped into some African communities where we're fusing their music with some [00:22:00] others. I've got a brass band that I'm hoping to match up to work with them on some Jamaican music as well. I 

Elise Kiely: love that, John. I love how you're just bringing groups together and finding that common thread of music that really can bind people together.

And I think that's what we need. We need more common threads. 

John McArthur: Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I think so too. And at different points in our lives, we think we have to work with everybody or whatever. I want to work with people who want to do good. I want to work with people who want to create community.

I want to work with people who want to help other people. That's my passion. And so whether it's tapping into the, a community from their. Democratic Republic of Congo, or it's tapping into a hip hop community that wants to work with a funk band or it's tapping. I just, I love it when we can put those things together, 

Elise Kiely: together.

That's why that co that the collaborative, the society of 

John McArthur: Creative Pursuits. 

Elise Kiely: Creative pursuits is so interesting because it brings a diverse, I imagine a [00:23:00] very diverse group of people together that have a common bond. 

John McArthur: They do. They do. And they just want to help. They legitimately just want to help each other.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. That's lovely. I love that. 

Elise Kiely: John, thank you. This has been wonderful. I really appreciate your time and your expertise. And again, thank you for helping me make elegant Maine Living possible. 

John McArthur: Thank you, Lisa. Great to be here. 

Elise Kiely: Thank you for joining us on Elegant Maine Living. And remember, if you are dreaming of a lifestyle in Maine or already living it, this podcast is for you.

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And I invite you to take this journey with me. Please share it with your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. I would love a review and welcome feedback and encourage you to reach out with questions or topics you would like to hear about. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or simply an email to [00:24:00] Elise@EliseKiely.com, and all of those links will be in the show notes.

And remember, this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and does not create an attorney, client, or real estate advisory relationship. I am happy to engage. If you have any questions or if I can help in your real estate journey, simply click on the links in the show notes to contact me through social media or email.

I'm always happy to help in any way that I can, and we welcome you to come and explore Maine. Thank you for listening to Elegant Maine Living where elegance isn't just an aesthetic, it's a way of life. Until next time, keep living with elegance.

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Elise Kiely

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John McArthur

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