The KDIC recording studio was a fitting place for my interview with Hayden Suarez-Davis `25, someone who has been instrumental in making the show part of Grinnell College’s culture again. “I’ll probably be here all night,” he said, as our interview wrapped up.
Suarez-Davis’ commitment to music, media production and technology didn’t start at Grinnell, though. He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and later moved to Indianapolis. In middle school, swimming and technology dominated Suarez-Davis’ time.
“I built my own desktop computer when I was in sixth grade with the help of my middle school art teacher. I was always interested in computers and general technology,” he said. In high school, this interest translated into involvement with technical theater and music. Suarez-Davis helped run his school’s daily assembly, started a student music festival with one of his close friends and did recording work for a band started by some of his peers.
At Grinnell, Suarez-Davis’ extracurriculars look similar to his involvements in high school. He has assumed leadership roles in Grinnell Concerts and KDIC, and has taken on the behind-the-scenes technical responsibilities of many campus events and productions.
“The thing that I first got involved with on campus was actually the swim team,” he said. For all four years, he ran the high-tech system for the pool.
Suarez-Davis got involved with Concerts a little bit later during his first year. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that Suarez-Davis was not just joining Concerts but reviving the entire organization.
“The first show that I really worked on was Magdalena Bay,” he said. “I went into the show not really knowing anything about the space, not really knowing anything about the equipment, and the equipment hadn’t been used in like, two years because of COVID. And so, we went in, and it was kind of a mess, and I sort of slotted in and helped out. I helped reprogram the speaker processor, helped mix the show, and I had a great time. It was a really great performance.”
This marked the beginning of Suarez-Davis’ investment and dedication to Concerts. He would go on to work nearly every show that came to campus, doing not only the booking, but the behind-the-scenes technical work of the shows themselves. The highlight of his time was the Japanese Breakfast concert that happened in the Harris Center in the Spring of 2022.
“I didn’t really anticipate how much I would be involved with that show,” he said. “I basically ended up being the point person for the band … But it was great. It was awesome.”
Suarez-Davis chose to step back from Concerts in the beginning of his fourth year. “I didn’t want to be the guy who comes in and oversees a bunch of equipment that’s purchased and then sort of leaves, and no one knows how to use it. I wanted to ease it in, so that other people could get involved.”
Suarez-Davis has used his fourth year to help further revitalize another fundamental part of Grinnell College audio culture: KDIC radio, as the Studio Manager. The station had been off air for about four years before Georgia Carbone `24 and her staff brought it back during Suarez-Davis’ third year. “I think student radio is super important,” he said. “It’s not necessarily unique in the way that Concerts is, but it’s something that I think really makes college, college for a lot of people.”
Suarez-Davis found, in his extracurriculars, an intersection of his two academic focuses: a major in history with a concentration in digital studies. During the summer before his senior year, he did a Mentored Advanced Project researching Georgia Dentel, an influential figure at Grinnell College who enriched campus culture and was responsible for booking many concerts during her tenure from 1960-2001. “The main thing that I did,” Suarez-Davis said, “in addition to helping with the oral history aspect, is cataloging a list of concerts.”
Suarez-Davis sees this sort of project as a way to celebrate a part of Grinnell College’s history. “We have such unique cultural history of music, of films, of traditions like Tithead or Relays or whatnot, that are really, really unique and interesting and fascinating, and I think should be celebrated a lot more.”
Suarez-Davis is excited about the prospect of graduation. He plans to move back home and continue to look for jobs in the music industry, hoping to end up in New York City or Chicago. He hopes Grinnell College will continue to support the cultural practices and institutions that he has dedicated so much time to.
“I hope that the College continues to, you know, celebrate and lift up organizations like The S&B, like KDIC, Concerts, things that make student life on this campus important,” he said. “Because, you know, I’m an example of someone who probably would have transferred if they didn’t exist.”
