We recently connected with Nick Testa and have shared our conversation below.
Nick, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
From an early age, imagination and creative freedom has always been important to me. Luckily, I grew up in a household where that was not only allowed, but encouraged. Both of my parents loved and performed music and understood the importance of the arts. The best part to me, we even though we didn’t always see eye to eye on things, they would understand where I was coming from and gave me the possibility of learning on my own. I started playing punk rock when I was in my early teens. My parents didn’t enjoy the songs, but encouraged me to keep playing and keep learning; going as far as driving my first band 6 hours away for a club show.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Over the last 30 years, I’ve worn many hats. I was a janitor, a radio shack employee (shackist in the biz) a dj and many more small jobs. The whole time I was playing music. I found a local community of DIY rock shows in Dayton Ohio and that’s when I fell in love. Because of those shows I have met all of my closest friends, and made connections that would show me 4 different continents. In my twenties I toured as a guitar tech for a handful of popular bands at the time. I formed my own band, Nightbeast, around that time with my closest friends in the Dayton area and still play to this day locally.
A few years ago, after some traumatic events, I decided to try to give back. I’ve since been working more and more in the non profit field. I have been a song writing teacher at an after school program, a mentor at a substance abuse prevention camp and most recently I work for an organization making meals for the food insecure.
I’ve been married for ten years now to my wife Jaime who I met in 2009. She was one of the main reasons I stopped touring, and one of the best decisions I ever made. We have a 9 year old son with whom I’ve been writing music, we hope to have our musical out before he graduates.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think the best way to support creatives is to show up, be there for them. Not in a patronizing way but encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing. I think art can be the best way to exorcise any kind of feelings and show your true self. Allowing people to be their genuine selves, as long as it’s healthy to them and others, would make everything better in life.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being a creative is seeing creativity brought out in others. I know how it makes me feel to be creative it’s my favorite feeling in the world. I hope the next person can feel the same thing in their own way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @nightbeastband