Meet Nick Federinko | Videographer, Musician, and Music Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nick Federinko and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nick, what do you want your legacy to be?

I’ve always been obsessed with creating, since I was a little kid. It feels like a purpose, a superpower/blessing/curse I can’t escape. Whether playing with audio and video equipment, or singing melodies, or putting words together, or attempting to draw, or playing on an instrument, I go crazy if I don’t get to do it, and I feel a satisfaction unlike anything else when I get to do it.

I really want to make something that lasts. I want to help make a song or piece of writing or video that sticks with a person the way so many works of art have stuck with me. In my thirties, I’m probably not going to be MTV famous, if that’s even a thing anymore. TikTok famous is an even longer shot! But maybe I can read a piece of writing on NPR or get a song in a movie, or be the one to make the movie. Regardless of when or how it happens, I have to try. It will drive me crazy if I don’t. And the journey is plenty fun too – I get to make things with my friends! The big break could happen any time in the next forty years, so long as we don’t destroy the planet.

In the meantime, I’ve more than made peace with my day jobs. I love teaching music. I love when a parent sends me a video of their kid singing and playing a song, or when I see a student figure out something on guitar. I love doing nonprofit communications work. I love putting together videos for bands and seeing people get excited the way I got excited the first time I saw great footage of a band I was in. I love any time I get to write, such as right now!

More deeply, all of the above is about taking the things that light my fire and lighting someone else’s fire too. I hope my legacy is making things that really lit people’s fires, oh, and for helping people feel heard, the way I want to be heard. And being kind. As Vonnegut put it, “Damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

Besides playing in like a dozen bands, I’ve been steadily building a freelance video business for some time now.

I really love capturing musical performances, getting the energy and gravitas that hooked me on other videos of bands. Can I capture the magic that made me want to watch The Strokes’ SNL performance over and over? Can I give another band the jaw-drop feeling I got nearly a decade ago, when I first watched pro-shot footage of me playing a show, and it looked like a movie?

Outside of music on video I’m really interested in storytelling. I love showing up for an event or organization, finding someone willing to be on camera, and just asking them, why was today special? What moved you? And then going back to Adobe and editing the video and figuring out how to share that spirit in the finished product. I’ve built those skills up just by doing it over and over, especially in a pre-pandemic wave of inspiration when all these different nonprofits figured out they needed someone to tell their stories.

Eventually I’ll get better at speed ramps and motion graphics and all the must-haves of video content in the 2020s. Or delegate them! Somehow the content creator illuminati haven’t stuffed me in a van, yet.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Cincinnati is so much more than a “medium place”, as Kristen Bell’s character proclaims in The Good Place.

If you drew a graph with an X axis of “affordability” and a Y axis of “coolness”, obviously places like New York or Chicago have Cincinnati beat on both accounts. But nowhere else can you find this particular ratio of “cool” and “not impossible to afford”…for now.

Our parks are a must. I really like walking Eden Park and then venturing up to Mt. Adams on a quiet weekend afternoon. A walk through Ault Park and Burnet Woods will let nature speak to you.

There are tons of little pockets and cool neighborhoods. I still haven’t seen everything there is to see after a decade. I’m really partial to Clifton Gaslight but I’m biased because I work around there a lot. The downtown architecture – again, bang for your buck.

Cincinnati has amazing Chinese food and Indian food, maybe the best in the Midwest. There are infinite breweries. And you best believe we’re getting Skyline Chili.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I stand on the shoulders of many giants! My dad for patiently explaining everything from computer programs to music scales, and for telling great stories.
My mom for impeccable taste in books and movies, and empowering me how to ask tough questions about advertising, journalism, religion, you name it.
Pastor David, Pastor Robert, and the rest of the Clifton folks for balancing faith and reason, toughness and gentleness, peace and justice.
Chuck Klosterman for the bestselling wisdom and the saying, paraphrased, “I own more records than 90% of the world but fewer records than 90% of my friends” – plus Wallace and the Minus Frank gang for being said friends.
The Real Blue Heartache Kids and the Khru for helping me ride out the apocalypse, daily.

Audley for always being down to try navigating the big questions.

Instagram: @nickthefed

Facebook: @nickthefed

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzgOx7uaVu6Qgk_IGwjAU7V4kNHHnAwBs

Image Credits
Kaden Lucas (main photo and first of additional)