Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Goodrich.
Nick, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
For me, everything began with picking up the saxophone when I was in 6th grade. I always had a fond appreciation of music, but it wasn’t until then that I learned how music really connects people and can be such a powerful and expressive way of communicating. Multiply that by about 1,000 when I got to high school and started playing in the marching band with some of the most talented musicians in the state!
During those days of marching around the football field in the 100° Texas heat, my best friend Nick Spurrier and I started Lindby, the band we both still play into this day. And I know it’s only rock ’n’ roll (and jazz, funk, nerdcore, electronica, etc.), but I like it! Being in a band taught me so much about perseverance, practicing, patience, penmanship (because you have to be able to read all those lyrics you scribbled on that napkin), and lots of other wholesome, useful skills, not exclusively starting with the letter “P”!
When I entered college at the University of Texas at Arlington, I knew I wanted to continue on with music, but I also wanted to start branching out from what I had been doing. I decided to pursue a degree in music media, and after two years playing in UTA’s jazz ensemble, two years singing in the A Capella choir, and seemingly endless hours spent in practice rooms, rehearsal spaces, recital halls, and recording studios, I finally graduated summa cum laude. Huzzah!
After graduating, getting married to my wife Katie, and entering adult life with reckless abandon and fantastical whimsy, I once again found myself branching out into other creative fields and endeavors. I always loved seeing how design worked its way into everyday life, so I began to study those skills as well as HTML & CSS code. To my delight, I found that everything functioned a lot like music does at its very core. Another huzzah!
Fast forward almost five years. After intensive studying and working in the design field, I’ve been able to work on all sorts of projects. From video and music production to motion, interactive and visual design, I’ve been able to have my hands in a variety of ventures, and it’s been a blast!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been incredibly blessed in my life, and as the psalmist says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” The road has been both smooth and bumpy, but I’m here, right? I’ve made it through this far and I’ll keep doing my best as much as I can!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Goodrich Studios – what should we know?
Though music remains as one of my greatest passions and has informed my work ethic and creative process more than anything else, in more recent years I really have fallen in love with telling the stories of things and seeing how those stories fit in with how we perceive our daily life. Right now I work as a video & motion graphics designer and handle all of the audio we capture and receive for the pieces we create as well.
In between video projects, I am able to pivot and work with teams on global projects to help create designs for applications, as well as flesh out the user experiences for the people who will be using the apps. Graphic design, branding, User Interface & User Experience design – all of these are skills and proficiencies I have picked up over the years while working in the design field.
Dungeons & Dragons! I am the engineer, editor, and producer (and a player, too!) of the musical D&D podcast, “bomBARDed.” Check out http://bombardedcast.com if you’d like to learn more, but basically, my dear friends Ali & Kyle Claset, Nick Spurrier, and I (who are all members in Lindby) perform on a musical D&D show where we play as bards attending a bard school (yes, very meta, for sure). Each episode requires extensive music cues, sound design and effects, and since we write and perform a song each episode, the editing, and mixing of an original song.
So between readying an episode every two weeks to meet our deadline and all of the other things I’m working on for work, I keep myself pretty busy!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I would have to say that the ability to quickly learn a new skill and put it into practice has been absolutely invaluable to me over the years. From figuring out a new part on an instrument and being able to lay it down in a recording session to learning new prototyping software in order to demo a new application design, being willing to constantly adapt to where you find yourself in any given situation is indispensable to me.
Image Credit:
Walt Burns, Melissa Claire Photography
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