Nick Miller
Youngstown, Ohio
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” ~ Steve Jobs
Interactive Director at iSynergy. Engineer/Producer at The Studio. Founder of MQC. Fiancé. Father. Musician.
Not necessarily in that order…
At age 16, I was hired as a web assistant at Nashbar. Within a year I took over as the Webmaster, where I spent two years helping to build out their custom eCommerce solution that stocked more products than Amazon had books at the time. It was an amazing experience where I got to learn from some of the most brilliant and open-minded developers that I had ever seen up to that point.
It was right around this time that I started pushing harder with my love for music and live performance. But I digress… 🙂
I continued to cut my teeth in the advertising and marketing space at Marcus Thomas – where I spent over four years developing cutting edge interactive solutions for companies such as Alltel, Dunlop, Goodyear, the Cleveland Browns, Pfaltzgraff, Johnsonite, and Glidden.
I spent the next 11 years working as the Interactive Director for PALO, not only selling their solutions, but leading a team to build out interactive experiences, e-commerce solutions, and custom programming solutions on an enterprise level for clients such as Parker Hannifin, the Heritage Plastics, Talmer Bank, the Pittsburgh Airport and DRS – to name a few.
In 2006, I opened my project studio – Retroactiv Studios – up to the public and began to record and produce everything from rock, country, industrial, and hip-hop/rap music to radio spots and cartoon voice-overs. I ran the studio successfully for almost six years until I had to shut it down due to moving and not being able to offer an easily accessible space out of my new home.
In 2014, I met up with an old friend who introduced me to FPV (First Person View) flying and I was hooked. I started an online community to help educate mini quad (drone) pilots on proper build techniques and safety procedures, which quickly grew into the world’s premier online forum for drone pilots – the Mini Quad Club (MQC). We now have a group of over 10,000 pilots and drone racers helping to keep each other in the air, with a social media network over 50,000 Followers strong.
My passion for design and manufacturing quickly took over, and MQC Airframes was born. We design and prototype high-quality airframes right in Ohio in our workshop, along with a full line of 3D printed accessories.
I create things at iSynergy under the title of Interactive Director, helping clients realize their analog dreams using digital technology. Our team uses collaboration and creativity to breathe life into client projects, focusing on perfection, and ultimately delighting each and every customer. WE LOVE WHAT WE DO! And loving what you do is the key to success!
I got bit by the music bug again and worked out of Above Reality Studios until they closed and in late 2018. I now work out of The Studio in Youngstown, Ohio. Some of my services include recording, mixing, mastering, beat creation, duplication services, music video creation. You can see what I’ve been up to on Facebook here and follow me on Instagram.
Personal Life
Let me start off by saying that I am the luckiest man alive. I have the most loving, supportive, intelligent, talented, and beautiful fiancé that I could ever hope for – and three amazing girls that I have the pleasure of getting to raise… and it’s all because of music.
I’ve played many special shows over my musical career. I had the pleasure of touring for almost a decade with some of this areas greatest musicians, shared the stage with dozens of national acts, and even had the pleasure of showcasing multiple times for major labels. Those were some amazing shows – yet none of them turned out to be as important as the ones I played in 2017 with Ctrl + Alt Rewind.
We performed our Chris Cornell Tribute at Party on the Plaza in September of 2017, where I happened to lock eyes with a girl in the front row who was smiling and singing along (and pounding Coors Light Tall Boys, I might add). It turned out that she had been friends with most of my friends for over a decade – yet somehow we had never met. We spoke for a few minutes after the show and I instantly felt that we had a connection, so I did what any man would do and got into my car and drove home. I was nervous and figured there was no way she would ever be interested in a divorced musician with a teenage daughter (even though she is incredibly awesome!).
The next day I stalked (I mean “found”) her on Facebook and sent her a message. We started chatting and It turned out that we had a lot in common.
A month and a half of lunch dates and text messages followed, and then we played a Halloween show at Cedars. I’ll never forget that night as long as I live. I was nervous when she walked into the room. I was even more nervous when she followed me outside to the patio. I looked into her eyes, closed mine, and we had our first kiss.
I left the show that night with blue lipstick on my face, and a new sense of hope for the future.
The days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and before we knew it – we were living together and had fallen madly in love with one another. In August – I proposed to her on the beach at Hilton Head and she said yes. We will be getting married on Halloween in 2020, and I couldn’t be more excited! 🙂 #MillerHallowedding2020