Nick Harrington shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Nick, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
I work a full time job as a software engineer from 7am-4pm. After work varies depending on the day. I do Aikido 2-3 days a week, band practice once a week, and guitar practice on nights when I don’t have to go anywhere.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Nick Harrington, founding guitarist of Nightshadow, a power metal band based in San Diego, CA. I’ve been playing guitar since my junior year of high school. After starting with hard rock, I was introduced to power metal in college and it became my entire musical inspiration. I wanted to create a band that played music that I personally like to hear. I tried to start the band when I was still in college, but with class schedules changing quarterly, it just wasn’t feasible. After finishing college and moving to San Diego for work, I attempted to get the band going again. After about a year of searching for members, we finally debuted in July of 2016 and have been active ever since. We’ve opened for some of the biggest international power metal acts, such as HammerFall, Rhapsody of Fire, and Angra; as well as other well-known acts, such as Marty Friedman, Flotsam & Jetsam, and Exmortus. We released our debut album “Strike Them Dead” in May of 2021, and we’re currently working on a new EP.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
This happened my senior year of high school, after I’d been playing guitar for a while. There was a guy in my guitar class who had been playing longer than me, and naturally, was much better than me. We had had an interesting relationship. We started as friends in 7th grade, and then as we moved through middle and high school we didn’t talk anymore, and he wasn’t exactly friendly towards me during that time. He wasn’t really hostile, just a bit of a jerk sometimes. Anyway, after playing in the guitar class for a while and improving a lot, he acknowledged my playing abilities by asking me to play at a live performance. It was a really good feeling. I guess you could call that burying the hatchet haha.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I believe that you learn a lot more from failure than you learn from success. Not that success doesn’t teach you anything, if you do something and it works out, you remember it for next time. Failure does the same thing, but the feeling is much more intense, and because the feeling is more intense, you definitely remember not to do that thing again. Those moments of failure are powerful teaching tools. You can either let it get to you or, you can look at it as a learning opportunity. If something doesn’t work, try something else!
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yeah, it’s probably pretty close haha.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Absolutely. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do with any endeavor.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightshadowofficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nightshadowmetal
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nightshadow3537
Image Credits
Ethan Wick, Eko Pratama, Felipe Machado, Flo Li
