Read on Twitter
This one goes out to @WeTalkofDreams, my one true musical love. You hear me @rustyquill? You hear me @VictoriasLift? @WickedLibrary? @ShadowsatDoor?
#NicoAndTanner4E
#NicoAndTanner4E
In all seriousness, Nico. I want to thank you for nearly 5-years of service. If I had a gold watch to give you, I would give you two. In total you have produced well over 100-hours of music for over 100 individual projects with Satyr Productions, The Portland Pod, and MFF.
If you'll stick around for a moment I'll tell you the story of Nico. For all of you who might be interested because he would not tell it himself.
I met Nico in December of 2015 after working with @PaoloPuggioni on some artwork for @lmawpodcast (defunct). Our productions were tip top, but music was missing - I was using stock, it didn't fit the material. I hated it.
When I found Nico he was working as, or had just quit working as, a cook/chef. He was unhappy and had decided to do something no adult man wants to do. He moved back in with his parents (who are dear-hearts in every sense) to focus on "becoming a professional composer."
He was charging peanuts - and after having peanuts left after working with @PaoloPuggioni (whose art is worth every single peanut - see attached) I decided, after hearing his talent (even then, in the beginning it was obvious) to hire him for $300USD/mo.
Nico would go on to score two years of podcast episodes which covered over 100 individual stories spanning dozens of world cultures. His ability to find ancient and time-period-specific instruments and implement them so adeptly into my narration was, in a word, magic.
While Nico developed his horror skills with Dan Foytik and all the @9thStory productions, and then eventually began learning suspense-driven compositions for podcasts like @tcfcpod and @CanadianTCpod, I always kept him focused on culture-driven music...
My hope was that through the forced exposure to dead, foreign, or lost/forgotten cultures, Nico could spread his wings and avoid the potential of being pigeon holed into a specific genre before he got the opportunity to be "discovered" outside of podcasting.
In 2018 when I founded @portlandpod, I began sending him production work for corporate productions and for podcasts well outside anything "fun." To date he is singly responsible for the music of more than 50% of the podcasts I help produce.
And this is to say nothing of the Mythosymphonies he scored for me. Theseus, The Argonauts, Beowulf, Perseus - or the Soundscapes he built for larger scale audio and video productions. #TheListGoesOn
I've said it to him many times privately, though perhaps not so succinctly, and I feel compelled to say it now publicly: Nico Vettese is one of the most singularly gifted, driven, hard-working, kind, humble, beautiful people I have ever known or I'm sure ever will.
To see him go from English country boy, who struggled sometimes to keep the faith in his dream and in himself, to what he is today, and to have played a role in that transformation, has been the greatest personal honor of my life.
I'm proud of you, Nico
/end
I'm proud of you, Nico
/end
