“From there I went to college for about three weeks,” he laughs. “It wasn’t for me. Some of the people I met through shows were internationally touring bands; and I started going out with them, selling their merch, fixing guitars and playing.” He worked as a guitar tech and played with Billboard-charting rock band Hawthorne Heights. “I got to see the world and met so many people.”
Testa plays guitar and sings with NightBeast, a high-energy, pop punk band, which has been together since 2011. “Getting into independent music is really what got me anything that I have now. It’s how I met my wife, all of my friends, it’s how I got any job.”
Life on tour shifted when Testa met his wife, Jaime. “I decided that was something of substance, something I couldn’t find on tour. That was it for me, I didn’t want to tour anymore.”
“The only way I could make money (with) music here was DJ’ing. I’ve done that for 13 years.” Testa DJs on weekends at Hole in the Wall in the Oregon District. His favorite music to play is “throwback stuff” with a “happy, high tempo.”
Testa, 41, lives in Washington Township with Jaime, who runs the Renew Boutique at the Cancer Center at Kettering Health Network, and their 10-year-old son, Harvey.
Credit: Will Smith
Credit: Will Smith
SOUND + VISION
“One of my biggest identifiers is that when my glasses are off, I am legally blind. It’s genetic. My mother, grandfather — completely blind. Two of my sisters have poor vision as well. I have a nerve atrophy. The messages from my eyes to my brain don’t get through. As soon as the sun goes down, I’m legally not allowed to drive.” Testa’s vision issues have intensified his sense of hearing and contributed to his love of music.
CAMP MARIPOSA
“I decided to do something to help people and my own mental health. I work with the program Camp Mariposa (part of East End Community Services on Xenia Avenue). That is a substance abuse prevention camp for kids from 9-17. They all come from homes with addiction, be it parents or siblings, in different stages of recovery. Some are no longer with us, some are in prison, some are in foster care. Most kids do not live with their families.”
JOURNEY TO NONPROFITS
“From there I was delivering meals through East End (Community Services), which would become Miami Valley Meals, where I work now. Miami Valley Meals is a team of chefs who used to work at Citilites at the Schuster Center. During the pandemic, they put this together with House of Bread. We make (meals) from recovered or rescued food (and) distribute them to different organizations like East End, different churches. We have 50 active partners and make around 4,500 meals a week.”
CATCH THE BUS
“I get up at 6:35. I get Harvey up. He takes a little bit of time to get up, he’s not necessarily a morning person. I get him on the bus by 7:30.”
MIAMI VALLEY MEALS
“I go to work at Miami Valley Meals. It takes about 25 minutes to get there. It’s on the corner of Washington Street and Edwin C. Moses.”
“We make different food every time; we don’t know what we’re going to be serving. We’ll get a palette of chicken one day or a gigantic box of squash. Our biggest donator is Gordon Food Service. Every other Wednesday, we get a truckload of food that they couldn’t get rid of. We get a lot from the Dayton Food Bank as well, every Tuesday. The chefs figure out what they can make with what we have in dry storage and in the freezers. It’s usually hardy meals and all the different food groups.”
The food is distributed all the over Dayton area: to Fairborn, Trotwood and Moraine.
COOK & DJ
“For the first couple hours, I help cook with my chefs; and they’re the best. One of my other jobs there is I have to deejay and play the kitchen music. From 10 it’s pick-up time. That’s when the organization will stop up to the window; I’ll take the food out of the freezer and get it to them. Our frozen meals are on bread racks, which weight about 30 pounds (each). A lot of our people are volunteers and elderly, and I don’t want them to have to lift heavy stuff.”
CARL
Testa has “3½ jobs.” He leaves Miami Valley Meals at 2 to go walk a dog in the Oregon District. “Carl is the dog’s name. Carl is the best. He’s an American bulldog.”
QUICK SCHMOOZE
“If I have a few minutes I will stop by Toxic Brew Company or Rebel Rebel Tattoo, ‘cause that’s where my best friends work. Just a little familiarity before I go get Harvey off the bus.”
DIVIDING FRACTIONS
“First thing is homework, as much as I can do, because it’s always math and it is getting hard. Math is different now. They’re dividing fractions, and I’m done with that,” he says with a laugh.
KEEPING SHARP
Testa has a music studio in his basement. “Before Jaime gets home, I give myself 45 minutes to an hour and a half of studio time. I have to do it to keep sharp, and it’s my time to decompress. Whether it’s NightBeast music I’m working on, or a jingle, or I’m just messing around and playing guitar.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
JINGLE JANGLE
“I was just on a gameshow. It’s called ‘We are Family’. It premiers January 3rd on Fox. I flew to Atlanta for 18 days. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. There were 100 people in the cast and they’re all influencers and content creators. That is not my wheelhouse, but I learned that I could make music for them, so I’ve been writing jingles. I would love to do that (more).”
SHORT-ORDER CHEF
“Then Jaime gets home, and I have to cook dinner. She’s a much better cook than I am. But she also goes to school and when she’s done with work she has homework, and she’s had a long day. The problem is we all eat different things. Starting in July I started a serious diet and lost 55 pounds, so I eat high-protein, low carb. I’ll cook something for her, for me, and for Harvey, and by that time it’s 9.”
‘BEAUTIFUL, TERRIBLE PEOPLE’
“Maybe we’ll play some video games together and hang out. We play with her family online and it’s really fun. I’ll watch a movie or TV. Jaime and I have been re-watching ‘Vanderpump Rules.’ It’s awful. It’s beautiful, terrible people. We watch it and laugh.”
THE PARTICULARS
NightBeast plays HoliDayton, Hawthorne Heights’ annual show at The Brightside, on Dec. 29.
We Are Family, a reality TV gameshow, premiers Jan. 3 on Fox with Nick Testa as one of the contestants.
To find a list of Miami Valley Meals’ Distributing Partners of local food pantries, visit this link or miamivalleymeals.org for more info.
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