Nick Sylvester
Nick Sylvester
Personal Life
Sylvester is married to ESPN journalist Mina Kimes.
Education
He graduated from Harvard University.
Career
Thus far in his career, whether as a journalist or musician, he has a way of expressing his voice by pushing the conditions of the medium in which he uses to get his art, or opinions across.
Predominantly a musician, Nick has reviewed music for some of the most prominent online Music Publications associated with mainstream indie pop music of the 2000s.
Journalist
Nick is one of the first writers to review albums and other music for Pitchfork. He was a part of its Masthead until he resigned. He also wrote for other publications, one of them being, The Village Voice.
Music reviews
In the mid 2000s, during the time of eminence for the music review site, Pitchfork, he wrote several reviews for bands and acts. Some of the artists include: Man Man, Death from Above 1979, Love Is All, Lil Wayne, Soulwax, and The Roots. He is the one who gave The Advantage one of its first features, and on Pitchfork.
Fabricated Story
In early 2006, Nick wrote a story for Village Voice titled, "Do You Want to Kiss Me?”, which takes aim at the New York City nightlife and so-called Pick Up Artists. The story became a cover story that many condemn for its misrepresentation of the people that he writes about in the story.
The reaction Nick received was negative.
He was asked to resign by Pitchfork, and Gawker went in to chastise his efforts as a journalist trying to break boundaries. Ultimately, as he says,
"There was a pretty gross misunderstanding when I was a journalist about what I was actually doing, and I was pretty unceremoniously asked not to be a journalist anymore."
Since the days of the mid 2000s, Nick has started a record label and followed the path of his passion for music.
He has continued to write for few publications, some times related to music.
Music
Nick is a music producer who works with many punk rock artist, but has a penchant for dance music.
He is also a drummer and collaborator.
He created a music label for fun, but after his resignation as a journalist, he started taking it more seriously.
Through his label he has been to release several albums and music for several bands and musicians.
Mr. Dream
Nick once formed part of a post-punk/indie rock band called Mr. Dream, based in Brooklyn. The trio recorded an album called, Trash Hit.
GODMODE
Around the time of the fabricated story fiasco, Nick Sylvester founded GODMODE, his own personal record label he started for fun in Brooklyn.
He has produced the music for "Football For Amateurs", a video game by The Colbert Report's Rob Dubbin.
He is also designing a delay effect unit based on the Realistic Electronic Reverb circuit.
In 2014, he discovered musician Shamir, 18 years old at the time, and he took him under his wing. At the time, Shamir was recording music on his own using analogue tapes and emailing people/labels trying to get them to listen. He was living in Las Vegas and had the urge to move to Arkansas, until Nick responded and loved what he heard. The two began collaborating and creating music together that they both love and enjoy - mostly dance pop. Nick helped him release his first official EP titled, Northtown.
Shamir is now a sought after act in the festival circuit, and has made people's heads turn in the music industry.
Shamir's first album, Ratchet , was highly acclaimed and praised. Pitchfork named it one of their "Best New Albums" upon its release in 2015.