Daily Inspiration: Meet Nate Flaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Flaks.

Hi Nate, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York and my family was very musical. My grandmother & father both taught me piano and I was writing songs from a very young age. In high school I got really into film, making short films with friends and frequenting the IFC Center in the city to see the latest indie film releases.

I wound up going to Berklee College of Music thinking I would combine music & film and pursue film scoring, but quickly found that role wasn’t for me. Instead, I stumbled into a student-run Sound Design club (called the Sound Design Network) and immediately fell in love with all things post-production sound.

The following year I became president of the Sound Design Network, but I wanted to get more experience as one myself, so I got a mentorship that summer (of 2015) with a Sound Editor in Brooklyn named Gene Park. What started as coffee runs quickly evolved into sound editing shorts, then features. By the end of that year I had worked on three features (“Always Shine”, “Dreamland”, “The Intervention”) that all went to major festivals (Tribeca/Sundance). I had just turned 20 and thought that this was the path when, more or less out of nowhere, I wound up in the pop music industry.

Through a chance encounter with Halsey (who imparted incredible advice and encouragement) and a decade-long collaboration with a producer named Noah Longworth McGuire, I wound up performing/songwriting as half of a pop duo called Sleeping Lion. It was an awesome experience that defined my twenties – we played sold out shows, wrote songs with up-and-coming artists every day, traveled the world, built a modest fanbase, started a podcast, and released dozens of songs (with millions of streams).

Then the pandemic hit and everything froze. We had been going non-stop with the music game for so long, I hadn’t really evaluated whether it was still feeling right for me. I hadn’t entirely abandoned sound design/editing either – over the years I had continued to work on short films by friends who were starting to level up in the film industry. I felt my priorities shifting as the music industry itself shifted during the pandemic. I had just started living with my now-fiancee, we got a dog, and suddenly I wanted a happy life with her (and a yard for the dog) more fervently than I wanted to play arenas. All the while, TikTok (and, on the horizon, AI) was changing how music was being written and discovered in a way that felt unsustainable in the longterm for me.

I wound up pivoting out of music around 2023 and I started working at an audio software company called iZotope, working on a product called RX (the industry standard in audio repair software). At the start of 2024, through encouragement & support from friends (shout out to Austin Olivia Kendrick/Russell Goldman) and my fiancee, I put together a post-production sound/music team called Hitchhiker Sound. Bringing in the expertise of Jack Weiss (re-recording mixer/dialogue editor), Max Berlin (composer), and Lucas Fehring (music mixer), I wanted to create a full-service post-production sound/music company that resembled many of the collective/co-op structures I’d seen in music and approach the film industry with fresh perspectives.

My good friend Charlie Curtis-Beard was the showrunner for a Peacock show called “The Warehouse Phase”. I was brought onto the show both as a screenwriter (co-writing episodes 102 & 104) and the supervising sound editor. With Jack Weiss as the re-recording mixer, Austin Olivia Kendrick as the dialogue editor, and Max Berlin as the composer, Hitchhiker Sound was in business.

In October of 2025 we opened our first studio (Hitchhiker Studios) in Santa Monica!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The pandemic and subsequent pivot out of music – that was probably the most challenging period for me. I feel like I got extremely lucky in my early twenties by having a number of opportunities (both in film & music) that helped me get my footing and establish myself (while generating a degree of financial stability).

Not only was the pandemic financially challenging, it was also this real priority shift that forced me to confront what was actually important to me. I drifted from my main collaborative partner of a decade, lost a number of friends, and lost my love for the music “game” that used to make me feel excited & inspired.

It really felt like starting over, making new plans, and seeing who was still around to collaborate with me in this new way. I was so grateful to find film friends with awesome projects to work on, support & mentorship from members of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), and the enthusiasm & trust of the Hitchhiker Team.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Broadly, Hitchhiker Sound is a full-service post-production sound/music company – that means that we can handle all things pertaining to audio in post-production. We do sound editing/design (creating/cutting sound effects), foley (footsteps/clothing), dialogue editing (cleaning up production audio), ADR/VO/loop group recording, music composition, music mixing, and re-recording mixing (blending dialogue/sound/music).

While I’m a solid dialogue editor and re-recording mixer, my preference is to be the supervising sound editor. This means I both cut sound effects (building out ambiences, sweetening production audio, syncing sounds to picture) and help oversee the logistics/hiring of the full sound team. I love putting together a team and working with directors/producers/studios to bring a project to life both creatively and logistically.

Hitchhiker Sound is unique in its structure – we have an unwavering commitment to supporting filmmakers & sound editors alike. My intention is to run Hitchhiker Sound like a collective/co-op, allowing the team to easily share projects and incentivize collaboration instead of gatekeeping. While many companies only focus on scaling up, I want to be able to scale dynamically – a win in my eyes would be for us to work on a big blockbuster film/hit TV show while simultaneously taking on a director’s first indie short. I see Hitchhiker Sound as being a place where great editors can come for supplemental work between projects, independent solo sound editors can say “yes” to bigger clients (by having access to our facilities/team), and new sound editors can be trained with fair compensation.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think, especially compared to the music industry, that the film industry is incredibly resilient. Right now is a time of tremendous uncertainty with the advent of AI, shrinking budgets, and projects leaving Hollywood, but I think it’s also shown how powerful the collective actions of the industry workers and unions can be. As I write this, LA city council is passing legislation to make LA more production friendly and there is a post-production tax credit bill that’s also gaining collective traction. It’s been so inspiring to see how supportive and communal people in the film industry are – they are committed to fighting for a better future and my hope is that more people will join them as time goes on.

As for sound, I believe our side of the film industry is still in early days of broader recognition. Film is such a visual medium and sometimes it’s hard to appreciate great sound in a film (or, if it’s effectively fixing a problem, even noticing it’s there). Dolby Atmos is still considered a “premium” feature in theatres and most decent sound systems in homes are still prohibitively expensive. All the same, people are beginning to understand the ways great sound can elevate films/shows and some recognition is starting to form around this community of sound artists. I’m excited to HEAR the future of immersive audio and more intentionality in incorporating sound into projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hitchhikersound.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nateflaks
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateflaks/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4sBiA3ARQSDSGUqI2mbWgf?si=pKTDbQHDSJqBTTvD9Gt8fQ