Getting Candid with Friko [INTERVIEW]
We’re getting candid in our interview with Friko.
Friko is the duo Nike Kapetan and Bailey Minzenberger hailing from Chicago’s long lineage of DIY and indie rock music. Their debut album Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here came out earlier this year and sees the band merging elements of post-punk and chamber-pop and experimental rock. The band is headed out on tour across the U.S. with Royel Otis this fall and will also be headlining in the UK later this year.
We talk to frontman Niko about how he and Bailey collaborate as multi-instrumentals in the songwriting process, how the band is setting out to make the world a better place through music, and how Niko is challenging himself to write more honest lyrics that encapsulate the highs and lows of life.
Listen to the full interview with Friko on Name 3 Songs podcast and find a transcribed excerpt below.
Name 3 Songs: All right, so kicking things off, you are based in Chicago, you grew up there. It’s a city that’s quite famous for having this DIY, underground rock scene. And for a lot of artists, the place they grow up or the place that they live is very influential in the type of music they make. How has being in Chicago has shaped you as a musician?
Niko: Even when I was young I loved going down to the city and it felt like such an adventure. And I was even in middle school, that would be a very inspiring thing for me when I first started writing songs. But when we really got into the scene around like 2019, everybody was so immediately welcoming. And as time went on and we met more and more people, there were people who were three or four years younger than us to then five or six years older than us. Everybody was making good music and just being nice people.
And recently we got to play with Dehd at a show in Nashville. And I’ve been a fan of them. I saw them at the Empty Bottle when I was like 16, opening for Hinds. And then just hanging out with them after the show the other day. It’s definitely the Chicago way being nice and just cool about things.
Being in a place that’s such a music hub, do you feel like there’s a mutual inspiration from being around other musicians and pushing you to be more creative?
Definitely, cause when I was in high school, me and my friends listened to Dehd, Whitney, [etc.]. So we definitely were fans of bands in the scene and now being friends with some of them, it’s just very cool.
Having a local music scene as a backbone is a really beautiful part of music, especially when you’re from a major city. Because it can be hard to find those people that you have things in common with. How have you been able to take part in that community? Do you feel like that is a big part of what has made making music more fun for you?
It kind of gives a point of pride, you know. Like good pride where it’s something to believe in something real and honest that you can put yourself towards. Like other people that have the same mindset doing the same thing, it does kind of just motivate everybody.
And like last night we had a barbecue and some people from a couple other Chicago bands were there as well. It’s just a really nice, it’s a cool thing to have. And I’ve always loved growing up reading and seeing videos about bands and their local scenes, whether it be like Minneapolis and New York. I think it’s a really cool thing to try and represent a city and represent it well.
Yeah, and with your debut album, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here, it feels like you’ve really tried to encapsulate the sound of Chicago DIY because there was the goal of the record to have it sound live and part of it was recorded live. And so I’m curious, was this production something that you went into knowing you wanted to bring this Chicago DIY sound into it? And what was the reasoning behind wanting to make this like a live record?
I feel like unconsciously, just playing in the scene and listening to the Chicago bands that we did, that played into the album. Once it came time to make the album, it was definitely a larger plethora of a bunch of different bands that we liked and what we were listening to at the time. And then being in the studio the best feeling that we got with some points on this record. For the next one, I hope we can capture this in its entirety.
But with the first song Where We’ve Been when we recorded that, it was like so completely live and the vocals from that live take and it just felt like [what we wanted to be doing.] Cause a lot of times when you make art, it feels like you’re doing something that you’re thinking so much about and you’re like, this doesn’t feel like an actual adventure. I’m outside myself. But when you can do it and it feels actually live and that can be on recording, that kind of makes you… I don’t know, it makes you feel alive in that way in making art that doesn’t happen very often.
Interesting. Yeah, it’s like these two different modes of music as an expression, like being in a studio and writing music [vs playing music live]. I feel like what you’re getting at is that it can sometimes feel very clinical, whereas performing live, especially if you grew up performing, there’s an energy that’s so different than recorded. Did you feel like you were trying to encapsulate that energy and bring it into the recording?
Yeah, I feel like we discuss a lot, you know, like what type of music that we want to go for and the type of music that we don’t want to go for. For us, just that really live and genuine and scrappy kind of energy that we bring to our live show, put it on recording is just, it’s unique to us. And so to put it on the recording just makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is one of my favorite records of the year, if I’m being honest. There’s so many elements here that I find really beautiful. There’s kind of like this lyrical and sonic storytelling woven throughout the album. And the songs vary a lot between heavy distortion, the gang vocals, but then also these piano ballads and strings. To me, it feels like there’s themes throughout that make it part of a sonic tapestry. Was this something that was intentional for you in the making of the record?
We’re pretty eclectic in our taste and we love the really quiet singer-songwriter stuff. We love orchestral stuff. We love the loud distorted rock stuff. And I think there’s a crossover for all that stuff. There’s a certain space where that all crosses over. And we just like to explore that. And I think we’re gonna keep trying to refine that going forward and how those things can be refined and brought together. Because there’s been strings with loud rock bands before and there’s been the soft to loud thing – that is what indie rock is – but just trying to make our own take on that.
What what was exciting about being able to play with all these different elements?
I think it was just feeling like doing something more unique. Cause we love just straightforward fun indie rock, but like for us that’s only a part of it. Like we want to stretch what that is for us. And just like with strings too, like strings are just always so fun to arrange, especially when you’re not in an orchestra doing anything. When you go to record strings for a song, it always just feels so magical.
And you have to limit yourself because you can end up doing too much and that can get corny real quick. We had Macy Stewart, who’s a Chicago staple, do strings on “For Ella”. And we had a basic arrangement, but eventually we just let them start building takes on the violin and they were just, take after take just building just lines and it was just, yeah, it was amazing. It’s just amazing to see that.
Listen to the full interview with Friko on Name 3 Songs podcast available on your favorite podcast platforms.
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