Interview: Friko

Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana

Interview by Robin Sheng

On March 8th, I spoke with Friko frontman Niko Kapetan before their show at the Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts, discussing the band’s songwriting process, influences, and new music in the works. Known for their distinctly emotional and expressive style of indie rock, Friko is currently on a headlining tour across the US stretching from February to May this year.

Robin Sheng (RS): So, this is, I believe, your second time at Boston in the past year?

Niko Kapetan (NK): Yeah.

RS: So how does it feel? Does the air feel any different this time?

NK: Uh, this room is awesome. It’s more our size. We played the House of Blues last time, which was really fun. Yeah. Um, this size of venue though is more our size for sure.

RS: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. So are you guys doing anything different today from last time?

NK: Uh, we’re playing a lot of new ones.

RS: That’s cool.

NK: Um, that, and we were four-piece last time, so.

RS: Oh, I see. And today you are …… a three piece?

NK: Oh, we’re four-piece still.

RS: Oh, I see.

NK: Yeah, just new songs.

RS: That’s cool. Speaking of your new songs, do you feel that working on these songs Do you feel like your songwriting process is different now compared to when you made your debut album?

NK: Definitely. I think when we did that one, I would mostly finish the vocals. Like vocal and piano, vocal and guitar, whatever. I’ll have less of a finished idea now when I bring it to them. It’s more collaborative.

RS: Yeah, I see. Something I really liked about your debut album was how even though it’s very eclectic in style, it still feels very cohesive as a whole. So I was wondering, what was the process behind deciding the track sequencing of the album? How did y’all put this all together?

NK: So these songs were written and recorded over like a couple years, so a long span of time. Um, once we got to the last 50 hours of stuff, of finishing it, mixing it, um, is when it kind of really took shape. where we’d been, the song was actually maybe going to be at the end of the record, the last minute we put it at the top, um, and yeah, we just wanted to feel like a full experience. You know, to have something for everybody.

RS: Yeah. Um, another thing I really enjoyed was the noise in a lot of the songs. I feel like they were layered really well. I enjoy the soundscapes a lot. Um, how did you guys create these noises and what was the process behind deciding where should the noise go?

NK: Yeah, I mean, the sound thing before “Chemical” was actually like, it was me just tapping on my guitar and open tuning and the mic was just really hot. Other things where I was just taking feedback segments and putting them in more intentional ways.

RS: Do you think you’ll be doing the same recording process in the future as well?

NK: I think, I mean, with how we made this last one, this next one we’re definitely gonna do in a short, condensed way. Like how an album feels like you should make it. Cause we made it this way over such a long period of time out of necessity.

RS: I see, yeah.

NK: It’s a studio that we are able to use for free. This time we’ll be able to go into the studio for a few weeks and like, make a record, like, in that time.

RS: And are you excited for that?

NK: Very. I mean, new songs, we love playing the ones that are out, like, especially like new groups of people in different cities. But the new ones are definitely like, very exciting for us.

RS: Another thing I really like about your music is the complex emotional qualities and all of the lyrical contradictions where it feels like there are contrasts between purposefulness and purposelessness or like between staying and leaving, for example. So what was the general process behind writing the lyrics?

NK: I mean, especially like once I got halfway through the album, my favorite way to write the lyrics is definitely to get a musical idea, and then from there, words kind of just come out. Like turn the brain off and they come out. That’s not an easy thing for me to do, but it’s the only way for me to really write good lyrics. ’cause I can’t consciously write well in any capacity. So I kind of rely on being able to do that.

RS: Well it’s turned out very great. Are you inspired particularly by any musicians or any other form of media in regards to lyrics?

NK: I was listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen and just a lot of lyrical writers at the time. ’cause it was Covid too. So I was just listening to more downtempo music relative to now, focusing on how you take that and then make a louder and more raucous song, with that as the core. Like that lyrical feeling thing at the core of it.

RS: I see. That makes a lot of sense. So, in your expanded edition of your debut album, there is a cover of “When You Sleep” by My Bloody Valentine. How did that come about?

NK: I just had a TASCAM 4 track and again, it was COVID, and I was learning No Name No. 3 by Elliott Smith on guitar and then I was like, this is similar to When You Sleep’s chord progression and so I was like, Oh, I want to combine them and see how that sounds, and I liked how it turned out. And yeah, I love both of those songs, but it’s kind of a combination of the two.

RS: Do you think My Bloody Valentine’s music had a big impact on your music and you as a musician?

NK: Definitely. Yeah, the fact that you can be that loud and it could be so beautiful, that’s definitely something we are always trying to balance.

RS: Yeah! Also in the expanded edition of your debut album, there is a song with Bailey on lead vocals. Will we be hearing more from them on lead vocals?

NK: Definitely. Definitely will be at least one song on this next record – we’re gonna make sure that happens. You’ll hear them singing a lot tonight and always.

RS: I’m very excited for that.

NK: Did you meet them?

RS: Yeah, I met them just outside. They were heading out for a smoke, I think. Do you know that y’all are really popular on r/indieheads?

NK: Oh, yeah, yeah, I’ve seen some stuff. Sometimes you look at Reddit and stuff.

RS: Yeah, that’s actually how I discovered y’all.

NK: Oh, cool. I love Reddit. I think a lot of good stuff comes out of there.

RS: Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. I find so much cool music on there.

NK: We met the guy who runs it, or has been running it for a while, because he’s come to our past two Raleigh, North Carolina shows as well. He’s a very nice dude.

RS: That’s really cool. Do you have any other interesting fan stories to share?

NK: Fan stories? Uh, once we made a whole setlist, we had this inside joke about changing all the song names to have gnome in them, like Crimson to Gnome, like Crashing Through is Gnoming Through. Really stupid shit, but we did that on the setlist all the way through, and one of the fans grabbed the setlist and was just like, what is this? What the fuck is this? And we were like, sorry, we were just fucking around.

RS: Yeah, that’s really fun. So far, what is your favorite crowd that you’ve played?

NK: I mean, New York? Chicago is always a special spot because it’s hometown, but New York was really great last night, we’re all still kind of fucked up from it and again just exhausted. DC, we played on a Monday night this tour and it was absolutely insane, for whatever reason. For whatever reason. We’ll see tonight too, I honestly have a good feeling about Boston.

RS: Oh yeah, me too. The concert’s here are …… yeah, yeah for sure. And finally, I feel like you probably get this question a lot but do you have any tips for upcoming and aspiring musicians?

NK: I mean one thing we always say is just try to have fun. I think that if we’re not feeling like we’re having fun in any type of way, we don’t really ever play a good show. We don’t have a good performance or on recording. you have to put in a lot of work. It’s not always going to be fun. But you have to tell yourself, especially when you’re in performance mode, you have to make this fun. Especially like right now, all of our voices have kind of been fucked over by some really annoying colds in the past week.

RS: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.

NK: And last night we got no sleep. So, we were kind of just like, all right, well on tour you make do ’cause there’s nothing you can do about it. So just have fun.

RS: All right. Thank you. Thank you so much.

NK: Yeah, thank you Robin. I appreciate it.

This interview has been edited for clarity.