Pooneh Ghana
A close-up of Friko.
Friko
From the sound of their current work, it’s easy to see why Friko’s dynamic sound has been making waves. The Chicago-based two-piece has the rare ability to channel a sonic grandiosity while tapping into deep and emotional lyricism. Their sound feels epic yet intimate; anthemic yet personal — in a way that translates to an energetic, charged live show.
At the tail end of an eventful year that’s included stops at South By Southwest, Summerfest, and Bonnaroo, Friko will bring their explosive sound to the High Noon Saloon on Dec. 10. And the band is poised for an even bigger 2024. Their debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here is due out in February.
At the heart of Friko’s success is the friendship between members Niko Kapetan (vocals/guitar) and Bailey Minzenberger (drums).
“I feel like I think of things conceptually, as a whole, and you’re good at building on top of that,” Kapetan says to Minzenberger during a Zoom interview with Isthmus.
Minzenberger and Kapetan attended the same high school in Evanston, Illinois. Although they were in the same music theory class in high school, it wasn’t until after graduation that their paths first crossed. After releasing Burnout Beautiful, a collection of demos Kapetan had written in high school, he began gigging as Friko at local venues. Kapetan also played with Minzenberger and their mutual friend Jack Henry (who helped produce Where we’ve been, Where we go from here) in their band. “I could tell Niko had an amazing ear. There was an unspoken feeling between us,” Minzenberger says.
A blend of post-punk and chamber pop, Friko emerged out of Chicago’s burgeoning DIY music scene in 2019, alongside indie peers like Horsegirl and Lifeguard. “The community in Chicago is so kind and welcoming,” Minzenberger says. “Right now, a lot of the music and some of my favorite song lyrics are from my friends, which is pretty exciting.” After they started booking gigs at The Empty Bottle and Schubas Tavern, they released Whenever Forever, a five-track EP, in 2022.
Kapetan and Minzenberger have a shared reverence for Romantic-era classical music — especially Chopin’s nocturnes — which is interwoven in the DNA of their sound just as much as artists like Elliott Smith and Leonard Cohen. They note that classical music can reach similar emotional heights as a good rock song. “We’re not ‘deep cuts’ classical people, but we love the hits. It’s just a natural thing — we both love the beauty of it and the intensity. Rock gives us the same feeling in a lot of ways,” Kapetan says.
The nine tracks on Where we’ve been, Where we go from here were written on guitar and vocals first before Friko arranged each to create a fuller sound. As multi-instrumentalists, Kapetan and Minzenberger don’t always have defined roles. With the help of former bassist and founding member Luke Stamos, they would cover different instruments if it meant creating a more complex, eclectic sound. “We want the songs to have the intimacy and intensity of a three-piece but with a lushness that sounds huge,” Kapetan says.
That huge sound is evident on their lead single, “Crashing Through,” in which Kapetan’s grungy guitar and Minzenberger’s drumming coalesce to form an incendiary wall of sound, accompanied by Kapetan’s affecting vocals. The track crescendos to an anthemic climax, featuring ensemble vocals from various friends of the band, who contributed to multiple tracks during the album’s live recording process.
The duo says that to give Where we’ve been, Where we go from here the sound they were looking for, it was important to capture a live sound that feels more honest.
“I’ve always thought, especially with indie rock, that if a band can be really messy and it’s still incredible, that’s how you know the songs are good,” Kapetan says. “That was kind of my ethos with recording the record, too. If we’re going to record these live and we’re messy, and it’s still great, then we know the song’s good.”
