Giggling my way through superannuated UI interviews, I stumbled on a rather serious, introspective doozy from good ol’ Nickel Eye. That’s right boys and girls, it’s time to Flashion Backward and fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. So let’s check out Nickel Eye’s Nikolai Fraiture’s perspective on the grand institution of institutionalized religion.
Nickel Eye, one of the offshoots of The Strokes’ hiatus, (Fraiture is the seminal band’s bassist, of course), was spawned when he stumbled upon an old box of poems and bitchfests he’d written over the years. Collaborations with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regina Spektor ensued, resulting in a “mellow affair steeped in folk and pub rock and ska.”
Fraiture’s music may be “mellow” but his POV on life–though delivered in his laconic, downbeat, Lower East Side cool boy drone–is decidedly assertive. As a former altar boy, dude is deeply familiar with guilt and its soul- and creativity-crushing powers.
Much like his extended break from Julian Casablancas and Co., it seems Fraiture’s escape from ominous omnipotence of The Church has helped him attempt to simultaneously bust out of the “nice quiet one” niche life carved out for him. Below, you can see him straining (appropriately enough, in a totally sizzling-looking but gotta be uncomfortable suit) to break through the final chains that bind him.
As many a critic has counseled, Fraiture obviously has insane talent–he’s already let that much out of the bag. Now he just needs to let it run screaming out into the open, Julian, Albert, et al be damned. (And while he’s at it, continue to loosen his overly tight collar and let his hotness and style run amok. Amok, amok, amok!).
TOPICS: Flashion Backward, Kathleen Willcox