Friko are finding joy in the journey

In the wake of its success, the duo were ushered into the limelight, heading out on an extensive run of shows that took them across the US, Europe and Japan for the better part of two years. Now, with their touring guitarist Korgan Robb and bassist David Fuller onboard as full-time members and Friko returning as a fully fledged quartet, the group’s second album Something Worth Waiting For feels like an album that’s been deeply informed and affected by their experience in transit.

“I think that David and Korgan joining the band and then us all starting to write and arrange together felt like such a natural step,” shares Minzenberger, reflecting on the decision to expand their lineup. “I mean, the four of us just got along so well and it was kind of an instant fit, personally and musically. I think when you're good friends it translates into the music almost immediately.” Nodding in agreement, Kapetan adds, “it was really nice to have four people, like everybody was just giving their all the entire time and cared so much.”

As a band, Friko radiate a warm sense of camaraderie that pools within their second album. For a group oft-praised for their dynamic approach to songwriting, Something Worth Waiting For leans into the explosive, youthful vigour of their debut, still brimming with their penchant for experimentation but polished by a sharpened eye turned inward. As the four-piece travelled cross-country from venue to venue, they found that the nature of touring itself gave them ample time to write and reflect. 

“A really interesting thing with touring [is] it kind of has to be about the journey and not the destination,” Minzenberger shares candidly. “I think one of the most fun parts about tour is getting to play shows, but… 95% of what touring actually is is driving and spending time together and loading in and out. So much of it is not actually music-related… you kind of have to be present and enjoy every single moment as best as you can, because that's just what touring is – it's just movement, you know?” 

For Kapetan, he notes that the mental effort to enjoy the present while in perpetual motion wound its way into the new record. “Sometimes it feels impossible to do that on tour because you never get to actually see a city,” he admits. “So a lot of, you know, especially like the lyrics [do] end up being directly about that. A lot of times it's like you make art to be something that you want to be yourself.”

Looking to the experiences that influenced Something Worth Waiting For, Minzenberger points to track “Hot Air Balloon” as a song drawing directly from their time on the road, and one that weaves together the harder parts of tour with the magic. “There were a few tours where we were sleeping in our van a lot and we would sleep in Cracker Barrel parking lots,” they start. “We woke up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and it was maybe 6:30 or 7 in the morning and it was the hot air balloon festival. You sit up in the back of the van – and you feel like you just slept in a van – and you look out the window and it's just hundreds of hot air balloons over the red and the blue of the Albuquerque desert. It was really, really beautiful.” While the track itself finds the band homesick and dreaming of floating away, there’s also a glowing appreciation of these shared, unexpected encounters in the imagery.

When it came to condensing their experiences to an album’s worth of songs, the quartet spent a month refining their material and then headed to LA to record with Grammy-winning producer John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Mogwai, St. Vincent). On their process, Kapetan explains, “we left a lot for the studio with arrangement and what we might add on top of our live performances, but structurally for the songs 90% of it we had ready for those two weeks [in the studio] because two weeks is not a lot of time, especially for the kind of music we make.”

Notably, Friko value the recorded sound of a band playing live together, a notion evident in the heightened energy both of their albums are steeped in. “A lot of the spirit we went into [recording] with was very similar to the first record,” Kapetan muses, nodding to the band’s shared desire to “capture the joys that we feel and perform with and not do one thing at a time where it ends up not feeling like a band.” 

When asked how the process differed with their debut, he laughs. “That was like sheer emotion at every turn because we’re a really emotional bunch. We were doing it with our friend Jack Henry who we love and is also extremely emotional in an amazing way. I think that's what I love about that record, it was just us,” he gushes with a palpable fondness. “We were constantly trying to climb, like trying to get somewhere. We didn't have money from the label yet, it was so hard to get time to go and record, mix, etcetera… The first record was definitely all gas, no brakes.”

Turning again to the making of Something Worth Waiting For, the pair admit they found a welcoming contrast in Congleton’s approach. “He’s not really an overly emotional person, he’s very direct,” offers Minzenberger by way of explanation. “There would be times where we would do a take and we would ask him how he felt about it and he would just kind of very dryly and straightforwardly be like 'that was good, let's move on'. I think making music and making records can be such an emotional thing, [so] having somebody respond in that way that was very definitive. It kind of gives you space to just trust yourself and trust the process and to just not be overly emotional about it, you know? I really appreciated that.” 

In agreement, Kapetan adds, “it was an incredible experience because he's someone who is so just outwardly himself and such a unique person. He's so funny, but also so wise… it feels honest and warm from him, but he's very straight up which works great for us.” For the band, both approaches have their place, with Kapetan grinning: “Both ways we did it I wouldn't change for the world, there's reasons to do both."

Now reflecting on the past two years, it feels only natural that the brightest moments for the band are the ones shared on stage. As Minzenberger deftly summarises, “playing shows and feeling the energy from the band to the audience and back and forth, you know, it's such a palpable and shared experience, and it's just a moment where everybody can kind of just like, let go.” Musing on music’s ability to connect people, they continue: “choosing to be in the band and choosing to play shows, it's such an investment in relationships. You have an opportunity to create these really beautiful strong bonds and meet so many different people every day who are so excited about art.”

With the release of Something Worth Waiting For around the corner, the pair muse what they hope fans will take away from the new record. “I hope the same thing as they did with the first record, just in a different way,” considers Kapetan. “In the way where it's like you find the reasons to get through all the hardest times that they're living in, because that's what I used music for my whole life and that's always the final goal.” Minzenberger pauses before agreeing, “I would definitely hope for that as well, but also I think I'm not really hoping for anything in particular, just because individual relationships with individual records are so different for different people. So I feel hesitant to say something specific. I guess just that they find solace in it in some capacity.”