Friko: 2026

When Friko first visited Studio A in September 2024, the Chicago band was riding the release high of their debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, a record that landed sweet slots on a slew of best-of lists and kickstarted a wild streak of summer touring that took them around the world — even time-traveling from Japan back to Rhode Island to play both Fuji Rock and Newport Folk Festival in the same weekend. 

Friko’s sophomore album is a product of that hyper-mobile period. Something Worth Waiting For is a transit-themed record in the literal sense, with mentions of trains, bicycles and even hot-air balloons, and the metaphorical, featuring themes of expansion and escape.

This is music that moves you: energy-packed tracks in which singer and guitarist Niko Kapetan seems to be wringing every emotion from his body, finishing each song with his feelings on the floor. While Friko's debut was, in classic indie fashion, a DIY labor of love — recorded with friends, on the cheap, over a long stretch of time — for the second album, Friko enlisted Grammy-winning producer John Congleton, known for his work with Mannequin Pussy, the Mountain Goats and St. Vincent.

This record is also the first written and recorded by Friko in their current formation: Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger were joined by bassist David Fuller and guitarist Korgan Robb, band members who accompanied Friko on the road and then made the natural transition from the stage to the studio.

If I were to interpret the last album's title as a question — Where we’ve been, Where we go from here — the answer would be back to WFUV. A year and a half after their first visit, the foursome returned for live takes of their new tracks. 

For this FUV Live session, recorded the week before Something Worth Waiting For's release, the band served up three new songs: “Seven Degrees”, “Choo Choo” and “Certainty,” the latter which Niko bounced and belted from Studio A's piano. 

I was stoked for another opportunity to sit down with Friko, and in a one-on-one interview, Niko discussed writing on the road, magic record-making moments and the ways he and his bandmates work to create a sense of home for one another.