Life on the road inspired Chicago band Friko’s sophomore album ‘Something Worth Waiting For’

Friko’s sophomore album could be described as the musical equivalent of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Except that the band’s unending touring journey from Chicago and back again the past couple of years entailed trains, vans, bikes and hot air balloons.

“Life and traveling were the most overarching influences of this album,” explained singer and guitarist Niko Kapetan of “Something Worth Waiting For,” which the band will promote with an in-store appearance at Shuga Records on April 19 and a record release show at Metro on April 25.

Out April 24 on ATO Records, the transient-natured album is carried by songs like the indie mad dash of “Choo Choo,” the pensive charmer “Dear Bicycle” and the soft hum of “Hot Air Balloon,” the latter of which was inspired by the band waking up one morning in an Albuquerque Cracker Barrel parking lot to see the colorful orbs of the city’s International Balloon Fiesta filling the sky.

“We were writing whenever we were home, which wasn’t too much … and it really came from going around the world and the people we’d meet along the way,” Kapetan said. And there have been plenty of opportunities the past few years.

After incubating in Chicago’s DIY rock community, in 2023, Friko was swept up in a wave of national attention on the scene and a signing frenzy of local bands (they’re on the Dave Matthews-founded ATO Records, the same label as fellow Chicagoans Brigitte Calls Me Baby and Neal Francis).

With the release of the genre-bending debut album, “Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here” in 2024 (featuring the hit “Get Numb To It!”), Friko instantly lit up the blogosphere as declarations of “the best of the year” and “a band to watch” poured in. Soon after, the members were plucked from their apartments in Logan Square, Ukrainian Village and Humboldt Park and thrust onto an international stage with barely any time in between to come home and unpack.

In addition to going on tour with indie godfathers The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse, there have been appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza and Pitchfork Music Festival editions in London and Paris as well as an unexpected boon in Japan not unlike fellow Illinois band Cheap Trick did in the 1970s.

“I don’t know if we’re at that level,” Kapetan joked of the comparison to Rockford’s finest. “We got lucky with the first record; it blew up on Japanese Twitter, and we got the opportunity to play Fuji Rock Festival [in July], which opened this opportunity with China and Taiwan, too. We're very grateful,” he added regarding a short tour in Asia in late 2024.

Having these big career moments was certainly nothing Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger expected when the two dreamed up the band after graduating Evanston Township High School in 2018.

Kapetan said the band owes “everything to the Chicago scene and coming up in it. And it’s so cool now that bands like Ratboys and Dehd and Whitney, we’re able to befriend them, because we loved them in high school.”

“There’s just so much good music happening everywhere, all the time, that it’s hard not to be inspired,” Minzenberger added. “If you need a little pick-me-up, you can just go see a show on any given night, and you’re probably going to see your friends at that show.”

It’s how they came upon new bassist David Fuller, who was a mutual friend’s recommendation after original bassist Luke Stamos left, and guitarist Korgan Robb, who had displayed his chops in other Chicago bands like The Courts. Though the two joined the ensemble on recent tours, “Something Worth Waiting For” is the first time the newly inked quartet recorded together, which makes the band “more powerful, in a positive way,” said Kapetan, and also helped them avoid any notion of a sophomore slump.

Further signaling this new era, Friko recently wiped clean its Instagram account. “It wasn't really like a big brain board meeting thing necessarily,” said Fuller, who runs the band’s social media accounts. “We’re not running away from the past. And we’ve archived everything.”

“But there’s a much clearer image with this record and how we present it,” Kapetan said. Like the album’s song material, it all hinges on movement, whether it’s the band’s sonic evolution from chamber folk and indie pop to more noisey fuzz, symphonic leaps and retro-tinged ballads, or the literal movement like filming the “Choo Choo” video on the CTA and hunkering down in a nondescript Midwest field for cinematic counterpart to “Seven Degrees.”

The name of the song refers to Kapetan’s numeric mix-up over the “six degrees of separation” theory. As its profile has grown, the band has vastly expanded its network in recent years, especially a growing friendship/mentorship with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne.

“It was really inspiring being on the road with him. And it kind of gave us ideas of what a future could look like if we give our full heart over to this,” recalled Fuller.

“But the best thing he ever told us,” added Robb, “is that the gods of music are always watching.”