NME’s latest stars of The Cover, Friko, have compiled an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
READ MORE: Friko are learning how to bring people together: “The songs live night by night”
The Chicago indie-rock duo are on this week’s (January 20) edition of The Cover, a weekly manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read the profile of Friko here, written by Huw Baines and featuring photography by Alexa Viscius.
To accompany The Cover, Friko have curated an exclusive playlist for NME. ‘Chicago Music 2024’ features some of the pair’s favourite artists and releases to come out of their local scene last year, including the likes of The Courts, Joyfriend and Sick Day. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
In this week’s Cover, Friko reflect on the community and connection within their music, which has helped their debut album ‘Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here’ become a sleeper hit in the indie scene. “Playing in this band, sharing this music, and engaging in community is healing for us,” drummer Bailey Minzenberger says. “The goal is to have people feel better walking out than they did walking in.”
Since the record’s release last year, it has organically spread as far as Japan and China, taking the duo to those countries for the first time on tour. “There was an incredible moment in Tokyo when fans were singing along to ‘Get Numb To It!’,” guitarist and vocalist Nico Kapetan says. “But Shenzhen might have been the craziest – just being in China, where we never thought we’d play. No one from our label has played there. It always means more when it happens in a natural way. The only place that we’ve played to crowds that big before was Chicago.”
Find out more about Friko in the full Cover story here and see who else has been on The Cover here.
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