The Quiet Stroke

First, Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. launched his solo career. Then, Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti started the band Little Joy. Now, Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture is strumming away on acoustic guitar and singing lead vocals as Nickel Eye, with a new album, The Time of the Assassins, out on Ryko. (Yes, Henry Miller wrote a book of the same name.) Gentle and private, his speaking voice almost a whisper, quiet Nikolai is easing into his studly frontman role. 

“It wasn't easy, but even in a band you have two different personalities. You're not really yourself on stage, so adjusting to that takes time,” says Nikolai before a Montreal, Canada show on a frigid winter night so cold that neck warmers and ski boots are as essential as clean socks and scotch whiskey. 

While inevitable Strokes similarities show up in Nickel Eye’s song structures and melodies, this humble acoustic folk-pop is looser and more honest, if less catchy. Pleasantly melancholy and delectably grim, the album's strength is its simple storytelling feel. When juxtaposed with indie rock hooks and earnestly jaded sentiment, it's as if slick New York urbanites have accidentally traipsed back in time (like, in a van) to sing for their suppers. 

"It's certainly more stripped down," says the 30 year-old father of two, himself raised on the Stones, Beatles, and Dylan. "We have less loud guitars, and it's more lyric-oriented." 

When The Strokes went "on hiatus” two years ago, Nikolai started messing around with his own musical ideas, which "developed and progressed over time." He found a shoebox full of poems he’d written while travelling across the U.S. at age 19, and worked them into songs.  He didn't necessarily plan to make a record, "but we kept having time off from the band so I started putting things together and finally we had an album," he says. "I don't really know where it's going, I kinda just do it and see what happens." 

Alongside members of British band South, whom Nikolai met through his London-born wife, he hit the studio. (The band’s touring line-up is a little different and includes The Moldy Peaches’ Steven Mertens.) New York musician Regina Spektor plays piano on “Where the Cold Wind Blows,” and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs guests  on "Dying Star."  

"We were hangin' out one night at a bar talking about music and he said he was also collaborating and doing other stuff outside his regular band. So I mentioned what I was doing, he came by the studio, and it worked." 

Now, Stroking aside, Nikolai and his compadres are back in the trenches from whence they came: back in the van, playing small shows, and paying their rock 'n' roll dues. They drove overnight through snowy, upstate New York mountains to arrive in Montreal for the first gig of this tour. In a few hours, they'll perform in a small, sweaty neighbourhood bar where fans are so close they can touch it if they want to. 

"It's actually fun if we don't do it for too long," says Nikolai about his full-circle trajectory back to small clubs. "You can have a more intimate relationship with the crowd and the people. In bigger venues you can feel almost like a machine, you go straight to your dressing room." 

The Time of the Assassins closes with a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," and coincidentally, Nickel Eye are kicking off this tour in Cohen's hometown -- actually, just a few snowy blocks from his house. Though Nikolai has always been a big fan of Cohen's "music and words," the cover was another happy accident. During a recording session soundcheck, he played the song, one of his favourites, and it sounded good.  

His biggest inspirations, though, are his kids, aged four and one. “When I started this, my daughter was my only fan,” he laughs. “She had to listen to a lot of terrible stuff!”