Nik Freitas

Thrasher Magazine, Jan, 2003 by Karma Tsocheff

NIK FREITAS' HERE'S LAUGHING AT YOU WEAVES A FABRIC -- ours slowly unraveling everyday--of human sensibilities into every song. With an ear for melody and clean structure, Nik pulls the music out of his head, giving himself new purpose and giving us new sound in our ears.

Alright Nik, give us a brief history of your musical beginnings.

My dad gave me a guitar when I was eight and taught me to play "Louie, Louie." That's where it started. There were instruments around the house, too. I also spent a lot of time playing drums in high school in a jazz band.

Talk about that one musical mistake made in regards to a drum kit.

I bought my first kit from a car dealer in Hanford for $100--this old, beat-up looking thing. I thought it was a piece of shit, and I wanted to play hard rock, so for my birthday my parents bought me this brand new one and I sold that old one for $100 to some chick. A couple of years later I'm looking through a magazine and found out that set was worth a few thousand dollars--it was a rare type of drum set from 1952, gold metal plates, super small toms. The snare alone is worth a couple hundred dollars.

What about the t-shirts those girls made for you?

Oh no! Yeah, there's a group of girls in Visalia, and they made these t-shirts that say "I heart Nik" and they wear them to the shows and they sit in the front row. My mom wants one.

Does the road make you a good mechanic?

Yeah, 'cause you gotta learn as you go. You remember breaking down all those times on skate trips in that old Consolidated van? 1999 Arizona, remember? And we smelled all that gas? Jackson Taylor was driving and he's like, "Dude, the gas gauge is going down," and we were leaking gas down the freeway. So Alan got under the car and the hose connected to the fuel pump had just come unconnected. It's pretty easy to fix that stuff.

How is the band evolving?

It's good. This was a tough decision you know, 'cause I was playing all the instruments for recording and then Dennis said to get a band together for tour. I knew I wouldn't be able to live here anymore and I knew I wouldn't be able to play with you guys anymore (AM Magic, Karma's band.) I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do this without stepping on somebody's toes.

Speaking of AM Magic...

Aw man, this is personal shit. Does Jake know about AM Magic?

Yeah, I gave him a picture of us playing live.

I tried to hide playing music from Jake for the longest time 'cause I knew he'd give me shit about it, then I saw that picture on his bulletin board and I thought "OK, maybe he's into it..." One time when I was playing drums in For Stars, we were going to play at Bottom of the Hill and I was down at the Thrasher office earlier that day and Jeff Klindt walks in and is like, "Hey, we're gonna go see you play tonight at Bottom of the Hill," and Jake's like "What?! You play in a band? Where are you playin' at?" I said I wouldn't tell him 'cause I knew he'd show up and heckle me. I kept the whole thing about making a CD a secret too. Jake knew I was bummed--my heart wasn't into it as far as my job at Thrasher. Remember when he called me up and had me on speaker phone and let me have it? I had been up all that night before recording in Visalia and it was 2:00pm and I was just getting up--he thought I was just being cracked out in Visalia, not working at all. So I just told him I was coming into the office. There wa s a tour he wanted me to go on and I knew I couldn't. When I got there he knew it when I walked in, I didn't even have to say anything He's like, "What's up Nik? You quit?" And I'm like "Yeah, man. I quit." but it was all good. My heart wasn't in it and he knew.

Who were a couple of your favorite skaters growing up?

Number one would have to be Julien Stranger. You. Salman. Jason Lee, but Gonz has gotta be in there too. So it's gotta be Stranger, Karma, Salman, Gonz, and Jason Lee.

Wrap up.

Thanks to Future Farmer records; my mom and dad--they've helped me out; everyone at Thrasher--Jake, Luke. And Karma for doing the interview.