Music
Sitting in his home in Laurel Canyon days after releasing his sophom*ore album, Sunburn, Fike seems at ease. What continues to set him apart, even at 27, from many of his celebrity counterparts is his refusal to engineer a public persona. During our conversation, he playfully downplays his charm with self-deprecating humor.
The album is arguably his most honest work to date; a heartfelt ode to his hometown of Naples, Florida, and a window into the people, places, and belief systems that gave him perspective along the way. Fike’s story is a loving reminder that as drastically and quickly as your life can change, what matters most is remembering where you come from.
[Originally published in office magazine Issue 20, Fall-Winter 2023. Order your copyhere.]
DOMINIC wears SWEATSHIRT by MADE BY MENA, SHORTS by 3MAN, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN
Was there a moment in your adolescence in which you thought “Okay, I want to do that,” or even “I could do that”?
You know when you’re a certain age and you snap into consciousness and that becomes your first memory, like everything before that you might as well have been a fetus?
Yeah, for sure.
My earliest one of those was kind of sexual. It was funny. I opened up one of my mom’s CD books — she loves R&B, especially women leading that sh*t, but I remember opening it to that album where Lil Kim is like sitting down and it was just a view of her back and her legs and giving it to my mom. She put that into her CD player without thinking about it because obviously she loved it. I recall it playing through the speakers and hitting me and realizing what was going on, and using my facial expressions to convey the emotion. That was like a big flipping of the consciousness switch for me.
Then, I don’t remember whose house I was living in at the time, but at some point as a kid I’d sit in front of the TV and eat cereal with these other kids and watch MTV videos back when they would always have music videos and performances going on. I thought that was so cool. I remember Eminem came on stage to perform “My Band” with D12 at one point and he looked so goofy rapping. I just thought about how fun that looked and that maybe one day I could do that. It’s funny how that was the moment, because it’s just a f*cking parody song. It wasn’t like I saw the Beatles live or some sh*t.
At what point did you start playing guitar?
I went through a darker phase as a kid, when my mom was hanging out with the richer people in Naples and drinking a lot more. Those people get f*cked up, man. They drink hella wine and I’m pretty sure they all swing. I’d imagine that they all get drunk and f*ck each other. You know, that kind of sh*t rich people do when they’re bored and all they have is wine and Jimmy Buffett?
They used to play a lot of Uncle Kracker, songs like “Dancing in the Moonlight,” which by the way is a great f*cking song even though I've heard it a million times outside of every bar in Key West. I would hang around them because obviously I’m with my mom, waiting for her to go home so I could go to sleep. And I always had my guitar with me; they would ask me to play a Led Zeppelin song or something by the Eagles, so I took it upon myself to learn them so that when an old ass drunk man would ask me to play, I could get him to shut up. That’s when I really got into those classic rock bands. People in Naples really respected those guys. I didn’t really care for them growing up — musicians like Don Henley and Paul McCartney — because none of them ever looked like me, but their melodies were instilled in me so I continue to listen to them throughout my life.
DOMINIC wears PANTS, SHORTS, MESH TOP, LONG SLEEVE TOP, HOODIE by GIVENCHY, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (left)
DOMINIC wears SKIRT by DUALITY JUNKIE, THERMAL by GUESS, SWEATER by LOEWE, JEANS, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (right)
How did you bridge your early influences to the rap sensibility that flows through your projects?
In high school people were shocked that I didn’t listen to rap music. Other kids would tell me that I’d have a hard time relating to anyone there if I didn’t. Then I got my first iPod and Limewire came around so I really explored and figured out what I liked. I listened to a lot of Lil Wayne and Emimem, and other rappers that were really good with lyrical strategy; Eminem was good at making sure that vowels weren’t too close to each other.
As well as a lot of my mom’s favorites like Usher, Omarion, Mario, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey. Of course Biggie … and Puff.
Those videos you mentioned, people really paid attention to them. Looking good was as important as sounding good, and MTV made it more immediate. How do you deal with that now?
I think that I’ve done a great job of laying it all out there and that honesty is going to set the tone for the rest of my career. I won’t have to worry about creating some kind of story or maintaining an image. With honesty, all that other sh*t goes out the window, giving me time to focus on what matters and is bringing people together, which is the music I’m making.
Where were you when working through this project?
A number of places physically, and honestly I started the record pretty f*cked up mentally. I was addicted to a lot of different substances at the beginning and had to take some time to get myself together, but after about a year, I was able to finish the songs, taking them where I initially imagined, and finding myself here now.
Now that it's out in the world does it feel like you’ve expelled the experiences and emotions that went into the record?
Realistically it is an old album, considering I made the songs a long time ago and they’re just coming out now, but I feel that it’s a little too early for me to actually treat it like an old album. I would say that the release has taken a lot of pressure off. I was stressed out the days leading up to it, because it had been such a long period of time since I had dropped any music. I was worried that it would flop, but putting it out there took all of that stress away and so far the reactions have been positive so that’s nice.
To me, there’s a clear upward trajectory from your demos to What Could Possibly Go Wrong to this tracklist. You continue to draw from very personal experiences, yet transmute that into lyrics and sonics that are universally relatable.
I agree. I think it's a step up no matter how you look at it.
Even if people don’t relate to the subjects exactly, the sonic narrative draws people in. You don’t even need to understand the words. It’s almost seductive in that way, like something by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Ramones.
DOMINIC wears SWEATSHIRT by MADE BY MENA
That’s something about music that has always excited me. The subjects that I decide to tackle may not always be super relatable, but you can always expect a message to be carried through the sonics.
I think that I’ve been good at writing lyrics and leaning into the sonics with them, making sure that there’s some kind of collaboration between both.“I’m Sick” is a good example, because it’s like a revenge song with a very playful backtrack. It’s a weird juxtaposition that I think drills the message in that nothing is ever that serious, which is another theme that I have been trying to hold on to through this chapter of my life. It was even the last lyric in my last album: “Don’t take that sh*t too seriously.”
Has there been a growing pressure to take yourself seriously once you became someone that people were actually paying attention to?
There wasn’t one at first, that kind of developed later on. When I started reading articles and tweets about myself on the internet, that’s when the pressure really settled in, but I’ve since been able to ground myself and always try to remind myself that, again, nothing is ever that serious.
What was it like seeing yourself on a TV show for the first time?
Nerve-wracking! It was literally my first time acting and I didn’t know if I was going to be sh*t on from all angles or not, but people were pretty receptive up until that guitar episode. I always say that you do what you can and just put your best foot forward when possible. I actually rented out a theater and invited a bunch of my friends and people from the show to watch the premiere and realized that I do not like seeing myself act no matter what, even if people tell me it’s good. I was in this movie that just dropped, Earth Mama, and I haven’t even seen it yet.
I have to go do ADR right after this, which is basically when you overdub the audio of a movie and I can’t stand watching or hearing myself when I do. Once I walked out of this ADR session I did and David Schwimmer came in at the same time as I left and was like, “The acting is phenomenal man” and I’m there thinking the complete opposite.
[Laughs] That’s sick. What goes through your head when rewatching?
I’m just like, “Look at this stupid face, this stupid guy right here, like what are you even doing?”
I feel the same way when I listen to something like my own voicemail! It’s such a weird feeling. Do you try to approach acting the same as you do music?
Ideally, it would come from the same place, but sometimes it comes from a more jaded area in the brain. I'm just like, “Ok, gotta look cool … make sure your eyes are okay, make sure you're breathing properly.” “Do people blink like this … when they're saying these words?” It can be super vain and self-analytical, but when it’s done right, I feel like it’s pure just as with music.
You mentioned earlier how the experience of making music can feel ephemeral to you despite hours passing. There’s also this childlike whimsy — maybe the word is openness — throughout the album that makes me wonder if there’s an age you defer back to when you write.
That’s a good question. I’d say that a lot of it addresses current themes that are taking place in my life right now, and then I sort of use bits and pieces of the past to string it all together. Except for a song like “Ant Pile”, which is definitely written about high school. That one was almost like a writing assignment in which I wanted to tell a story. I think that was the only song that I consciously made a decision to reach back and pull from the past.
The title track, “Sunburn”, seems to thread it all together into one coherent narrative. Do you mean it literally when you say, “When I die baby, lay me in the sun”?
“Sunburn” is really an ode to Florida, like when it’s all said and done, that’s where I grew up, where my moral compass was developed, and where I want to be when it’s over. I mean, not super literally, like when I die, bury me in Florida no matter what, even if I’m living in Little Canyon. But that’s where my heart is, those are the people that raised me and I’m sticking to that.
Does your mom like it?
She loves it. I called her like ten minutes before the record dropped, and was like, “Man, I think people are gonna f*cking hate this sh*t mom.” I made it so long ago, I started having doubts that it was a good time to drop it, like I missed the mark or something, but she was very encouraging and told me that it would be fine.
She’s honestly been so supportive throughout my entire career, although the amount of time we have to spend apart is a bit saddening. That being said, it’s still such a step up from the life that we lived and I imagine that she’s very proud. I know that if I had a kid I would want them to do what they have to do, as much as I may want to hang on, be around and love them.
DOMINIC wears JUMPSUIT, GLOVES, COAT by SAINT LAURENT, GLASSES by JACQUES MARIE MAGE, HAT is VINTAGE, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN
Could you have imagined any of this? Releasing your second album, preparing to go on tour.
I mean, like, I wasn't super young thinking to myself, “Okay this is what’s gonna happen and this is how I’m gonna do it”, but the closer I got to it, the more I could see it as a possibility. However, I never imagined something of this scale. I always thought that I’d be like an artist’s favorite artist, or something like that. More like Daniel Johnston than someone with any actual commercial success.
I wasn’t hyperfocused on artistic integrity, but that eventually became the backbone of what I was doing. I just wanted to make music that sounds like this because I hadn’t heard anything like it. I knew that I had to make it myself. The closer I got, it became more unexpected and so much bigger than I first imagined. You have to dream bigger, I guess, which is an odd thing for me because I just wanted some bread and some listeners and I would have been good, but I feel like there's so much more to do now.
I guess that’s just the way life goes. What’s your next move now?
Just as I’ve released this album, and am preparing to go on tour, I’m sitting here worried that this is the end of my career, you know? I still have no idea how it goes every time, which can be rewarding, but is also sometimes very stressful. To answer the question, I have no f*cking idea what’s next. I mean, I don’t even know what's gonna happen the day after next, like … a lot can happen in an hour.
DOMINIC wears FULL LOOK by GIVENCHY (left)
DOMINIC wears JUMPSUIT, GLOVES by SAINT LAURENT, HAT is VINTAGE, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (right)
I wasn’t hyperfocused on artistic integrity, but that eventually became the backbone of what I was doing. I wanted to make music that sounds like this because I hadn’t heard anything like it. I knew that I had to make it myself.
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For Emma dj, Music Isn't All That Serious
How’d you get started making music?
A friend of mine showed me Ableton. It was a cracked version so I couldn’t save anything. If I wanted to start a new song, I had to close it, which meant deleting the music that I’d made. When I felt the track deserved to be recorded or saved properly, I would write what I was doing on a piece of paper, and then I would do it again, but it never really worked. Eventually, I got the normal version — which was also cracked, but that one worked.
How has the club scene changed since you first started going to club nights in Paris?
When I started going out as a teenager 15 years ago, there was a lot of bloghouse. Only a handful of the artists from that era made it mainstream and the others sort of vanished. The ones that became popular, I kind of drifted from sonically. People associate me with the club scene here, which I’ve accepted. But around that scene, there’s a lot of stuff I just don’t identify [with]. Club producers essentially have very similar career goals, and there’s naturally a lot of jealousy, frustration, and phoniness in that scene. In the scenes that I feel closer to personally, there’s less animosity, less competition. Everybody’s doing their own thing and truly supporting each other’s work.
What was it like transitioning from creating on your computer in a really private space to performing live?
I don’t feel [like there’s] any type of transition, to be honest. Especially when it comes to djing. With live performances, I feel more stress naturally as I’m performing my own productions, usually in more institution-type venues and events.
When you say “too popular,” do you mean in terms of the style of the sound or was it more about the community around it?
Like, Justice made an incredible debut LP. And there’s nothing wrong with the stuff they’ve put out since — it’s really impressive — but it feels less iconic and fresh as CROSS still is. It was targeted at a bigger audience. I’m not hating on the fact that it became popular, but it was sonically less interesting for me — or there was less shock when I heard it. I was genuinely curious about other genres at that point.
I think when an artist finds success, it’s easy to get stuck in that sound, which gives them a lot of pressure but often just a B-side feeling. But how do you build off what worked with your last releases without it becoming redundant?
I’ve always made music for myself. It’s obviously nice if people like it, but I’m far from a perfectionist. I have a lot of releases, a big catalog of stuff that’s not even finished, but it’s still online. I could just remove it, and I have sometimes because I feel like it’s trash, but then somebody DMs me and asks for it back because they were listening to it every day. And for that one person, it sucks to take it down.
It’s always hard to distinguish excitement from stress, I feel like they really go hand in hand. When I release something, it might be excitement, but I read it as stress. And so I feel the need to drop something new really fast — almost instantly — because my previous release doesn’t sit right with me. This is the first project that I’ve done where I’m still okay with it while listening to it so close to its release date.
Why do you think it is that you’re more comfortable with this one?
I think just simply going back to what I was listening to in my teenage years as well as new music inspired by that era has been fun. I just don’t take it that seriously.
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Under the B3K Eclipse
Through Daldas’ megaphonic yelps and Zeitner’s cybernetic sound design, tracks like“No Sex With Cops”and“GEWALT GEWALT”find a safe home in the sleazy nucleus of NYC’s club scene. Piercing-laden pixies and smiley-faced gabber fiends stood eagerly in attendance for Brutalismus, just a year and some change after the release of their debut album, ULTRAKUNST. As they debuted head-pounding new music, the German duo showcased their ability to control an entire room with their hellish sound palette.
Watch the video below featuring an unreleased track in route to their sold out show at Knockdown Center.
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Laufey Is Blooming
Congratulations on your recent Grammy win! How does it feel to have won for your first nomination?
It means the world to me. Just to be nominated was amazing, and then to win — I honestly still can’t believe it. It’s one of those dreams you have as a kid that seems as impossible as going to the moon or becoming a princess. It’s really, really special, especially since I started putting out music quite recently and I’m still young. Even just to be at the ceremony was incredible — I mean, I got to meet Taylor Swift! Seconds after I won, Boygenius won their first Grammy too, and we were all bused into the same room. When they walked in, we all screamed together and hugged. It was a moment I’ll never forget!
What was the creative process like behind Bewitched?
With my first album and EP, I was just starting out playing around with jazz sounds and classical sounds and didn't want to go too far. After that first album, I found that the songs that seemed to stick out were the songs that resembled classic jazz standards or the songs that were recorded with orchestra. I figured for Bewitched, I would just lean in; if a song was leaning jazz, I'd just let it live in that world, and if a song was more classical, I did it with an orchestra and really leaned into that sound. Some of the songs are a little more fun; there's a song called "Lovesick" on it, which is kind of the dark horse of the record. I think it's almost like a rock song, even though it still has sweeping strings. I was just unafraid to let the songs be what they're meant to be and not think too much about what made them make sense together as an album. At the end of the day, it is cohesive because it's all my writing and it's all my voice and my cello playing and string arranging.
You've achieved a lot of success online, specifically on TikTok and Instagram. How do you respond to critics who say that spending time online and having such a large social media presence detracts from your art?
With every new wave of music, we're going to have different ways of promoting. When I started, I had this genre of music that was borrowing from old genres of music that hadn't been in the pop scene for a very, very long time. To be able to prove myself as an artist, I had to go to the people before I went to the industry. I think the fact that as an artist that you're diminished in some way for going directly to the audience is unfortunate. I built a social media audience before I signed to management, before I released music, before I recorded these albums or signed to a label, and the reason I was able to do all those things and do them in a way where I was in complete control is because of my following. I still own my masters; I own my publishing. I've been able to do that because of my fan base online. I think one of the reasons that my songs resonate a lot with my audience is because they know who I am. It's not filtered through some establishment or anything; it's directly from my mouth to their ears through social media. Especially with the genres of music that I use, my first thought was, “Okay, I love jazz music, I love classical music. I want to feed it to new ears. Where is Gen Z?” There was no question that Gen Z is on the internet, so I went straight to the internet. In the past few years I've been able to harness social media to bring new ears to classical and jazz music in a way that would only be possible using social media. I also think social media gives artists a level of control and, especially as a woman in music, a level of control that we never, ever had before.
Speaking of social media, I’ve noticed this trend of you being identified as “delulu,” as in delusional, online. This seems to be something of a positive — in the comments of your posts a lot of your followers have started to self-identify as “delulu” too. I was interested if you had any thoughts on this, particularly because being labeled delusional is something that happens to young women a lot, though usually in an adverse sense.
I think it started with a wave on TikTok where people were talking about how they were “delulu” and kind of happy with it. People then started pinning my music to that trend because my music, especially the first album, is very hopelessly romantic and about dreaming up scenarios and living in a little bit of a dream world — who am I kidding, the second album is also like that. But with owning this “delulu thing” — that was one of the biggest weapons that men could use against women to write off any comment: “Oh, she's delusional. She's crazy.” Now there are hordes of people and my audience just owning the fact that they're delusional. It's like, yeah, I'm delusional, I'm kind of crazy. Of course, that’s what it feels like to be falling in love or having a crush on someone who doesn't feel the same, that's it’s delusional. But we're all delusional; now we're just owning the narrative. I think being delusional is just being hopeful.
You've spoken before about your relationship with your twin sister, Junia, who's also your creative director and has played violin on several of your tracks. While you sing primarily about romantic longing, do you feel that the theme of sisterhood has influenced your work at all? A lot of your songs feel like they are being sung for a close confidant or equal, even if the lyrics revolve around a love interest.
Absolutely. I think with having a sister, you grow a certain sensibility towards women or other girls your age, right? Because you're not only looking out for yourself, you're looking out for another woman in your life, another girl in your life. I think I almost use that sense of sisterhood that I have towards my female fans as well. When I write songs like "Letter To My 13 Year Old Self," which is a song that I addressed to my younger self, it's also addressed to your 13-year-old self; it's addressed to little girls all over the world. I also wrote a song called "Magnolia" which is about what I say is the most beautiful girl in the world. These are all songs that I think have come from sisterhood. It's like a love for another girl's beauty. Also, with my EP, I'd never been in love before, and I literally just had to make stuff up that was appropriate. The song "Best Friend," I wrote about Junia because I still felt like I had to resonate with a song before putting it out. I was like, okay, how can I resonate with a love song? I'll write a love song for my best friend, who also happens to be my sister.
There’s a new wave of young singers of Asian descent like Mitski, beabadoobee and mxmtoon coming up in the industry who you often get compared to. It’s exciting, because you are all diverse artists who are both highly visible and very popular, but does it ever get frustrating to be grouped together?
It doesn't bother me at all. I think if anything, I had such a lack of Asian artists and pop musicians to look up to that the fact that you can even create a category with more than one person is just a win. I'm very happy being able to connect with those artists as well and just being able to talk about our similar experiences is such a wealth for me as a musician. I can also see the connections between us all; none of them are out of left field. We're all songwriters; Mitski and I both write these very literal lyrics, although mine are definitely a little more delusional and hers are probably a little more straight hitting. In a way, we've also both had a similar internet background. I see the connections, and it's been really fun to talk to my friends who are also Asian and artists. Being categorized with them is honestly just a blessing. A win for another Asian artist is a win for me.
You have a very distinct fashion sense; a lot of your fans even style themselves similarly to you when they attend your shows. Do you feel like clothes are a big part of your performance? In your case, it’s interesting because they seem to constitute this permeable thing between you and your fans.
Definitely. I mean, you've seen how I dress since before I released music and it's still very much the same. I just continue embodying my own self and my personal style, and the fact that now I see my fans coming to my shows and dressing like that is really, really cool. It gives a sense of community. Music has become a visual world as well, so I think the clothes are just as important. They can show people who you are before you start singing — you can kind of look at what I'm wearing and be like, oh yeah, I can see a little bit of who she is. Clothes really illustrate the story.
You also run your own book club where you invite your fans and followers to read and discuss your favorite literary pieces with you. Do you find literature influences your songwriting at all? If so, what books or writers have particularly stood out?
I use books as songwriting inspiration. If I sit down and I don't really know what I'm going to write for the day, I will just open up a book and read a chapter and actively look for words or ideas or themes that stick out that I can then in turn use in a song. It’s kind of just like this wealth of words and thoughts that you can use and interpret your own way. When people ask me songwriting advice, I always say, go to the bookshelf. I really like Tove Jansson's writing. I read The Summer Book and A Winter Book; especially with The Summer Book, I liked the way that it was almost like a children's book, but for adults. The way that she described the nature on this Finnish island was very beautiful to me; I think it touched me, coming from Iceland. I also read a lot of Joan Didion's essays and took those essays and particularly her autobiographical writing as inspiration to then write "Letter To My 13 Year Old Self." I liked the way she was writing about herself while still writing to other people; you know, writing in a way that doesn't feel so personal that other people won't relate.
Looking towards the future, what’s next for you?
I think my work isn't quite done with introducing jazz and classical sounds to the pop audience. I'm also going to be touring a lot this year and I'm excited to see the fans in person, that's just my favorite thing to do. Hopefully I'll be working; I'm always working on something. I see my music and albums as my journals that follow me throughout life — as long as I'm still living, I'm going to write about it.
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