Don Giovanni Records has just released the new album from singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay. The album – titled “New River” Nicolay is known as a long time member of The Hold Steady and World/Inferno Friendship Society as well as for countless featured performances both live and in-studio with other artists including Against Me!, Dresden Dolls, Worriers and more.
Franz Nicolay is a musician and writer living in the Hudson Valley, NY. In addition to records under his own name (most recently 2015’s “To Us, The Beautiful!“), Nicolay’s first book, The Humorless Ladies of Border Control, was named a “Season’s Best Travel Book” by The New York Times. His second book, the novel Someone Should Pay For Your Pain was called “a knockout fiction debut” by Buzzfeed; and was named one of Rolling Stone “Best Music Books of 2021” (“finally, the great indie-rock novel… like Dostoyevsky in a DIY punk space”).
“It’s a hopeful song in its way, that takes in the past and sees a little room to plant a future. The closing line is from Anne Carson’s translation of Sappho, and I think captures some of the emotional ambivalence of the project. Ara Babajian (the Slackers) played some particularly soulful drums, Peter Hess (Philip Glass Ensemble) wrote a fantastic horn arrangement, and Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady) added the tasty licks.”
One would think that between writing and releasing his acclaimed debut novel, recording albums and touring with The Hold Steady, writing journalism about the Ukrainian resistance to Russian invasion, performing session work, and teaching as a professor of music and creative writing at Bard College would keep Franz Nicolay plenty busy. For awhile, it did. But as he reflects on the period of time writing and recording the songs that would make up his forthcoming album “New River“.
Nicolay stated: “For several years after my last record, I needed a break, and actively tried to keep from writing songs. But the combination of working on new Hold Steady material, writing my second book, and having unexpected time on my hands like everyone else in spring 2020 eventually primed the pump for a record’s worth (including a co-write with my Hold Steady bandmate Steve Selvidge).
The years off had constituted a time in which I thought I was finished as a musician; they were time characterized by the loss of several musician friends to suicide both acute and de-facto, and by consideration of the cost of ‘working the art muscle.’ I was approaching a familiar sort of life crossroads which I’ve traditionally addressed on the principle of “blow it all up and see if that fixes things.’” The material was assembled in the period of time between April 2020 and spring 2021 and recorded at Atomic Garden in Oakland with drummer Ara Babajian (the Slackers) and bassist Frank Piegaro (Worriers); with help from friends including Jeff Rosenstock and Mike Huguenor (Death Rosenstock), Deanna Belos (Sincere Engineer), Lauren Denitzio (Worriers), Peter Hess (Philip Glass Ensemble), Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady), and Todd Beene (Lucero, Chuck Ragan).
“A natural-born star…really something special”—Pitchfork
“Sad, wild folksongs from the unconventional multi-talent.” — Rolling Stone
“The sorrowful storytelling of Franz Nicolay may be unmatched. Each song seems to be the gripping tale of a tragic hero.” — The Huffington Post
The Fat Angel Sings 