Kid makes good

Hey, listen up!  Y’all go out and pre-order this record, and get the t-shirt with the two wristwatches, OK? Click here! I mean, click here! Have you clicked yet?

OK, why the heavy promo?  Could it have anything to do with the coincidence of the artist’s last name being the same as mine?  Busted!  Yep, it’s my eldest, Fred Nicolaus, living his dream of writing and performing songs.  And he’s GOOD!  I mean, zillions of kids bash out chords in garages, but how many of them get their stuff published by real record labels, and go on tour, and get top ratings from pitchfork.com and the New York Times?  And get their music used in a video that’s in the permanent collection of the NY MOMA?  Yep, MY KID!

Much as I’d love to claim heredity, he sure didn’t get his musical talent from either of his parents.  Possibly it skipped a generation; my own dad reputedly was good with guitar and violin, but died too young to do anything with it.  Fred got his music mainly by working.  I can testify that Fred has been working on this stuff since he was knee-high to a piano bench.  He started working on the keyboard when he was nine.  All by himself.  You can tell he’s into it by the spacey, annoyed look when interrupted (second photo).  He was not made to take lessons, he WANTED to play.

Fred at keyboard at age 9, Oakland CA

Fred, interrupted

After the keyboard he got a drumset and took lessons.  Then guitar.  Already at Berkeley High School he and a buddy put together a cassette tape of their stuff and sold like 300 copies.  Then at NYU he fell in with a talented roommate and they teamed up to form Department of Eagles.  They have two albums to their credit, and Fred wrote some of the hottest material on them, including No One Does It Like You, which rang a lot of bells ranging from No. 1 ringtone on Gossip Girl to a Japanese commercial to a powerful and stirring video about war that’s in the MOMA collection.  OK, here it is that one; Fred wrote the song:

The new album with the two watches, Golden Suits, is Fred’s solo breakout item.  As he’s explained, it’s a chronicle of a rough year in his life.  The two watches represent the bookends of that year, and the title is from a story by John Cheever (Fred is also a short story writer).  You can read the details about the album on his label’s website (that’s Yep Roc records), here.  Go buy one, OK?  Hell, buy a bunch and give them for presents!  (I just did, LOL).

Signed,

Proud Dad