"I spent all day making sure I wasn't late..."
Los Angeles based NYIKO just released his full length "Honesty" (dropped 4/9/21) via Trailing Twelve Records and the title track feels like a cross generational hybrid of 80's goth pop and indie rock circa late 2000's with 90's Brit dance post punk vibes. As I listen, I flashed on artists like Spandau Ballet, Aztec Camera, Two Door Cinema Club, Cocteau Twins and The Drums. NYIKO's lush vocal aesthetic with a patina of London-esque tones is absolutely magnetic and as the trancy synths, driving bass lines and stabs of keys push new and nostalgic buttons it almost feels like a full throttle sprint to your lover beneath a High School glitter prom ball in a John Hughes flick. Lush and lovely with drama to spare.
“Honesty”, via Trailing Twelve available through all DSPs, and also presented on limited edition 12” black vinyl.
- Robb Donker Curtius
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Los Angeles based multi-hyphenate NYIKO presents his debut album “Honesty” via Trailing Twelve Records on April 9th. A follow-up to his 2019 collaborative Crush EP (with The White Electric) and a mosaic of singles released in 2020, NYIKO’s debut effort pushes the sonic and thematic boundaries of his previous work by casting echoes of The Cure and Morrissey upon pithy messages of self-love and the dismantling of toxic masculinity. The album takes on the spectrum of love and heartache, along with the challenges we face when we confront our relationships with others and with ourselves.
The journey to completing Honesty spanned multiple years. Starting in 2010, NYIKO began cultivating a following in the New England DIY-music scene. Performing with various live bands and collaborating with a consortium of artists created the groundwork for his abilities as a songwriter and performer. In 2015, after several years in Burlington, Vermont, a difficult breakup, and fewer prospects of growing a fanbase, NYIKO pulled up his Northeastern roots and set his sights on the west coast.
Some of the songs featured on Honesty were written as early as 2014 and as recent as 2018. During that time, he went through a creative and spiritual metamorphosis. In the act of moving to Los Angeles and leaving his former collaborators back in Vermont, he was forced to not only foster new relationships but further sharpen his abilities as a solo artist. He found himself in a drastically different dating and social scene. NYIKO explains that “while the songs were written over the course of a few years, I wanted the sequence to follow the narrative of falling in love, watching it fade, and the prospect of finding new love again.” Throughout the course of writing the songs, he points to one specifically influential epiphany - “Loving someone is an art form itself. How you love someone is an expression of yourself. In that sense, all of the songs explore love as creation.”
NYIKO spent the winter months of 2018 sifting through and refining over 30 demos. While honing his skills as a producer, NYIKO enlisted guitarist Niles Gregory, bassist Stone Irr, and producer Kyler Hurley, to bring the chosen demos into the territory of live instrumentation. All in the comfort of his home studio in the eastside of Los Angeles, NYIKO engineered, produced, and mixed the entire album.
As we move through Honesty, we’re met with both existential and deeply personal reflections that become neatly packaged in accessible synth-pop textures. The immediately compelling title track paints the uncertainty and excitement of new relationships.
“Be honest/ but not too honest/ be careful with what you choose to say..”
NYIKO croons with an urgent timbre, drawing on the tension of how being overly communicative can complicate feelings of desire and attraction. The driving beat and pulsating synth of “Like The Movies” lay the groundwork for the investigation of popular culture’s portrayal of romantic love. “Call The Boys” acts as a philosophical Northstar that illuminates the undertones of the album's remainder. The song spotlights topics of gender identity, toxic masculinity, and emotional development in young men, all while harnessing the energy of jangly guitars and confident post-punk production. “The way we process emotion has a direct impact on the people around us, especially those with whom we are intimate. I thought it was important to shine a light on emotional maturity and responsibility in the context of an album about love,” explains NYIKO.
On the album’s tail end, we find NYIKO exploring this idea of love as an art form either by celebrating self-love and inner-beauty (“Glow”) or expressing a desire to one day become a father (“Live Long”). "Ghost In Your Dreams," the album’s melancholy yet whimsical conclusion, explores the nature of memory, aptly serving as an existential commentary on the process of songwriting and music creation.
Spanning thirty-eight minutes over eleven compositions, the entire record is a vibrant, glistening slab of retro pop, effortlessly balancing earnest messages with elegant sonic expression. Chronicling four years of personal growth and formative experiences, Honesty serves as the narrative arc of a young man discovering himself through loving others and loving himself.
NYIKO, singer-songwriter, musician, artist, Label owner, visual artist, Los Angeles, lush vocal aesthetic, magnetic, New album, "Honesty"
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