Franz Nicolay

Franz Nicolay was born in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire on the 27th August 1977. Following a period of employment as a composer-in-residence at his alma mater, New York University, he is now based out of Hudson Valley, New York. He is best known for his work as a musician, composer, and author.

His work as a musician and author has been prolific. Firstly, Nicolay joined the New York-based band the World/Inferno Friendship Society, where he gained recognition for their anarcho-circus punk style. Nicolay recorded with the band for three full-length albums and was a member between 2000 and 2007: the band’s longest continuous line-up.

Simultaneously, Nicolay organised An Afternoon of Anti-Social Chamber Music at Colombia University in 2001. This event was designed to be a program of contemporary music from composers based in New York. The collective known as Anti-Social Music was formed as a non-profit organisation as a result of these meetings and has since performed over 75 shows, premiered 123 new works by 28 composers, and guested more than 110 artists.

Despite his work with the World/Inferno Friendship Society, and Anti-Social Music Franz Nicolay continued to work on other projects. In 2002, Nicolay formed a quartet known as Guignol alongside Balkan Beat Box and fellow World/Inferno Friendship Society member Peter Hess.

Franz Nicolay performing with Guignol

Despite Franz Nicolay’s role in proliferating the gypsy-punk scene in New York by playing with Guignol in establishments such as CBGB’s, the majority of his recognition comes from his membership of the band The Hold Steady. Nicolay joined the band officially in 2004 after guesting on their debut album Almost Killed Me. Franz Nicolay recalls:

Franz: “World/Inferno played some shows with Lifter Puller in Chicago a long time ago, then when Craig [Finn] moved to New York he was doing A&R for the now-defunct DCN live label and signed us up for the live record Hallowmasat Northsix. Over the course of working on that, we’d go out drinking with him and Tad [Kubler] when The Hold Steady was kind of coming together as “this new band we’re sort of working on”. When it finally happened, they called and asked me and Peter to come play on the first record (Almost Killed Me), which led to me coming and playing those three songs on NY shows whenever it worked out, which led to “Hey, do you wanna get together and work on some songs for the new record?”, which became “Well, do you want to join the band?””

In 2007, around the time that Nicolay left the World/Inferno Friendship Society, he began to experiment as a solo artist. On November 1st, he released Black Rose Paladins: a set of demos that were sold on the merch stands of his concerts. One year later, on the 5th November 2008, Nicolay announced that he would be releasing his first full-length album Major General. The album was released two months later in January 2009 and featured Yula Beeri, a bandmate from the World/Inferno Friendship Society, Brian Viglione of the World/Inferno Friendship Society, and The Dresden Dolls, and Jared Scott of Demander.

This release initiated a solo career that has seen the release of a wide-spread series of releases, including St. Sebastian of the Short Stage (EP) in 2009, Luck & Courage in 2010, Do the Struggle in 2012, To Us, the Beautiful in 2014, and most recently PEOPSSONGS in 2017. PEOPSSONGS was released as a surprise album, and each song is based from portraits produced by the artist Fly in her book Peops.

Franz has also worked as a producer. He produced Pearl and the Beard’s album Killing the Darlings and two records, The Birth and Death of Meaning and Follow Me (EP), by The Debutante Hour.

Franz Nicolay also released a book through The New Press, entitled The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar in 2016. Upon its release, it was named as the “Season’s Best Travel Book” by The New York Times.

The book was described by fellow musician, Frank Turner, as:

Frank: “A truly remarkable book. On the surface, it’s a tour diary of shows around the wilder reaches of Eastern Europe and Russia, which would be interesting in itself. In actual fact, however, Franz has written a profound and perceptive travelogue in the vein of Paul Theroux or Rebecca West; like them, he teaches you about the places he visits, about the people he meets, about a forgotten but fascinating corner of world culture, and ultimately, about himself.”

Nicolay had also produced a chapbook entitled Complicated Gardening Techniques (2009), that was published by Julius Singer Press. However, these are now permanently out of print.