Who Is Nikolai Fraiture’s Wife?

Beginning in 2019, Arts Elektra launched it twelve-act, site specific piece entitled C’est Le Moment Ou Jamais (It’s Now Or Never) at different locations globally. Their first act was performed in April 2019 at the World Trade Center in New York City and the second act was presented that December during Art Basel week at the Miami River Art Fair. The works created are auctioned off to benefit different charities.

In 2016, Fraiture started a new band, Summer Moon with Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins (drums), Uh Huh Her’s Camila Grey (keyboardist and vocalist), and The Airborne Toxic Event’s Noah Harmon (guitar), with Fraiture providing vocals and bass for the group. The group’s debut album With You Tonight was released in 2017.

On May 19, 2012, for the 37th season finale of Saturday Night Live, Fraiture played bass alongside Arcade Fire and guest/musical host Mick Jagger.

Fraiture started his side project, Nickel Eye, during the hiatus after First Impressions of Earth. He enlisted the help of South, a UK band introduced to him by a friend, as his backing band. Nickel Eye recorded some demos at South Studios in Hackney, London. With some guest appearances by Nick Zinner of the New York City-based band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regina Spektor, The Time of the Assassins was completed a few months later in New York. The album is musically inspired by some of Fraiture’s favorite artists, such as Neil Young, Frank Black, Leonard Cohen, and The Kinks. The Time of the Assassins was released on January 27, 2009 on Rykodisc. Nickel Eye’s first performance was on October 15, 2008 at London’s Borderline venue.

In 2007, Fraiture composed the music and starred in the movie A Kind of Dream with wife Illy Fraiture. The movie was a 30-minute black and white silent film written and directed by Danny Velez.

Fraiture married artist Ilona “Illy” Jankovich in 2004. They have two children: a daughter, Elysia, and a son, Phoenix.

Fraiture took up bass when he was around 18 and started playing in a band with childhood friend Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. The Strokes was formed in 1998 when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. joined the group. After a year of rehearsing and playing at small venues, and several rejections from record companies, the group caught the interest of Ryan Gentles, then a booker at New York’s Mercury Lounge. Gentles sent their three-track demo to Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and their first EPThe Modern How old? was released on the label, followed by a tour in England to promote the EP, with Gentles joining them as their manager. After a bidding war, the band signed with RCA in March 2001. Their first album, Is This It, was released in fall 2001. Following the completion of their five-album contract deal with RCA Records in 2013, the band has continued to release new music through Casablancas’ Cult Records.

Nikolai Philippe Fraiture (born November 13, 1978) is an American musician and bassist for rock band The Strokes. Among other creative projects, Fraiture released a solo record under the name Nickel Eye in 2009 and has been the frontman of the band Summer Moon since 2016.