nick fradiani Words by MERISSA BLITZ Photos by CATHERINE POWELL
“This could be the last night of our lives, gonna chase down our every desire,” croons Nick Fradiani, his voice bouncing around the brick walls surrounding the terrace of the Aloft Hotel in New York City. The crowd of about 100 people are swimming in his words and the atmosphere is full of love for the Season 14 winner of American Idol. Nick grew up in East Haven, Connecticut, moving a few towns over to Guilford with his family when he was 14. His mom is a teacher and his dad is a musician. “My dad introduced me to really good music at a young age, but he never really pushed music on me,” Nick explains. “He kind of pushed me more in [sports] than he did music, which I think was actually a good thing because I think music was more of something I just enjoyed rather than something that was stressful.” For a long time, Nick was a big sports guy and music was more of a side project for him. While attending Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, he played basketball. That and his history major took up most of his time until an injury ended his basketball career. Nick sprained his ankle and tore his Achilles tendon forcing him to stop playing basketball. “I just really started playing the guitar a lot more,” says Nick. “My dad was always playing gigs and he was like, ‘I can book you at these little bars around Connecticut.’” Nick learned and started practicing about 50-60 songs to cover gigs in New England. He eventually started writing his own songs and started a band called 14
Beach Avenue. In 2014, Beach Avenue auditioned for the ninth season of America’s Got Talent. “We used to do YouTube covers online, and they started to catch on a little bit,” Nick says. “We’d get some decent amount of views and somebody must have saw it, a scout for America’s Got talent, and they put us on.”. Though they ended up getting cut in the second round, Beach Avenue still made a name for themselves while they were on the show “We were in TV for a while and played original music, and our socials blew up and our songs did really well and I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is crazy, this is going to be it,’” Nick remembers. They ended up not taking off as much as Nick initially thought they would. He vowed to never do a reality show again… That is, until he auditioned for Idol not even a year later. “I actually had a much better experience on Idol, and I’m not saying that just because I did better, I just thought it was way more about the music,” Nick says. Prior to going on Idol, Nick heard horror stories about the show making the singers perform certain songs but he found that wasn’t the case. Sometimes there were guidelines such as American Top 40 or Motown week, and the band and producers always gave them advice, but, according to Nick, the contestants were never forced to perform songs that they didn’t want to. “I just felt like I was more comfortable on Idol, but both were very interesting experiences to say the least,” Nick says.
After winning Idol, Nick signed Big Machine Records, which shot him into the limelight. From the time he won Idol in May 2015 until that July, Nick was promoting his song “Beautiful Life,” around the country. He then went on the American Idol tour for two straight months. As busy as this time was for him, he wouldn’t have it any other way. “You’ll complain about being overworked but when you have no work you don’t know what to do,” Nick explains. “I can’t not be working.” He proved that to be true when he went straight into writing his album after he finished the tour. Because he wanted this record to truly represent himself as an artist, Nick and his team took their time perfecting every little detail. “We have taken longer than any Idol winner has taken by far in terms of how long it took,” Nick says. At first, Nick was frustrated with how long it was taking – he just wanted to show his fans everything he had been working so hard on – but after realizing that he was already lucky enough to not only have one, but two songs get frequent radio play, he knew he was in a good place. “My label is doing such a good job at getting me to all these different markets and meeting some great radio program directors,” Nick says. “I’ve really built relationships with all these different people throughout the country that could really make a difference in my career so I think that’s the most important thing.” Nick’s album, Hurricane, due out August 5, will serve as his debut. He wrote