Nikolai Philippe Fraiture (born November 13, 1978) is an American musician best known as the bassist of the American rock band The Strokes. Since co-founding the band in 1998, he has released six studio albums with them. 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. Early life Fraiture was born in New York City to a Franco-Russian mother and French father. He was raised with his older brother Pierre and younger sister Elizabeth in the Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side. Fraiture met future bandmate Julian Casablancas at the age of six while attending the Friends School and Lycée Français de New York, from which he graduated in 1997. Through Casablancas, Fraiture met future Strokes members Nick Valensi and Fabrizio Moretti while they were teenagers. Fraiture later attended Hunter College with Valensi. Fraiture received his first bass at 16 when his grandfather gave it to him as a graduation present, but Fraiture gave it away to Casablancas and did not resume playing until two years later. Career The Strokes 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 Age 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. Nickel Eye 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