Who Are the Fcukers? Meet the Coolest Band Right Now!

Since the formation of Fcukers in 2022, the American band’s live performances have consistently induced euphoria among their audiences. This ultra-cool ‘it-band’ from the upscale Downtown New York neighborhood has drawn both curious onlookers and skeptics questioning their authenticity. Nevertheless, their infectious hedonism invariably wins over the crowd, a far cry from the pretentious aloofness they sometimes project.

The stories connecting New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Los Angeles are anything but ordinary: Fcukers marked their inception on stage. On March 17, 2023, the band performed live for the first time, mere hours after releasing their initial tracks online.

Jackson, the producer and bassist who occasionally organizes parties, spread the word throughout Brooklyn; the Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg was packed. For the three indie rockers—Shanny Wise, Jackson Walker Lewis, and Ben Scharf (who later returned to his studies)—the experience was liberating to the utmost degree. The group turned their vibrant syncretic experiments (mixing pop choruses, electroclash, reggae dub, trip-hop, and nineties house) into fuel for dancefloors.

This rebirth was unexpected for the three musicians, who hold a jaded—if not confrontational—view of the music industry, which had previously rejected them after some modest successes in their earlier endeavors (under the mentorship of El Michels Affair with The Shacks for Shanny, and with Spud Cannon for Ben and Jackson).

Jackson Walker Lewis, a die-hard fan of the Chemical Brothers and an enthusiastic music digger, had to take up a day job but continued to produce electronic music for fun. With a demo in hand—which would later become Homie Don’t Shake—he recognized Shanny, now a co-manager and barmaid at a restaurant, and invited her to add her vocals.

Featuring a Beck sample with nods to ESG’s groove—and a plethora of influences like a scavenger hunt—the nonchalant delivery and droning voice of Shanny, uttering absurd lyrics reminiscent of the bloghouse era (“Silks real leathers fake/Say you’ll DJ at my wake/Blacked out show up late/Cause homie don’t shake”), worked wonders. With the sole aim of creating the most entertaining music possible, the two tinkered for months on a computer in a makeshift home studio.

It was under the guidance of Jackson’s more organized girlfriend that their eclectic tracks, reflecting Wise’s taste for reggae and dub and Walker Lewis’s love for filtered house, finally took shape. Born in one of the indie music epicenters, these tracks, reviving the disheveled energy of the early 2000s, quickly caught the industry’s attention.

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem commissioned a remix, the band signed with Ninja Tune, and celebrities like Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Clairo, and Beck attended their shows. Hedi Slimane invited them to perform at the Fashion Week for the Celine show, among other signs that they had become global ambassadors of a certain brand of cool. As we anticipate their first album, which is expected to meet high expectations, the duo appears impervious to the lures of an industry they know all too well, delighted to have finally found a true space of freedom after so many years.

In concert at the Eurockéennes de Belfort, July 5.