Dominic Fike wears T-shirt Bottega Veneta.
Dominic Fike can’t sit still, even with a kid and a career on solid ground. Fike, who released his debut EP while serving time for a house arrest violation, has had a bit of a wild streak, and while fatherhood may have evened him out, it hasn’t settled him down. After a stint on Euphoria put him in front of a whole new audience, the 30-year-old doubled down on music, releasing intuitive, hook-heavy pop at a steady clip and touring non-stop. Recording wherever he can means a makeshift studio on the tour bus, backstage before soundcheck, and hotel rooms on off days, which are the closest thing he has to a sanctuary. The result is his newest record, How to Quit Smoking . To find out how he keeps up, we put Fike in touch with his friend, Obsession director Curry Barker , who got into it with him about fame, fatherhood, and why the only room he still trusts is the one with no cameras in it.
TUESDAY 11 AM AUGUST 11, 2026 SHERMAN OAKS, CA
DOMINIC FIKE: What’s up, gang? How we doing?
FIKE: No, I’m in town. I’m in Sherman Oaks, staying close to the rehearsal studio.
Shirt and Shorts Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.
BARKER: Oh, shit. You getting your show ready?
FIKE: I’m in the trenches. We’ve been working for a couple of weeks, so I’m in and out of rehearsals. I’m fried, but we did it.
BARKER: You got to start dancing in the Courtyard.
FIKE: [Laughs] For real, dude. I’m trying to stay where the crew is at. I’m undercover bossing, bootstraps to the ground, and every night I come home and pop a dish in the microwave. I’m vegan, so it’s been weird microwaving vegan dishes every night.
FIKE: Yeah, but I’m trying to cut out fish because the fish are fucking me up. Also, I’m about to go on tour, so I’m like, “Do I need to kill animals to get through this?” There is the element of sacrificing something for fame and money. I’m like, “Instead of my friends, maybe I sacrifice chickens and cows every night.”
FIKE: That could be enough to keep the devil at bay so I can eat again. Anyway, thank you for doing this. I know you’re the busiest guy in the world.
BARKER: Of course. I’ll say this because we’re on record: I’m such a huge fan. You know that, but the world should know it. I’ve listened to every single song you’ve put out. What can we expect from your next album? Is it coming out soon?
BARKER: Is there a tonal shift or are you sticking to the same stuff? When we first met, you said sometimes the world tells you what it’s ready for when you’re picking the songs you put on your album.
FIKE: That’s a funny thing to mention, because for this album that is not so much the case. It’s really a combination of observing the fans and time—that gives me the space to pick certain songs. I’ll make songs, and then a year will go by and I get to see where people’s interests have shifted. Also, I have the metrics. Reed [Bennett, Fike’s manager] will show me what people are listening to. As much as I hate to see it, sometimes I do. People shove it in your face like a jump scare.
BARKER: Yeah, like “This is your biggest song!”
FIKE: [Laughs] That shit sucks. I get to observe people and where their interests are, which helps me decide how to build a track list. But what I’m putting out right now is more of a snapshot of where we’re at currently. “Babydoll / White Keys,” those songs are 14 years old.
BARKER: It’s crazy to hold onto a banger like “White Keys” for that long and not release it.
FIKE: I didn’t know “White Keys” was a banger. I was embarrassed about it. It got lost in the shuffle over four different phones. Suddenly, you have a note from seven years ago that says something very stupid and you’re like, “Oh my gosh.”That’s how some of my songs are. I’ll access an old iCloud account because I need to verify my face because I’m in Texas watching porn or something. Then I’ll randomly come across something like “White Keys.” That’s how those things happen.
BARKER: [Laughs] Well, there you go. The universe is thankful.
FIKE: Have you seen this in Texas, where you need to take a picture of your face to watch porn?
BARKER: No, I don’t know about that. [Laughs]
FIKE: I think that’s a sign of the fall, right there. It’s the most violating part of yourself. You might as well take a picture of your genitals.
BARKER: It’s to prove your age or whatever.
BARKER: [Laughs] You mentioned you look at what your fans are listening to. How much do you care about that, versus making dope art? You seem like such a raw artist—I would be surprised if you let anyone tell you what you’re supposed to release.
FIKE: Like any other person, I have my phone in my hand right now. I’m always on it, and not because I want to be. I’ve been attempting to separate myself from it and stretch a lot more, but you need it to stay in communication. When you lose communication with certain groups of people, they tend to fall out of their routines. You find yourself using the phone to do good, but you know it’s inherently evil.
FIKE: I remember the feeling of making music as a kid, not thinking about what I do now. Back in 2019, when I got a deal, I was only thinking about what other people wanted. It’s similar to meditation. Somebody said meditation is the whole process, not just sitting with your mind cleared. It’s about having those thoughts and then coming back to stillness. I was like, “That’s kind of how it feels with other people’s opinions on your art. Sometimes you get influenced by other people, but you always bring it back.”I’ll have moments of both, where I can tell I wrote a song while listening to other people’s thoughts. But with “White Keys,” I was drunk and my inhibitions were lowered, so I wasn’t worried about other people’s thoughts.
BARKER: It’s no secret your life is a lot different now than it was when you first started making music. You have money, you have a kid. Do you think the life you live now makes it easier or harder to make art?
FIKE: I think about that all the time, and that shit distracts you. If you want to make a song, you’re going to make a song. If you want to make a movie, you’re going to make a movie. You can tell yourself there are things holding you back, but it’s always you. I could hang up right now and go make a song if I wanted to. Not that I want to, because I love you, but you don’t have to do anything but be in society, and make money, and feed the people around you. I don’t know if there’s any person who doesn’t have the ability. Now I’m thinking about people in Third World countries. I’m like, “You always got the time to make art.” Then I’m thinking about a kid who doesn’t have food.
FIKE: I’m blessed to be able to make the shit I do. And every time I get to do it, I’m super grateful. Right now, with all the shit you were talking about, the kid and the money, I have more time to make music. I was lazy back then is what I’m saying.
BARKER: A song like “Geezer” is talking about the working-class man, and it’s about struggle. Based on our past conversations, I know you’ve had your own struggles. I guess I’m asking, do you find it harder to find subjects to write songs about? Or do you find your art leaning into your current life?
FIKE: When I found out I could write full songs as easily as I do, I would go to the studio and be like, “Okay, everybody, let’s pick a subject right now.” I would write a song in 10 minutes, but I was just trying to flex.
BARKER: How do you come up with song ideas now that your life is different?
FIKE: Oh, yeah. I just have more experience. I can go deeper into subjects. When I’m looking through the songs, there’s a lot of unrequited love or different dimensions of personal human relationships. That’s typically what I’m talking about.
BARKER: I see it in your art. Your profound level of understanding inspires me. It’s funny, as a teenager I used to have these deep thoughts and write them down. I thought they were so profound. Then as I got older, I realized it’s actually just pretty normal. Teenagers think everything’s deep.
FIKE: I thought a lot of the shit in your movie was profound, and your work online prior to it too, because you have an understanding of the human condition. That’s why it stuck with so many people.
BARKER: I appreciate that. Do you think your relationship to making music has changed now that it’s your job? Do you feel pressure to make another “Babydoll,” and do you enjoy it as much as you did when you first started?
FIKE: I don’t feel pressure in the room. I feel it more around things like performance and press or videos, but I don’t mind it. It’s like being in your favorite biopic. They don’t make songwriter biopics because those would be boring, because the whole experience is taking place in three people’s brains. We got 50 more years. AI is going to figure it out. But until then, biopics don’t accurately show what it’s like in the studio. There’s no pressure in the studio. And if you’re really songwriting, you don’t have the space to feel any of that. It’s like running. When you’re really in it, you don’t have time to worry because you’re fucking breathing heavy and you’re like, “I got to take this next step.” The pressure drops away if you’re doing it right.
BARKER: When I first started making films, it wasn’t for a job. I did it because I had a passion for it. Now I go to work every day and I’m finishing my film. You started making music the same way, when you were just doing that shit for fun. But you ain’t doing it for fun anymore. You’re doing it because you’ve got responsibilities.
FIKE: That’s right. Sometimes I think, “Damn, it’d be nice to get a big ass boat and not dock for a long time.” It’s like when an idea is spawning and you don’t put too much pressure on it because you’re like, “Where’s it even going?” But you do have to put energy into it to see where it’s going to grow.
BARKER: An agenda, at the end of the day.
Shirt and Shorts Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.
FIKE: I’m good about that. The people in my life are good about that. They don’t put too much expectation on me. They know I can be finicky with dates.
BARKER: Honestly, you put out a lot of music in a way I appreciate. It’s not like you have 20 albums out, but as a fan, from the outside, you keep my cravings fed by dropping albums pretty consistently. Every album you drop becomes my soundtrack for that year, I’m not even going to lie.
FIKE: I think about the moment you first said that to me a lot, because I have such huge respect for you. That’s a moment I hold dear, because you’re an honest, true creative. When I pull up to your office, I’m like, “Oh, this is real.” We’re really in the fucking studio, really creating. When I see you, it just makes me happy.
BARKER: Thank you. I feel the same way. Another question: Euphoria was your first experience as an actor. Is that something you want to pursue more?
FIKE: I guess I didn’t have as many eyes on me before Euphoria , and that made me more approachable. Now that I’ve done that and I do music—I always believe you don’t want to be in people’s faces too much. I like it when I don’t know about an actor’s private life. I like my actors like I like my politicians. Recently, I’ve had a tough time separating actors from their cologne commercials. When I see Dune , I’m basically watching Instagram. I love all those guys and I don’t mean to diss Dune , but I see the press run so much that the movie is the fucking realization of 60 goddamn interviews and TikToks. At that point it’s not a movie anymore. It’s like a sporting event.
FIKE: I want to be front-facing with my music, and I wonder if that would take away from somebody’s vision of trying to create a new world onscreen. I wonder how I would fit. Maybe it would be a role where I break the fourth wall. I’m not even a fan of that shit, but maybe it’s a cameo. I don’t know if anyone has ideas for how I would integrate into a world like that again.
FIKE: I think there’s space for that, but I don’t want to be too on the nose. I don’t like when it’s random, like Ed Sheeran in Game of Thrones . I love Ed Sheeran and I love Game of Thrones , but everyone was kind of mad at that. I’ve never been the type of guy to intrude on anybody’s shit. That’s why I do all this shit myself. That’s why I’m bad at asking girls out.
BARKER: Right. You feel like Justin Timberlake —you could argue what came first. I guess people would say his music came first.
FIKE: But he popped off with those movies. He’s a good actor. He had a supporting role alongside Mila Kunis for that one movie. I didn’t do that. I was in 40 seconds of film here and there. Am I tripping?
BARKER: I feel like I still see him in stuff every now and then.
FIKE: Yeah, he rips. I’m not even saying I ripped that hard in acting. I think I got lucky on that one.
BARKER: Yeah. By the way, me saying yeah was not me agreeing with you. I think you’re great.
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FIKE: I feel like we ripped. Yeah, we fucking killed that shit.
FIKE: Curry, thank you so much, bro. I know you’re the busiest, most sought-after movie mogul on planet Earth as we sit here. Thank you for just talking to me again.
BARKER: Of course, man. I probably wouldn’t do this for anybody else, but you know how I feel about you.
Grooming: Anna Bernabe using Ciele Cosmetics and Kevin Murphy at Kalpana NYC.
Photography Assistant: Liam Cavanaugh-Fernandez.
On-set Production: Richard Knickerbocker.
Production Coordinator: Adaline Gruszynski.
Source: Fashion
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