After 18 months on the road with Phantogram, multi-instrumentalist and touring member Nicholas Shelestak had to make a decision: move back to freezing Williamsburg, New York, in the dead of winter or find somewhere to wait out the cold. The 35-year-old musician chose Vegas, and for the past two months he’s been slinging drinks inside Downtown’s newest dance bar, Oddfellows. “I don’t really feel like going back now, because it’s sunny and warm here,” Shelestak says on an arguably brisk November night at PublicUs, one week before the group headed out on tour with Muse. “I’ve been loving being in the desert.”
Born and raised in Seattle, Shelestak was an optician before moving east in 2004 to pursue a music career and help his then-girlfriend start a clothing line. Once in New York, he answered a Craigslist ad and began playing with The Antlers, and later Exitmusic, which helped him meet Phantogram’s Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel. Since 2013, Shelestak has served as a vital weapon for that band, playing guitar, synth, keys and a hodgepodge of electronics. And yet, tending bar at Oddfellows, the musician doesn’t have the typical demeanor of a bigwig. “It gets a little stir crazy just sitting alone playing music all day,” he says. “I thought it’d be fun to bartend, ’cause that way I can be out but I’m not spending money.”
And Vegas has unlocked a new creative spark, Shelestak says, especially when it comes to his other craft, photography. “I’ve wandered every street down here shooting pictures. I actually hated doing it in New York, because you walk around and there’s 40 other assholes with a DSLR [camera],” he says. “I can walk around here and there’s just nobody … everything’s still covered in art, there’s no tagging on it. I find it kind of a unique scene down here, how much it varies by one block.”
While Vegas’ slower pace and empty streets might make for excellent photo fodder, Shelestak acknowledges that the city can be tricky for rising touring indie groups. “I definitely consider our [February] Brooklyn Bowl show a success, but it took being at this level to finally do it,” he says. “Even though it’s a city, you’ve got to scale it down … If you look at Downtown and you plopped it somewhere else, this is a small town. That’s how [bands] actually have to see it.”
