The decaying Venus statue (Zandy Mangold)
The bead mosaic of Creole Wrasse tropical fish (Zandy Mangold)
His Quaker State motor oil clock (Zandy Mangold)
Perched on the sixth floor of a Mott Street walk-up building, musician Andrew Wyatt’s one-bedroom feels like a retreat. The wood paneling in the living room and many of the home’s furnishings, which the Miike Snow singer found on streets nearby, seem plucked from a log cabin hundreds of miles from the city. “It’s looked like that for a long time, and now it’s really trendy, so maybe it’s time to switch out of that mode. I don’t know. This is just what I like,” Wyatt says of the decor.
“Honestly, most of the stuff I have in here is found,” he adds, pointing out a wood-framed panel of colored glass that leans against a wall in the living room.
On an opposite wall next to a couch (which he admits paying $400 for) sits another street find: a weathered trunk he describes as “de rigueur hipster fare,” which he uses to hold blankets. As an added bonus, he found a postcard inside mailed from Alaska circa 1925.
Wyatt, who spent his formative teenage years in the ’80s living with his father on Perry Street, hopped between a number of places (in Union Square, on Leroy Street and in Williamsburg) before finding the rent-stabilized Nolita pad he’s called home since 2002.
“It was at a weird time after 9/11, and landlords were having a hard time finding people to move downtown, so I was able to get a really good deal on it,” he says.
The rent’s now $2,300 but started at “well under $2,000,” which Wyatt split with a roommate for the first couple years. “There was a wall here,” he says, motioning to the middle of the living room, “so it was a very small two-bedroom.”
Wyatt filled the extra space with a large handmade wood table by his friend Steven Garfield, a retired fashion designer who makes furniture on a farm in New Jersey. The irregularly curved edges fits in with the log-cabin-chic look, while the table serves as a work space for Wyatt when he’s in town, which he estimates to be about half of the year.
“I think I’m curtailing the amount of time I spend in Stockholm,” he says of the city where the other two members of the electro-pop trio Miike Snow live.
It’s where the band worked on much of its two albums, layering heavily produced riffs and soundscapes beneath catchy pop melodies sung with muted pitch by Wyatt. “[Stockholm] is a beautiful city, ” he says. “But I’ve spent so much time away from home, I think it’s important for me to be here awhile.”
Wyatt’s looking forward to East Coast dates, which include an Oct. 19 show at the United Palace Theatre on 175th Street and an Oct. 23 show at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Wyatt’s also getting ready to release a solo album, “Descender,” in November. Recorded with a 75-piece orchestra, it’s a departure from his band and perhaps a return to the brief stint he spent in a music conservatory.
Wyatt’s become close to some of his building’s long-term tenants. “I spent one New Year’s with the superintendent’s family,” he says. “We have a bond. I’m into this neighborhood aspect of New York that doesn’t really exist anymore. There’s a kid I’ve literally seen grow up from being a toddler to having his first girlfriend to being on the basketball team. It’s great.”
When he is away, Wyatt opens his house to his pals. “When I got back [from one trip], my friend Astrid made all these origami cutouts that were on every surface.” he says. “I kept as many of them as I could.”
The chandelier hanging regally above his work space was rescued from a trash bin just down the block. “I replaced all the crystals on it, which was like $120, so I feel it was a great deal,’ he says.
He lucked into a couple pieces of art when he was living in Williamsburg. “This was made by one of my neighbors in my old building just as an arts-and-crafts endeavor of their own. They thought it wasn’t worth keeping and put it out on the street,” Wyatt says of the bead mosaics that were part of a select few items that made the move with him.
Another is a decaying Venus statue on the fire escape outside his bedroom window. “I found that in front of the Giglio Boys Club on Lorimer Street,” he says. “It was in perfect shape when I bought it 15 years ago, but now it has this rain-pock vibe to it from being outside.”
Andrew Wyatt’s
FAVORITE THINGS
* His Quaker State motor oil clock
* The decaying Venus statue
* The found chandelier
* The bead mosaic of Creole Wrasse tropical fish
* A picture of musician Michael Tighe
* The origami cutouts
* Headdresses made by a friend, Kathryn Bentley, for a Miike Snow show but never used