There’s no denying the success and popularity of Chet Faker. The soultronica star has gone from being Melbourne’s best-kept secret to soundtracking a Superbowl commercial in front of a viewing audience of millions in the space of a year – the word ‘meteoric’ springs to mind – so it’s easy to forget that the Award-winning musician’s career is humming along off of just seven recorded songs.
Chet Faker, or Nick Murphy to his mum, released his debut EP, Thinking In Textures, in March 2012 and despite headlining national jaunts, several major festival appearances, and supporting Flume on his sold-out Infinity Prism tour, he’s managed to tinker away on his first full-length release.
Well… tinker and trash that is. In a recent interview with London website Gigwise ahead of his European Tour dates, Chet Faker reveals himself to be somewhat of a perfectionist, revealing he recorded more than half of his debut album before scrapping it.
“I keep going through stages where I think its done – and then I scrap 60% of it,” reveals Murphy. “I keep thinking it’s almost done, scrapping things and adding more. It’s annoying. I keep hearing something new that inspires me and I think ‘shit, I got to work harder’.”
The bearded crooner goes on to detail that he’s even set limitations for recording the follow-up to Thinking In Textures only to see them broken. “I have set myself two deadlines – both of which I haven’t met. One was at the start of this year and the other was to have it ready to be mixed two weeks ago (in early May). I don’t think that is happening.”
“Right now, I’m in the top 50, so it’s more than half done,” says Murphy, but was firm that “it’s not finished yet.” “I keep going through stages where I think its done – and then I scrap 60% of it… I keep hearing something new that inspires me and I think ‘shit, I got to work harder’.” – Chet Faker
As for the musical direction of his new recorded material, he remarked: “It’s definitely more developed. It’s richer I guess. If I listen back to the EP it’s a lot simpler, there’s usually only four parts going on at once, whereas the stuff i’m writing now, there is a lot more.”
“I have also moved away more from electronic synth sounds, and more toward traditional instrumentation, but producing it in a way so it does sound electronic,” he continues. “I’ve been more interested in sourcing the sounds from outside the computer, but then editing them within it, interestingly, rather than creating the initial sound in the computer.”
The live element was the central focus of a recent trip Chet Faker and his band took to regional Victoria, recording in an ex-Butter Factory in a raw environment, as captured on the recently released Live Sessions EP, which our Tone Deaf reviewer noted “simply cements Murphy’s incredible talents as an arranger and musician.”
When asked about plans for more European touring, Murphy told Gigwise, “No, I don’t think so. I have to go home and finish this record, I keep going off and doing shows. I’m still touring off that one EP, and that came out a while ago. It’s really cool to still be working off seven tracks, but even i’m getting a bit bored of them, I want to be playing some new stuff.”
He’s going to have to still fit his recording around a series of upcoming festival appearances, firstly in July as part of the 77-artist strong lineup for Splendour In The Grass, then Adelaide’s Spin Off Festival in August, and then later in September, at the US debut of Laneway Festival in Detroit, with a lineup featuring fellow rising star and touring partner, Flume, for whom Murphy has a lot of admiration.
“[He’s] awesome. We started making music around the same time,” he enthuses. The musical pair have stayed close since first meeting “a year ago,” according to Murphy. “He was actually supporting me in Sydney at this tiny club, a year later I was supporting him at sold out stadiums, playing to 9,000 people. It was pretty cool seeing this dude blow up.”
Following on from their first recorded collaboration in “Left Alone”, as featured on Flume’s chart-busting eponymous debut album, the bearded singer reveals the pair have continued working together on new material which could be released under either’s musical moniker, or a whole new project.
“We went away for a week at the start of the year, down to the beach in Australia and just recorded a bunch of stuff,” says Murphy. “I don’t think we really had a plan, we just locked ourselves away and wrote a bunch of tracks. We haven’t even figured out yet whether it will be Flume and Chet Faker or a side project. I’m not really sure.”
When asked if the 22-year-old beatmaker might make a cameo on the debut Chet Faker LP, the musician responded: “He’s heard a lot of the demos and drafts and given me some feedback, but we haven’t worked directly on a track yet. We’ve spoken about it, but so far I haven’t sent him anything yet.”
“I’m still figuring out where I want it to land first, and which track will be most appropriate for him to work on,” he adds. “I think i’m a bit of a control freak I guess, I’m not really ready to give the music to other people yet – but I trust him. I just have to figure it out first.”
