Two of Australia’s most internationally celebrated music stars – Sydney producer Harley Streten and Melbourne chilltronica singer Nick Murphy – are continuing their working relationship with the forthcoming release of a new collaborative EP.
You’ll probably know them better as Flume and Chet Faker respectively, and the pair have been working on new material together since earlier this year but are ready to release the EP “in a few months,” according to 21-year-old Streten.
Flume describes the collaboration as one of the highlights of his year so far (and the AIR nominated producer has had quite a few), telling The Music that the pair have been highly compatible ever since first recording together for Flume’s world storming, eponymous debut album, on ‘Left Alone‘ before becoming fast friends, leading to Chet Faker supporting Flume on his sold-out Infinity Prism tour.
“I’ve got an EP coming out with Chet Faker, that’s coming out in a few months,” confirms Flume. “I’m really, really psyched to get that out I think it’s really strong,” he enthuses.
“We went away for like a week and wrote some music and it turns out that we’re like an awesome duo,” he adds. “I mean, well, his strengths are all my weaknesses and vice versa so we kinda complement each other it’s a bit like a yin yang thing we’ve got going on.” The sessions, according to Chet Faker’s comments earlier this year, were conducted during a beachside getaway: “I don’t think we really had a plan, we just locked ourselves away and wrote a bunch of tracks.”
(Image: Chet Faker Source: Facebook)
As for what the EP will actually sound like, Streten remarks “[it] doesn’t sound particularly like Flume or specifically like, you know, a Chet Faker record, it really is kind like a hybrid of both sounds going to one and I feel like everything we did with that EP it was just totally everything was collaborative about the whole effort, and I think that shines through.”
Depending on the reception of the short-form release, Flume notes that there could be scope to continue the duo’s work into a full-length album.
“I’ve kinda just moved outta home and I’m building a studio right now… and, yeah, I’m keen to get him to come up to Sydney and you know we can just hang for like, you know, a few weeks, a month, whatever. Write an album, whatever, we’ll see what happens, you know?” he teases.
“It’s a very delicate thing we’ve got something pretty cool going on so I’m just excited to do more,” adds Flume, “I can’t wait to get back into the studio with him once our schedules kinda line up again and we can you know just write music.”
The young beat-maker may also give his studio a work-out with a rising star from across the pond, the chart records-breaking Lorde. The 16-year-old New Zealand sensation made a passing proposition to work with Flume only for him to openly take her up on her offer to collaborate some ‘bangerzzz’; “great idea, lets write some music together.”
Meanwhile, Flume could also make an appearance on the much-anticipated debut album from Chet Faker, as Murphy pointed out when discussing his often-scrapped full-length release in May, dropping the first taste of his new material in the Kilo Kish-featuring single, ‘Melt’, last month.
Both Aussie musicians also repped the “Australian Sound” at the first-ever Laneway Detroit last weekend, which has put the two in the rumour mill for the festival’s return to Australia next February as part of the Laneway 2014 lineup. There’s also the suggestion that Lorde could crop up on the Laneway bill considering the festival is presenting her return Australian tour next month.
Pure wish fulfilment, but imagine a three-way collab? We propose Chet Florde…
