Chet Faker: ‘I’m No More Sexual Than The Next Man’

Chet Faker on hype, sex, pseudonyms and why he finds it difficult to play to Melbourne crowds. Words by DOUG WALLEN.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] This time last year, Chet Faker wasn’t on most people’s radar. Now he’s all over it: the Melbourne singer/musician/producer born Nick Murphy stacked up South By Southwest buzz in the wake of climbing global aggregator Hype Machine and inclusion in BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe’s Next Hype segment. Next to the sum effect of all that advance build-up, Chet Faker’s debut Thinking in Textures EP is as quiet as a mouse. Combining a late-night vocal purr with equal parts home production and vintage soul/R&B glow, Murphy is a modern lover boy surveying the washed-out landscape of lust with all the delicacy of his jazz-hero namesake.

As he prepares to launch the EP live in Australia, Murphy took time out for a generous, revealing interview. Below he weighs in on his musical alias, his previous projects, sexiness in his music, song versus sound, genre affiliations, covering Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ and how hype has a mind of its own.

When you called just then, you said your real name. Are you protective of that?
Initially I was. But it’s becoming more and more of a crossover, depending on where am I and who I’m dealing with. Some people call me Chet; it’s kind of become a second name for me. But when I’m in Australia I usually just introduce myself as Nick. When I’ve been overseas I’ll do Chet. I’m not sure why I said Nick: maybe because I was sitting at home on the phone. I’m not super protective of it, but I don’t really like blurring the lines.

You don’t?
Not really. I like separating it. I think with music today, people [who] like your music usually want to know everything about you. If your name’s there, it makes it a lot more accessible for people to infiltrate into your personal life. I guess it’s a hard lesson to learn if you’re a musician these days. You’re not actually just putting your music forward, you’re putting your whole life forward for people.

Nick Murphy is a pretty common name, but there’s a power-pop guy in Melbourne named that too.
That was the reason I went with a pseudonym, because he’d been around much longer than I had. I actually used to play under Nick Murphy and I had people showing up thinking, “What the hell is this?”

Were you a fan of Chet Baker and wanted to pay homage to him?
I’m definitely a big fan, but the name particularly comes from his singing style. Those really fragile vocals. And it was around the same time that condenser mics were being made mainstream for the first time, so you could get that really close-up, intimate sound. It was a vocal sound that I wanted to go with as well. So it seemed right to reference, I suppose, an inspiration of my own in the work I’m doing now.

He’s got that bedroom sort of voice.
Yeah, exactly.

Your stuff seems very R&B-influenced. Have you had a longstanding appreciation of R&B, or is that more of a recent thing for you?
I’ve had a longstanding appreciation for soul music. Maybe it’s because of growing up in the ’90s that my take on that sounds more like R&B than it actually does soul. Obviously R&B was huge in the ’90s, but I didn’t listen to a lot of it. I was into Jeff Buckley and Van Morrison, stuff like that. But I always loved the Temptations and Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding and Smoky Robinson. I usually try and reference the soul stuff. R&B is a pretty new thing for me: I’ve never been huge into it.

You’re comfortable singing in a sexy way. Is that something you had to get comfortable with?
It was a new singing style for me. A lot of people talk about finding their voice and where they’re comfortable. I’m still pretty young – I’m 23 – and they often say you don’t find your voice until you’re like 25. At least in classical singing. I started this music just over a year ago, so I would have been 22. I think the music actually started as a result of me finding a comfortable spot for my voice. Or a style. I was trying a whole lot of different styles, as people do, and this project spawned out of me finding a style I was quite comfortable with vocally.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] I'm Into You by Chet Faker

Lyrically, as well, you’re not afraid to allude to sexuality.
Ah, yeah. [Laughs] I suppose I’m no more sexual than the next man my age. I think maybe at a younger age, when you’re 18 or 19, a lot of people aren’t 100 percent comfortable with where their sexuality is. I’m not talking in terms of gender direction, but being comfortable with what’s appropriate and what isn’t and working out where it sits in your life and in a relationship. For me it was lesson to realise that sexuality is actually a necessary and big part of an emotional relationship with someone. Actually getting a firm grasp of where that sits in a relationship and feeling confident that I know what it means and where it stands. So I suppose I felt confident to start singing about it. Obviously I’m a young male, so it’s a relevant issue in my head.

Because you’re singing and writing lyrics as well as playing and producing, do you ever have to put yourself in separate frames of mind to approach it all?
When I started I did. I’ve probably been working towards this kind of music since I started music at 15. I went through periods where all I did was sing, and I went through periods where all I did was write songs on the guitar. Then I went through a couple years where I was obsessed with production and I did instrumentals. I was, in a sense, working on my chops. Once I felt confident that I could at least get a bare minimum on all bases, then I could approach it all at once. Now it’s just one mind frame and I do it as I go.

At the beginning of your RRR performance, [Remote Control founder] Steve Cross talked about song versus sound. Is that something you’ve thought about? This dichotomy, or maybe trying to make it so that it’s not a dichotomy and just one thing instead?
I usually reference this: when I was growing up, my mum listened to a whole bunch of soul music. Which is my opinion is almost the last time pop was cool for everyone. Not to say it isn’t now – some stuff is – but that was just really well written music. Then, on the other hand, my dad listened to the chilled-out Ministry of Sound CDs, which were more based on the sounds that were going on. So I suppose I always had a love for both sides. Like I said, I was going through periods of my life where I focused on one side and not the other and jumping across. It was kind of evitable that I was gonna meld my two loves. Some songs are really catchy because they’ve got a really interesting sound, and some are just really well written. It would make sense, if you’re trying to write a song, to do both.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] RRR Live to air (19 11 11) (first live performance) by Chet Faker

What’s been the evolution of the live show since that first performance on RRR?
It’s definitely got tighter. That’s a given. That first performance, we had to strip the songs down a bit to make it playable. I think I tried to bite off more than I could chew. [The band] are session players, but they play with me all the time. They were pretty helpful: I bounced off ideas and they had input.

And you still play with them?
Yeah. I like the idea of at least having an ongoing band for live shows. I still write the music and arrange it, but when you’re reverse-engineering something for live you probably need to give your musicians a bit more opportunity to have an input.

How did you go at SxSW? I couldn’t find much footage online.
Really well, actually. I played six shows: three with the band and three solo. Our last show was our 10th show ever, which is ridiculous. It’s almost too ridiculous, but there’s not much I can do about it. But it was really good. Americans are pretty enthusiastic, so they’re a really good crowd. A lot easier than Melbourne crowds.

Do you find Melbourne crowds just don’t give you much positive reinforcement?

They’re harder to read. There’s the same amount of positive vibe there, but it’s harder to tell that it’s there.

The first time I saw your name was when you remixed a Geoffrey O’Connor song. Have you done many other remixes?
That’s the only official one. I’ve done a few edits on my SoundCloud. One of a Radiohead song, ‘Nude’, and one of a Phoenix song, ‘North’. It’s something I’m interested in, but I haven’t really been hit up. I think with that electronic crossover, people get confused as to whether you’re a producer or an artist.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] So Sorry (Chet Faker Remix) by Geoffrey O'Connor

What kind of music did you do before this?
Folk music. Actually, I was in three things. Folk music was my main one: I played under the name Atlas Murphy, which is the closest to my first name I could get. [The others were the rock band Sunday Kicks and the dance duo Knicks].

Did you put out records as Atlas Murphy?
No, this EP is my first release ever.

It must be crazy to have gotten such a huge amount of attention so quickly for it.
Yeah, I know. I’m as critical as the next Melbourne musician, so I’m aware that the faster you rise, the faster you fall. The big thing for me has been trying to legitimise this hype. Trying to slow it down, but it’s got a sort of mind of its own.

It’s good you’re playing places like the Toff, and not trying to skip that step.
Yeah. Y’know, if there were major label offers I’d probably turn them back, because I feel like I’m always going to write music. I’m 23. I’ve got a lot of time. There’s no rush to get to that level.

Your music has been compare to James Blake and called post-dubstep. Is there any scene or sound you affiliate with?
Well, post-dubstep made sense for me. But Pitchfork did an article saying it’s not even a genre, which is pretty interesting to read. It’s a bit of a cultural shift at the moment, where so many genres are crossing over that a lot of people didn’t expect to ever cross over. [Like] this movement of electronic music into things like ballads.

Do you think there’s still a folk element to Chet Faker?
Probably not, with the instrumentation. I use a lot of Rhodes and Wurlitzers, but I really haven’t touched my acoustic guitar for a couple years now.

When you worked out your cover of ‘No Diggity’ did you try a few different approaches before you cracked it?
That was a weird one, actually. That was the quickest song I’ve ever written. I came home and wrote it in four hours, start to finish. I’d been out all night and I’d had too many Red Bulls. I did all the beats first. And up until the beat was finished, it was never ‘No Diggity’. It was just an original. Then I finished it and I was trying to do vocals over the top, because I often do vocals last. Nothing was coming up, and ‘No Diggity’ was in my head because someone had played it earlier that night. I just started doing that. I was getting sort of delirious, so I just went with it. The next day I listened to it and it actually fit really well. So it was a really whim decision. I was never like, “I’m going to cover this song.” It was just stuck in my head, really.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Chet Faker- No Diggity by Maludo

Has that been a big song for you? Like a calling card?
It has on the internet. What sort of started it all was that that got on the Hype Machine and [hit #1 on] the Popular charts. But a new track, ‘I’m Into You’, has just done that again. [It] was a really good feeling to have a similar vibe of positive response on something that is a complete original. But yeah, it has been. Especially at the live shows. People love something they can immediately sing along to.

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Thinking in Textures is out now on Opulent/Remote Control. Tour dates below.

EP LAUNCH DATES

Thurs, Apr 19 – The Toff In Town, Melbourne, VIC
Sat, Apr 21 - The Toff in Town, Melbourne, VIC (sold out)
Sun, Apr 22 - The Toff in Town, Melbourne, VIC (sold out)
Fri, Apr 27 - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, QLD
Sat, Apr 28 - GoodGod, Sydney, NSW