Chet Faker – It’s About The Music

Chet Faker is the creative alias of Nick Murphy, a 23-year-old solo artist from Melbourne whose debut EP Thinking in Textures is a beautiful blend of folk and electro. Rather than just restricting himself to one genre or the other, Murphy has combined his two passions and in the process discovered a form of music that is just as satisfying to write and record as it is to perform.

“Well, I always loved electronic music. And I was always jumping between the two. So for a few years I played that kind of folk acoustic stuff on guitar, then I got really sick of it. The simplicity of songwriting can really do your head in, the fine-tuning of tiny things. Then I would try and make beats and instrumental stuff, which I really liked, but then on the other end of the spectrum the unlimited options would also do my head in,” Murray said.

“The music now is the first time I felt comfortable with this sort of sound that did those two things. It was good because, if I did get stuck in the production side of things, I could go back and focus on the songwriting. I could swap between the two mental concepts without actually having to swap between the music I was making,” he said.

Figuring out how to merge folk and electro into his own particular brand of pop music has enabled Murphy to write heartfelt songs that play as both subtle and uplifting, and it is through the outlet of Chet Faker that Murphy feels most comfortable revealing himself.

“Because the songs were so personal I feel like there’s enough information on me without me having to go out and put up a bio on everything I’ve done in my life,” Murphy said.

“I think a big realization for me was that if I express it in song, it’s going to do two things: it’s going to make people listen to what I’m feeling and… it’s not just about me, if you do it well enough people can enjoy listening to how you’re feeling about things,” he said.

While still endeavoring to find his own sound and understand how to best express himself via his craft, Murphy first began to draw attention to his musical ability with his revamped version of Blackstreet’s classic No Diggity, which reached #1 on the worldwide indie music aggregator, Hype Machine.

“The plan the whole way was for it to be an original, so I finished the beat and it was kind of missing something. I started trying to put a vocal line over the top of it and No Diggity was stuck in my head… As a rule I’m not a huge fan of covers and I wanted to write my own song, but it just kind of fitted so well that I couldn’t bring myself to bring it out. It was kind of like semi-serendipitous, it could have very easily been an original,” Murphy said.

“I knew it was a big song, but I didn’t realize how big it was. That was one of the first songs I put out, so I wasn’t really thinking in terms of career. For me putting this EP out was a really good step: to just actually put out some original stuff, and it’s cool that it’s been well received, which is a really good feeling. It’s good to not be that cover guy as much anymore,” he said.

One original that has been very well received is Chet Faker’s newest single I’m Into You. The song has been played on the highly reputable Zane Lowe’s Next Hype segment and, like Murphy’s previous cover, peaked at #1 Hype Machine.

“It was really cool to have him pick it up. It wasn’t like a friend of anyone, which is really cool, to actually have someone, an impartial person with credibility behind him, chose that song. And that was cool because that was my first original that got some backing,” Murphy said.

It may seem as though all this success has come overnight for the young songerwriter/producer and although Murphy was able to create Thinking in Textures in his home garage within the relatively quick timeframe of 12 months, the effort required to actually devote his life to music was a discipline Murphy had been honing since the age of 15.

“I fucked around for years doing that standard muso thing where you have no idea what you want to do. You have an inkling that you want to be a musician, but you’re too young to realize that it’s not just going happen,” Murphy said.

“It’s such a thing that you think just comes whenever it does, which it does, but I think of it like this: you can’t increase your creativity. If you write one good song out of every ten songs you write, well you can’t change that… but you can change how many songs you write. So if you’re writing ten a year, you write one good song a year. If you’re writing a hundred, you’re writing 10 good songs,” he said.

“That’s been a lesson I’ve learnt in the last year; it’s really not as cruisey as I thought it would be. But that’s fair enough you know, it’s a job,” he said.

Chet Faker – Thinking in Textures is out via Opulent / Remote Control

Watch: Chet Faker – Terms and Conditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9r7KJJYkYY

Chet Faker – Thinking in Textures Launch Tour

Saturday 19 April – The Toff in Town, Melbourne

With special guests I’ll’s | SOLD OUT

Saturday 21 April – The Toff in Town, Melbourne

With special guests I’ll’s | SOLD OUT

Sunday 22 April – The Toff in Town, Melbourne

With special guests I’ll’s | SOLD OUT

Tickets from www.moshtix.com.au

Friday 27 April – Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane

With special guests Outerwaves and Motion Picture Actress

Tickets from www.oztix.com.au

Saturday 28 April – GoodGod, Sydney

With special guest Flume

Tickets from www.moshtix.com

All tickets $12 + BF pre-sale or $15 on the door (if available)

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