The long wait for Melbourne-based singer Chet Faker’s new album is over. ‘Built on Glass’ is the highly anticipated follow up of Chet Faker’s Gold-selling debut EP ‘Thinking in Textures’.
After rejecting two previous albums over a two year period, the bearded perfectionist premiered the first tracks of his new album; ‘Talk is Cheap’, as well as the utterly cool ‘Melt’, featuring the vocals of Brooklyn-based singer Kilo Kish.
The Australian multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer appears to have mastered the smooth blend of graceful jazz overtones with an array of minimal house influenced electronic percussion.
Chet Faker, known to his friends as Nick Murphy, came to sing live at Cargo in Shoreditch last year. At the end of April, he’ll be on the stage of Koko in Camden. If you’re reading this now, tickets are, without a shadow of a doubt, bloody sold out. However, here’s something to cheer you up – he talked to us about his music…
What does mean ‘Built on Glass’ to you?
The biggest theme of the record is honesty. But the title also references lots of different things. It’s all about fragility and ‘Glass’ was just the perfect metaphor for that. Glass is transparent but it’s also brittle and can be very strong. Glass itself can also help frame things, it can take something mundane and turn it into art. This record is basically a two-year diary of my life, it’s like if someone was looking into me through a transparent glass. This is the big idea, I wanted to make a musical diary of my life.
And the “Built On” references the fact that it’s been done myself, that I recorded it myself, that it’s a DIY process and also looks to the future. It’s saying, “This is my first album – so what ever happens from this point on is built on glass.”
I read you’re a big fan of recording random noises from your everyday life and then include them in your music, have you also done it for ‘Built on Glass’?
Yeah, there are some on the new album. Not as many as on ‘Thinking in textures’ though. There are some towards the end of track 1 and in ‘Blush’. They’re kinda spread across the album.
Tell me about your relationship and collaborations with Flume?
Well, me and Harley started making music at the same time, about three years ago now. He posted something like ‘Hey’ or ‘Hello’ on my Facebook wall and we started e-mailing each other. I had ‘No Diggity’ out and he had ‘Sleepless’, which I thought was a great song. When we did our first song together ‘Left Alone’, I’d actually never met him, you know. We did this one via e-mails. Then I played one of my first shows in Sydney and he was here to support me. I supported him when he did an Australian national tour playing stadiums and I guess we just got along. I don’t know if we complement each other musically, but we definitely compliment each other.
You’ve been featuring different singers along your career, how do you choose the people you sing with?
Well, the same way you choose anything, you know. Musical collaboration is the same as any other collaboration. Everyday in your life, you work with people because they have the same interest as you. It’s just the same with music. Sometimes it’s because you really like that person and what she does, other times it’s because you like the outcomes of spending time with them – you think you make good music together. There’s no rule. Usually I just look for someone who has something to offer.
When you recorded ‘No Diggity’ did you have any idea it would be such a turning point in your career? How did you react when you saw the huge reception to it?
No man, I had no idea. It was weird, I was really engrossed unpacking all my stuff at my home recently, looking at this old journal I kept through that time, and I was reading over what I was saying and it stressed me out actually. Cause I didn’t know what was happening, I felt like I might make a mistake and I didn’t want to fuck it up. Yeah, that was whack.
Finally, Why Chet Faker?
Well, there was another Nick Murphy in Melbourne. He already had two albums out when I started making music. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. And at the time, I was listening to a bunch of jazz and Chet Baker was one of the ones I listened to. I just loved his singing style, I don’t know if fragile is the word but I found it very controlled and understated. That’s where Chet Faker comes from.
You can find ‘Built on Glass’ on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/built-on-glass/id818918526?l=en