This interview originally appeared on Handstamp
Day-to-day life has changed for me in the last year.
Part of the reason I’ve been able to upload these interviews weekly is the necessary step back that I took, both professionally and socially, to recover from some frustrating and uncertain physical symptoms.
My second bout with COVID at the end of 2024 resulted in some longer-term effects on my nervous system. It’s been knackering, confusing and somewhat educational. While helpful resources ARE available, it’s important when your body starts to behave differently that you don’t send yourself into an online ‘research’ spiral, but I have certainly been guilty of catastrophising and comparing. Afraid I will never be able to perform music with my friends or struggle through casual basketball runs again, I searched for tales of hope from artists sidelined by COVID who returned in full force. Australian musician Nick Murphy, aka Chet Faker was one of those beacons of hope.
Though our shared symptoms were few and far between, the chance to connect to the now-thriving Murphy meant more than he probably realised (until he proofreads this to check he didn’t say anything too wild.) Naturally, I probed him, off record, about the battle he faced to get back on stage, but first I wanted to know about the musical upbringing that pushed him there in the first place.
Chet Faker: "I live in Sydney as of the last few months. I’ve come back to Australia, after 12 years in America, I think. I’m a Melbourne boy, I just like the beaches in Sydney."
Handstamp: "So, you’re a Melbourne boy, from the suburbs?"
Chet Faker: "Yeah, I was a suburban kid. I moved around more than most people, because my parents were split and kept moving. Primarily, the eastern suburbs, about 40 minutes away from the city, so I wasn’t a city kid but when I finished school I got into the city, so wasn’t NOT a city kid either."
Handstamp: "You’d have access to the city life when you wanted it?"
Chet Faker: "Yeah, I’d ride my bike there and back out at the end of the night. It was accessible to me."
Handstamp: "Well, being within touching distance to the city, did you have decent access to live music growing up?"
Chet Faker: "Melbourne is kind of sprawled out. I remember the first gig that I ever went to that mattered to me was with my uncle Justin, when we went to see Silversun Pickups at a venue that’s closed now. They were supporting Snow Patrol and did a sideshow at this little venue, maybe 200-300 cap. We managed to get right to the front and it was cool, man. I remember a member of the band accidentally smacked a lady with the headstock of his guitar, during a guitar solo because he got so lost in it."
Handstamp: "…was the lady ok?"
Chet Faker: "She WAS bleeding from memory, but cool about it. He was so apologetic, it certainly made it memorable. But my uncle, who has passed away now, was in a rock band called The Dipsticks, as the drummer and he had lived that live. He was a huge live music influence for me, so most of my early memories of shows were with him."
Handstamp: "Well, respect and RIP to Justin. So, that was your first show?"
Chet Faker: "That’s the first one I really remember as an important gig. I remember it being a big deal that I was going out on a school night, so I must have been pretty young. Then Justin was my chaperone to get me into the gig and I remember being worried that I was too close to the front."
Handstamp: "In a ‘sensory overload’ type of way?"
Chet Faker: "Well, just because I was nervous that the band would see me and decide I was too young to be there, or whatever."
Handstamp: "That’s a good one though, because most people have a bit of a caveat for their first show, where they qualify that it wasn’t necessarily the first show that mattered to them, but it sounds like this one could have made an impact on you."
Chet Faker: "There were probably some shitter ones that I buried deep but that’s the first one I really took in. I remember noticing everything, the bar, the people, I remember clocking the concept of it all at that point."
Handstamp: "What are some of the best places to see shows in Melbourne?"
Chet Faker: "Oh man, they’re going to kill me for this. I haven’t lived there for over a decade, you know? I played at the Palais Theatre in recent years, which I also played 10 years ago and was told then that it was the last show, that it was shutting down but that is an iconic place. The first formal place I played was called The Tote, which is an institution in Melbourne and almost closed down during COVID but stayed alive just through donations."
My very first band in high school was called Sunday Kicks, we played at The Esplanade in what they call the front room, where you can fit about 50 people. We’d play a lot of shows there and my friends would come."
"Music is music, you don’t have to be a lost cause to make it."
Handstamp: "What did the Sunday Kicks sound like?"
Chet Faker: "Um, confused? [laughs]. The guitarist, Fraser, loved John Frusciante, he was obsessed to the point of trying to have a life-destroying drug problem to replicate his idol. He was pretty good as a guitarist, he could shred."
Handstamp: "The thread of musicians in their 30s with a Red Hot Chili Peppers-infused background, including myself, is incredibly wide-reaching."
Chet Faker: "Well, I’m absolved of this. I like them now, but I never liked the idea of a self-destructive artist like my friend did, I thought it was a trope. I’m sober now, I had a real problem at one point but I just didn’t think it was cool. I still have friends in New York, who did heroin to be like Lou Reed or whatever, which I think is really fucking stupid."
Music is music, you don’t have to be a lost cause to make it."
Handstamp: "You’re not on board with suffering for your art then?"
Chet Faker: "It’s bullshit. If you’re an artist, you’re an artist man. David Byrne, you know? There’s a million examples."
Handstamp: "So, if you weren’t into the Frusciante thing, who was your main inspiration at that time?"
Chet Faker: "I liked Jeff Buckley. That’s who I was obsessed with. I couldn’t sing like him, but I didn’t know that yet, so was doing all sorts of over-the-top extended shit. I was also learning the keys, but wasn’t that good at it. My great singing teacher, Trevor, who had this sort of camp musical theatre thing going on, definitely had an influence, so I had this proxy theatrical thing coming through. Then our drummer, like most young drummers, just wanted to be in a metal band and play fast, but was forced to be in an indie band."
Handstamp: "Totally. There were plenty of frustrated Joey Jordisons who wanted to flex their twitch muscles."
Chet Faker: "[laughs] exactly. Anyway, that ended over a girl, as all great bands do."
Handstamp: "RIP Sunday Kicks."
Chet Faker: "RIP. I tried to find the old MySpace page, but it’s hard to find. It might be gone."
Handstamp: "When you moved to New York, was that quite the shift for you?"
Chet Faker: "Crazy. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know anyone. It honestly took me two years before I made friends, for a multitude of reasons. I was talking to a therapist and was miserable, but I couldn’t go home because I had ‘moved to New York’, you know? Another part of it was that I was on an endless tour, my old manager just had me out on the road at all times, so I was trapped in a bubble of my own success. Then a friend told me to move to Bed-Stuy, as it was the ‘cool’ place to go, which it was, but it was 2014 and I was basically the face of gentrification. Then I moved to Red Hook, which is cool but isolated. After a few years I moved to Manhattan, which is when I was like ‘alright New York, let’s go.’"
Handstamp: "I guess that’s the postcard version of having moved to New York?"
Chet Faker: "Well, I’m from suburban paradise, you know? So, I had this moment where I questioned why I would live in a Brooklyn suburb. I came to NEW YORK, give me the full experience, in the city with the horns and all that."
"The New York scene was kind of running from the money, because all the coked-up finance dudes would turn up to a good party on the third month and make it shit."
Handstamp: "I guess there was a big difference between the live scene in Melbourne and New York too?"
Chet Faker: "There was. This may get me in trouble… well, probably not because New York doesn’t care, but it kind of sucked. New York has all the greatest bands on, all the time, but what I had in Melbourne, which wasn’t the case in New York, was that it was really natural to go out, go to a gallery opening or a show or whatever, ride your bikes there, go to the after party and all that."
The thing about New York was that everything needed a ticket, there were some barriers in the way of everything, so it didn’t feel natural in the same way."
There was some of that stuff, but it was after parties, apartment parties, more secret stuff. The New York scene was kind of running from the money, because all the coked-up finance dudes would turn up to a good party on the third month and make it shit. So, everything becomes a one-off thing, always moving, it felt like a maze. You’d be invited to a party by someone, who tells somebody else your number, you’d then be texted a poster, which tells you another number to call on the night, then you’d meet somebody who would give you the address."
Basically, everything they can do to make sure only a select group of people could come, which is the opposite to most parties around the world, you know?"
Handstamp: "It’s always struck me as a great place to have a well-connected social life, but as an outsider or tourist, or whatever, it’s not much of a party town unless you know exactly where to go."
Chet Faker: "Yeah, they literally call it the city that never sleeps, but in my experience, I was partying more in Melbourne, which I didn’t expect."
Handstamp: "Absolutely. I think the public-facing version of New York is actually a city that sleeps at around 10pm. Once you’re embedded or if you have a ridiculous amount of money, it certainly seems to be different."
Chet Faker: "Right, there’s always something on somewhere. The hard part is knowing where it is. That’s kind of my point. In Melbourne you’d know to go to one of five venues, but in New York you’d have to work to find yourself at a random Karaoke bar where Lenny Kravitz was throwing an open bar, or something like that. You have to kind of be out every night and those things happen occasionally, then become lore. I prefer going out in a city where you don’t have to roll the dice for a good night out."
"Chet Faker – the project – was never intended to play live, but then when it blew up, I had to figure it out. I’ve spent the last 10-15 years reverse engineering, making a track and then working out how to play it live."
Handstamp: "Do you remember any particularly good shows in New York?"
Chet Faker: "Man… not really."
Handstamp: "Fair enough. What about in Melbourne?"
Chet Faker: "Well, ok. I mainly remember seeing great DJs. I saw DJ Harvey on a rooftop in Melbourne, where I did my Boiler Room. It was hard to go get into because it was packed out, then Annie Frost, who is another big DJ in Melbourne, hooked us up on the guestlist. The vibes were impeccable, it was a sunny day, everybody was smiling. All-time shit."
I also remember seeing Marcel Dettmann DJ a six-hour set at Roxanne, which is famed for the floor caving in a few years later. He played a techno set that morphed into an electro set. It was after I got sober, so I was only drinking water. I kept waiting for a break, where I’d be ready to go, but he just kept me dancing for six hours."
Handstamp: "On just water?"
Chet Faker: "Yeah. Just totally locked in."
Handstamp: "Amazing. You mentioned seeing a lot of shows when touring, so I guess you’re somebody who makes the time to watch other acts?"
Chet Faker: "Usually if it’s the same day, yeah. I saw Erykah Badu play in Austin in 2013, which was awesome. She called Austin ‘Dallas’, which I think she did it on purpose to piss them off, but it was awesome."
I’ve seen her a few times, because I went on tour with Bonobo years ago, on my first proper tour and he had a track with Erykah Badu. She came to the show we played in Houston and I went on stage for a song with Si (Green, Bonobo), but before she came out, the band was vamping for such a long time, waiting for her to come out when she was ready. It went on for about 10 minutes, to the point where people were worried she might not appear, then there was the strongest smell of weed when she came down with an amazing looking crew of people, wearing a huge hat."
An insane thing happened, where you could just see the room lift when she appeared, it was like God was on stage, you know?"
I should have made a list, because I’ve seen some shit. But, I’m going to let my ADD do the thing. I remember seeing Phoenix sound checking at a festival somewhere in Scandinavia forever ago. I knew some of their earlier stuff but they played four or five songs from the latest record. It occurred to me that I had the empty field to myself, I could just sit down and have this little Phoenix show to myself. That was when I was having a hard time touring too much as well, so it felt pretty cool that I got to do it."
Handstamp: "Wow, private show. I guess during a tough time that made some of the sacrifice feel worth it, if for a moment?"
Chet Faker: "Yeah, that’s what I mean. I felt stuck for a long time and a bit like a hamster on a wheel. But in that moment, I felt lucky to be there. I also played right before D’Angelo, in San Francisco. That was awesome."
Handstamp: "Oh, RIP. Talk about presence and aura…"
Chet Faker: "RIP the GOAT. That was amazing. But yeah, that’s where my head is going, where the experience was really something different. He had about seven outfit changes as part of the show. So fucking cool. A real ‘pinch me’ moment."
Handstamp: "Sounds special. A Love For Strangers is imminent, how do you feel about sharing these new songs in a live environment?"
Chet Faker: "I feel great about it. Probably more so than any record I’ve ever done. I was conscious of it the whole time when I was making the record. Chet Faker – the project – was never intended to play live, but then when it blew up, I had to figure it out. I’ve spent the last 10-15 years reverse engineering, making a track and then working out how to play it live. I’ve been on a long journey to connect those two worlds, but with this record, I think its starting to line up. I don’t need to rely on a computer or sampler to play these songs live, which is really exciting."
Chet Faker released his latest record A Love For Strangers on February 13th.
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