Every Which Way

Nathan Fake may hail from the rural village of Necton in Norfolk, but the IDM kid presaged the chillwave phenomenon with 2004's classic neo-psychedelic tune, The Sky Was Pink.

The enigmatic Brit lately presented an acclaimed third album, Steam Days, led by Iceni Strings, a tribute to his native East Anglia, also home to Boudica's ancient Iceni tribe. Now he's returning to Australia for his first tour in nearly four years. Fake was the biggest name scheduled to appear at Victoria's Rainbow Serpent Festival – although not necessarily into psy-trance, he's intrigued by its being “totally outside any kind of scene” – with club dates in Perth and Sydney. “I'm just playing all stuff off the new album,” Fake advises of his live laptop show, adding that he'll throw “a couple of old classics in there as well.”

The then teenage bedroom producer, heavily into the Warp Records roster, studied music technology in Reading, and it was here, aside from making geeky friends, that he launched his career. Fake debuted with Outhouse on James Holden's Border Community in 2003. Three years later, he offered an album, Drowning In A Sea Of Love, joining the dots between shoegaze, acid, ambient and contemporary techno, electro and progressive. Fake had a huge hit with The Sky... , expertly remixed by Holden. It was recently included in DJ Mag's 'Top 100 Most Important Techno Records'. Eventually Fake quit his course. “The reason why I dropped out is 'cause I was just busy doing gigs and making records. The tutors were like, 'Yeah, you might as well carry on doing that rather than do the course!'” Today Fake resides in London, though he's unsure if he'll stay there. Nevertheless, he has stuck with Border Community, only occasionally releasing music on other labels like Satoshi Tomiie's Saw. 

Each of Fake's albums has had a distinctive tone. Drowning... was sublimely melodic, fuzzy and vaporous IDM. But with 2009's follow-up, Hard Islands, Fake went for a more abrasive – and intense – techno, the flip-side of his post-industrial sound. Gigging solidly rubbed off on his studio output. However, Fake's latest foray is a synthesis of his divergent ideas – or a consolidation, its vibe simultaneously nostalgic and modern. “Steam Days is a much broader-sounding album than the first two,” he agrees. “The first two were quite sort of bipolar, really.”

As he explains it, Fake had started issuing techno 12”s, and so when it came to Drowning..., he wanted to create “mellow” music – “something non-techno”. Then Hard Islands was “a conscious move to go completely the other way.” Yet the “concept” of Steam Days was that there should be no concept and, as such, Fake considers it his “most visceral-sounding album”. “I just wrote what fell out of me.” The producer, who favours a combination of analogue and digital technology, utilised old cassette recorders to achieve Steam Days' warm textures in a process he calls “erosion of sound”. 

Fake has received rave reviews for Steam Days and the album has won back those who loved the romance of Drowning... but felt Hard Islands was too radical, or austere, a departure. “I tend not to focus too much on the reviews and stuff, 'cause you can get a bit bogged down with it, but the response has been really good. I'm dead chuffed with how it's gone down, so that's a bonus.” 

As with Denmark's Trentemøller, Fake is an increasingly rare new era EDM album artist. And he's committed to the format even as many of his peers privilege singles or EPs. “I think putting an album out is more of a statement these days – it's like a milestone... People take you way more seriously if you put an album out.” Whose albums does Fake listen to? “The last couple of years I've been a bit off the pulse,” he confesses. “But I think my favourite album last year was Lukid, Lonely At The Top.” Typically, Fake unwinds to the “timeless” electronica of his youth – acts like Orbital (with whom he toured, coincidentally, in December) and “mid-'90s” Autechre.

One of Fake's most high-profile projects was a remix of Radiohead's Morning Mr Magpie for their compilation TKOL RMX 1234567, Thom Yorke himself curator. “I met Thom a little while after the remix came out and he said he was really into it, so that was cool – 'cause usually you do a remix and you might not even meet the person who you've remixed or you don't get any direct feedback.” Fake has had music sync'ed for TV shows, with You Are Here notably heard in CSI: Miami. “That was quite a funny one! I haven't seen it, though (laughs). I have no idea how it was used in the program.” His compatriot Jon Hopkins, whose Wire he tweaked, is devoting much time to scoring films. Fake, with his cinematic beats, is “up for” similar endeavours in the future, while wary. “I know Jon quite well. He's done a few soundtracks and it's so much work. I think it's so much more work than doing an album because, if you do your own music, making your own album, you can just do what you want. It's a lot of work, but creatively you just do what you like. But making music for a film is so specific... But it seems like a really interesting challenge. It's something I'd definitely like to try at some point.”

Fake has acquired near iconic status, the emotronica of Drowning... foreshadowing the nu-gaze Washed Out, Toro Y Moi and (possibly) Summer Camp. Still, he's apparently unaware of his influence. “I know chillwave was a thing a few years ago, but I never really delved into it. But [Drowning...] I did completely independently of knowing what was going on musically at the time – 'cause, like I said, I was doing techno records at that point. I just found myself making these quite mellow tunes and they all sat together really nice and then ended up being an album... I kind of moved on from that sound pretty quick after that album came out, so I haven't really checked out any other music around that same style for ages.” He's more enthusiastic about the UK's post-dubstep techno wave, citing Blawan, Pariah and the revitalised Surgeon.

Indeed, Fake is looking ahead. He's currently touring “loads” (“mostly around Europe”) behind Steam Days. There could yet be another single from the LP, but Fake is already contemplating his next project. “I'm basically just working on new music now.”

Nathan Fake will be playing the following dates:

Sunday 27 January – Rainbow Serpent Festival, Melbourne VIC
Friday 1 February – The Likes of You, Perth WA
Saturday 2 February – Chinese Laundry, Sydney NSW