The Thousands

Chet Faker did the best debut live set I’ve ever heard, live on Melbourne’s RRR last weekend. It was something eerie.  After the performance I had a chat to Chet Faker about his sound, process, sex and the voices he hears in his head.

Robert Francis Coleman: How’d you find today, playing live on the air for the first time?

Chet Faker: Apologies for the garlic bread in the mouth. Well, today was only our sixth run through of the set, so, haven’t really had too much practice.Having to talk in between was, you know…

R: What’s your biggest concern about talking?

CF: Either swearing or saying something else that offends people.

R: Drug references?

CF: Don’t know what you’re talking about…

R: There was a song where you alluded to…

CF: Yeah, ‘Solo Sunrise’. It’s a song written about quitting. Quitting something that you’re addicted to. But it’s written as if the thing you’re addicted to is a person.

R: Like the whole ‘love is a drug thing’, or…?

CF: Yeah, pretty much, but it wasn’t necessarily about love; though it could certainly be interpreted that way. 

R: What were you talking about?

CF: Drugs.

R: Drugs, but as a person?

CF: Yeah.

R: Do you reckon you drain out emotion through your music?

CF: Absolutely. I’m not really the type of dude to jump into deep convos. I think when people listen to music, they expect it to be serious. If it’s in a song, people listen. It’s like justifying talking about myself. If I’m going to have a winge about something I’m gonna make sure people listen to it, so I’m gonna put it into a song.

R: What about the song, ‘I’m into you’?

CF: That’s not a literal meaning either…

R: You weren’t out to ‘get some’ with that song?

CF: No… Nah.

R: What was it about then?

CF: It was about that little bit before you can really say, “I love you”. But you can say, “I’m into you”…

R: You reference on your SoundCloud that your music is Future Beat. What the fuck is Future Beat?

CF: It’s sort of a joke, really…

R: Then what would you call it?

CF: I like saying Soul. Because, at least in my vocal lines, I really try to reference that Soul stuff.

R: You’ve got ‘Sex’ as a descriptor on there as well…

CF: Yeah, well, they’re all songs about sex, so it’s pretty straight-forward.

R: Do you think you’re obsessed with sex?

CF: Do you think I’m obsessed with sex? (Pause). Nah, I’m a 23-year-old guy, I think that’s pretty normal.

R: So you think it’s a hormonal thing? You’re not 16.

CF: Well, I’m pretty fit at the moment. Maybe I’m just getting my libido back.I smoke a lot, though.

R: Yeah, but that’s not really going to kill your dick off -

R: ‘Burst of insanity / clarity’ – it sounds like it was written in a rush?

CF: It was! Yeah. I like that song. Doesn’t really match the rest of my stuff, but it’s like thinking you’re over someone and opening up an old wound. And just how it’s like a burst, like the wound’s been opened. ‘Cos it comes so fast, it’s like a burst, it’s hard to tell if you actually feel it, or if you’re off the mark. So insanity or clarity; at the time it feels like clarity, but then you look back and you go ‘that was insane’, you know?

R: A fleeting moment?

CF: Exactly. Like thinking you’re in something and you’re actually not.

R: Creative people get real busy brains. Sometimes it’s really hard to piece things together, to figure stuff out. Do you find these are the times when you start writing music or when you can’t write music?

CF: That’s an awesome question. And, it’s when I start writing music. It’s funny you ask that. Sometimes I write a song about something and that song figures it out before I do. Like, I write a song about being over something, and I don’t know I’m over it until after I’ve written the song and then I’m like ‘holy shit, I’m over that’.

R: So you think you tap into something?

CF: Seriously, I don’t think I consciously write any of these songs. I think my subconscious kind of does it.

R: Can you feel it when creativity comes?

CF: Fuck yeah. Half the choruses pop into my head when I’m in bed. I always used to kind of hear songs in my head, but when I was like 19 I started to hear them a lot more vividly. But I’m never singing them; some black guy is singing them. Sometimes I hear really weird stuff, and I’m like ‘I can’t use that’. Like country songs, or like a chick in a country song, or something. Yeah, you actually can feel it. It’s, I don’t know, coming out of nowhere.

R: Ever a kid singing them?

CF: Nah. The only voices I’ve ever had are this African American dude and chick singer. And I don’t sound like either of them.