Chet Faker won best male at last year’s ARIA Award, now the Hottest 100 is his. Source: News Corp Australia
AMID the sea of praise for Chet Faker’s Talk is Cheap taking out the Triple J Hottest 100 was an undercurrent of people asking ‘Who?’
Talk is Cheap peaked at No. 31 on the ARIA chart and hasn’t been used on a TV ad or been warmly supported by commercial radio. Faker scored a remarkable three songs in this year’s Hottest 100 Top 10 — also Gold and 1998 — the first act to do so since Powderfinger.
Faker is one of the most successful Australian artists of the last five years — here and overseas. His debut album Built on Glass hit No. 1 last year and went platinum, winning an ARIA for Best Male and Best Independent Release. He played over 100 shows globally last year and has over 40 million You Tube views.
His 3am vocals and passionate lyrics are delivered with electronica with human warmth and good old fashioned soul with modern R & B.
Here’s more Chet 101 for the new arrivals:
Chet Faker - Talk is Cheap ARIA Awards
1. CHET FAKER ISN’T HIS REAL NAME
He was born Nicholas Murphy in Melbourne 26 years ago. There was already another Nick Murphy on the music scene, so the name Chet Faker was adopted as a shout-out to the late American jazz musician who died the year Murphy was born. It also sounds pretty cool.
Inspiration ... Chet Baker was a jazz trumpeter who lived life to the fullest. Source: News Corp Australia
2. HE LIKES THE WAY YOU WORK IT
Faker’s big breakthrough came with a laid-back cover of Blackstreet’s new jack swing classic No Diggity. The remake became a viral hit in 2011, then in 2013 Faker’s No Diggity was used in a beer ad which aired during the Super Bowl, a major boost for his American popularity which he’d already cultivated through touring and showcases.
Chet Faker - No Diggity
3. YOU NEED HIS FIRST EP TOO
Faker’s first official release was the Thinking in Textures mini-album in 2012, which is also home to No Diggity. None of the singles troubled the ARIA chart, but the album belatedly hit the Top 40 caught up in the slipstream of Built on Glass last year. If you own Flume’s chart-topping debut album you’ll already be familiar with Faker’s voice — he sang on Left Alone. The pair also scored a Top 20 hit with their 2013 collaboration Drop The Game, also a Hottest 100 favourite last year. The videos for Drop the Game, Gold, 1998 and Talk Is Cheap have had over 40 million views between them.
Chet Faker and Flume share some aquatic manlove. Source: Supplied
4. HE WENT TO SCHOOL WITH VANCE JOY
Back when Chet was still Nick Murphy Vance Joy was still James Keogh and the pair were school mates at St Kevin’s College in the mean streets of Toorak. Vance Joy’s Georgia entered this year’s Hottest 100 — he remembers playing an early version of the song to Chet Faker in 2007. When Keogh moved into music Murphy’s moniker inspired him to ditch his own name, the same way Gotye had. “We’re good mates,” Joy says of Faker. “He’s an amazing artist and I look up to him as someone who’s strong with the great music they make themselves. We never wrote together, but he helped me record my first few songs. When I saw him doing so well it helped me understand it was possible. He came to my first few shows, he was a contemporary who could do it.”
Vance Joy got early musical help from Chet Faker, they remain close pals. Source: News Corp Australia
5. HE IS NOT WORK SHY
Faker played over 100 shows around the world last year, sold over 23,000 tickets in the UK and Europe, played a 6000 capacity venue in Istanbul (2000 fans made a petition to get the venue upgraded from a 500 seater when it sold out in two hours) and sold out shows in LA and New York. That doesn’t count heavy Australian touring over several years.
6. HE KNOWS HOW TO DOCUMENT A BREAKUP
Cigarettes and Loneliness from Built on Glass is an epic capturing of a blitzed heart. Here’s a shaky live version that captures in emotion what it loses in stability. You should also listen to To Me from Thinking in Textures, it’s pretty special too.
Chet Faker - Cigarettes and Loneliness live
7. ELLEN LOVES HIM
Ellen DeGeneres personally introduced Faker earlier this month on her US TV show as “one of my favourite new artists, an amazing singer songwriter from Australia.” His version of Gold was brilliant and a massive boost to his popularity in America. He also got a pair of Ellen jocks out of it, so win win.
Chet Faker - Gold on Ellen
Chet Faker cautiously hits the red carpet at the ARIA Awards. Source: News Corp Australia
8. HE TAKES DOWN JOURNALISTS
Faker was blasted online as ‘too cool’ for talking to fans on the red carpet rather than media. He’s not really a ‘What’s your favourite colour’ type sound bite artist. However unlike others who’d suck it up, Faker used Twitter to remind writers that words are weapons, no matter how many records you sell.
9. HE IS GREAT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Aside from last year’s hashtags #chetlag and #chetpet (when he spotted animals) Faker’s Twitter feed is refreshingly loose. Sometimes you think you may have imagined some, because they disappear into thin air — was there one last week about inviting people to introduce him to the mile high club?
looking for a 20 something Rose Byrne meet Zoe Saldana with a touch of Korean to smash my heart into tiny pieces for nxt album inspiration.
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) January 7, 2015 to clairfy that was a joke so if u out there plz dont break my heart. im just a man tryna find his place in this world. like sand.
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) January 7, 2015 never put my phone on flight mode, never gonna. #internationalbadboy #stillalive
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 30, 2014 2015 I promise to tweet slightly less insanse content once I have time to record music again
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 15, 2014 It's a full time job just trying to keep your soul in this industry
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 12, 2014 still got it tho
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 12, 2014 If you've ever been upset by someone you don't personally know you gotta revise life
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 11, 2014 Is it sexist to be attracted to someone based on their gender?
— ✋ɹǝʞɐℲ ʇǝɥƆ (@Chet_Faker) December 5, 2014 10. YOU MAY NOT GET TO SEE HIM ON TOUR NEXT MONTH
Faker’s biggest Australian tour starts next month. He’s already sold out four hometown shows at the Palais (2500 a night) and a Hordern in Sydney. There’s nothing like a Triple J Hottest 100 victory to get rid of those pesky few remaining tickets in other cities, so don’t dawdle.
One of Chet Faker’s earliest promo shoots — nice beanie. Pic Nicole Cleary. Source: News Limited
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