FAKER

“It's great to walk on stage every night with the KSM9 in hand. I feel excited when I hear the sounds of the KSM9 coming back at me, and that excitement goes right in to the performance. In the midst of leaping and bounding about the stage, I definitely put the KSM9 through its paces where as well as sounding great, it stands up to my antics every time. Knowing my vocals are going to be the best they can be night after night makes the KSM9 the only mic I want to find myself with during a Faker gig."  - Nathan Hudson

Biography

The lights of the city come on one by one, forging their defences against the encroaching darkness. There’s a killer on the loose tonight, but it’s no werewolf - this time, what you fear is human. It might even be you.

To a band that studies the sinister side of human experience, the twilight, that moment of suspension between light and dark, holds endless fascination. Singer, songwriter, and founding member of Faker, Nathan Hudson, admits that it’s always been one of his nightmares. “I’ve had a fear of twilight ever since I was a kid,” he says. “Anything could happen.”

There comes a time when fears must be faced, sacrifices made, choices stated, hands forced. And for Hudson, that’s what the new record addresses. “The last record was caught in a place of nostalgia… essentially this record is about change - and making it happen.”

Faker is a band which knows how to make it happen. If any restraining influences were detectable on 2005’s runaway success Addicted Romantic, they have vanished into the night on this, Faker’s second full-length album. It’s up-front, fierce, and in the moment, but without being studied or overly aggressive. It moves in that suspended light where possibilities seem to multiply. It’s a startling achievement which Hudson credits to the closeness of the members.

“Six to nine months before we made the record we had to figure out how to communicate again,” says Hudson. This was the moment of departure of Phil Downing on guitar, a close friend of Nathan’s who left to pursue other projects. With the tighter team of Hudson, Nic Munnings on bass, Paul Berryman on drums, and Stefan Gregory on guitar, Faker is closing in on its vision like a serial killer.

“The arrangements are more stripped back because we’re playing as a four piece and centralising one guitar,” he says. “Simplifying the roles allowed us to take more creative leaps in other ways.” And it has certainly allowed the band to face their demons.

Single, This Heart Attack, with its precarious intensity, (”I’m about to flat-line”) is a song about escaping dangerous situations – “acknowledging that your head’s about to explode,” as Hudson puts it. And then there’s Sleepwalking, a habit for which Hudson is infamous. This track is about “being on autopilot, feeling like you’re not in control… fighting relationships that don’t evolve.”

Voodoo Economics, with its anthem of “I want danger” is the cure for those horrors, and Hudson pinpoints it as a song about risk-taking, telling us “not to be scared of… real life,” despite the climate of fear in which we live.

Faker have learned that once their fears are faced, the possibilities are endless - which is why, perhaps, BE THE TWILIGHT comes across as such a decisive statement. For all its fascination with the dark side of the human psyche, this record has a maturity and cohesiveness that are rare in the hedonistic world of rock n roll.

But don’t expect too much seriousness. Fans of Faker’s eclectic, chaotic danceability, which mixes 80s influences with the raw mania of twenty-first century life, won’t be disappointed. Killer On The Loose is a fine example of the driving post-pop rhythms that can drag you onto the dance floor like a thing possessed.

Hudson describes the manic excitement of Death Beach Party as “the most fun you can have leaving a trail of bodies on the beach.” It’s also “a location point for the record,” he explains. “It’s set at that time of day when it could be an ordinary night, or it could turn into insanity.” Which is usually about five minutes before Faker take the stage.

BE THE TWILIGHT is produced by Paul Fox, who has recorded such diverse bands as The Sugarcubes and They Might Be Giants. Hudson describes him as “a great equaliser” who facilitated the band’s vision rather than imposing his own. Fox has captured the essence of the Faker live experience, which often teeters on the brink of chaos. “Paul made a point of tracking everything as live as possible and you can feel that energy of the whole band interacting.”

This is particularly true of the plaintive Kid, Please Try Harder, a song that’s vocals were recorded in a single take. The theme of falling apart provides what Hudson describes as “the point of emotional crisis” on the record - but he is quick to point out that “the record gets through that.”

Dumb Mistakes, written while Hudson was travelling in Cambodia, is “a friendship love song” and the warmth of this track exemplifies the emotional maturity of this release.

Mixed by Mark Needham and engineered by Curt Schneider, the magic took place in Curt’s Garage in the heart of Los Angeles - an intense experience.  “The studio itself is relatively small - it’s strange to be surrounded by a city where everything’s so huge and to be in a tiny box. But it kept the record intimate and kept us all close,” he says.

“We came over here with the idea of embracing a Barton Fink, film noir thing - this city has so much potential for destruction, things going wrong - or even right sometimes,” he adds wryly.

“The city has aspects of something bubbling under the surface, or something masked - and I think we landed on the good side of it.”

If the dark side has a good side, BE THE TWILIGHT is the soundtrack to finding it.