FAKER (Album Launch) + Expatriate + The Spark

Annandale Hotel
Cnr. Parramatta Rd & Nelson St
Annandale, NSW
Australia

Friday 8 Jul 2005
8:00 PM
"There's a lot of mania in what I do," agrees the Sydney band's founder, singer and songwriter. "It leads me into scrapes a lot, whether I'm sleepwalking or writing. When I'm writing a song, I hit this point of mania where I love an idea so much I can end up running up and down the house yelling to myself. It's an adrenalin rush."

As a title, ADDICTED ROMANTIC captures the restless essence that made Faker's first album inevitable, years before Nathan met the four guys who made it possible: Phil Downing, Nick Munnings, Paul Berryman, and Stefan Gregory.

Some of its songs - the radio favourite, "Enough"; the sardonic reflection on our cannibalistic culture, "Fucking the Exhibits" - have been forming in the back of Nathan's overactive mind since before Faker evolved from Nathan's bedroom.

Earlier still, as a kid in Sydney's southwest, his unorthodox musical inclinations caused several piano teachers to quit in frustration. It wasn't till his teens that he picked up the guitar as a means to an end.

"I wanted to be a songwriter," he says. "I realised I'd need to play an instrument to do that so I started applying the little I knew about the piano to the guitar, working out melodies and then taking them back to the piano, reading enough theory to get by, building ideas slowly."

In the process of discovery, he soon discarded his preschool notion that great songs were all in the past. "I don't know if there ever have been new ideas anyway," he says. "Everything is a reaction to something else in some way, a response, like a dialogue. And that's exactly what music is: communication. It's about to and fro."

Ground zero for Nathan's inner dialogue was "a healthy obsession with the Cure, Blur, the Pixies, The Psychedelic Furs, and Echo and the Bunnymen, ... a lot of the music I've been excited about tends to explore the darker side. But to me, they never really got the sex side of it. That's what I wanted to do."

It took five years of gigs for Faker to find its rhythm. Nathan counts the arrival of drummer Paul Berryman in late '03 as the true beginning. "He changed everything. A great player, and really passionate about the music. We needed someone like Paul on every instrument, so we started searching."

Guitarist Phil Downing was Nathan's best friend for four years before the time felt right. Guitarist Stefan Gregory was another acquaintance who spent years in the wings. Bassist Nick Munnings was the result of "two weeks asking people on buses and planes and pubs who looked like they played an instrument what bands they liked."

"The band is what it's all about for me now," Nathan says. "It's about the gang. The personal relationships are solid. I love being in a band. It took a while, but this feels right."

Recorded in late '04 with esteemed Melbourne producer Lindsay Gravina, ADDICTED ROMANTIC is a seamless union between hyperactive muse and the agitated, atmospheric structures of a road-hardened, rock band.

From the whiplash opener, "Bodies", a song about casual sex and its attendant neuroses, Faker invoke a vivid panorama of the over-stimulated confusion and contradictions of existence, with a range of feels and textures wide enough to throw its arms around the whole post-modern miasma.

"Handbrake mistrust disbelief / Give me the emergency exit key," Nathan sings on "Love For Sale", a song with a buoyant, ringing pop feel that opens like a parachute to break his fall.

Compare the tenuous optimism of "Volumes" and the breakneck insanity of "The Familiar"; the fear of change encapsulated in "Teenage Werewolf" and the knowing world-weariness of "Seizures": polarities that define a hyperactive appreciation of 21st century culture and relationships, with just as many shades of musical intrigue.

"1/4 to 3", says Nathan, "is about pretending you're asleep as a kid in car on a long drive, with people arguing over you, maybe, but you can hear the radio and you wrap yourself up in that. 'Kids on Overload' is about getting into scrapes," he adds. "I got beaten up the day I wrote that."

"We've made a record that touches on dark things but that's not the essence of the band," he says, revelling in paradox as always. "I'm actually a stupidly optimistic person. Our next record might easily be more of a joyous one. But I love this album."


How to contact us:  Phone: 02 9550 1078  Email: (click here)

Ticket Information

  1. All line-ups and times are subject to change without notice, and are beyond the Annandale Hotel’s control.
  2. Please choose carefully as tickets are strictly non-refundable under any circumstances.
  3. You must be over 18 years of age to enter the venue (unless the show is listed as an all ages gig). You must be able to produce a current form of identification – drivers license, proof of age card or passport only.
  4. To claim your tickets you must have a copy of your confirmation email and/or ticket numbers plus the credit card you booked with or current photo identification. Tickets may only be claimed on the day of the gig from the time the doors open.
Last Sale Date: Friday 8 Jul 2005
6:00 PM
Ticket Price : $AUD 15.00 (INC GST)
Booking Fee :$AUD 2.95 (INC GST)
SHOW EXPIRED, TICKETS UNAVAILABLE
All text © The Annandale Hotel. All images © Nic Bezzina