As far as dance music personalities go, Nathan Fake is far from stereotype. Hailing from the decidedly rural Norfolk in the UK’s southeast, Nathan isn’t a DJ, he isn’t a clubber, and he isn’t really much of a fan of most dance music, either. But never mind what he isn’t – what he is, is an immensely talented electronic music producer, signed to James Holden’s Border Community, and the brains behind such recent hits as The Sky Was Pink and Outhouse. At the tender age of 23, he’s just released his first full-length album, titled “Drowning in a Sea of Love”, which has garnered significant praise from a number of key industry publications, including Mixmag and iDJ. ITM caught up with the real Nathan Fake to find out the whole story.
As the international operator completes the call and puts me through to Nathan, our conversation begins with a discussion of Nathan’s involvement with the UK dance music scene. “I’m not much of a clubber, really, and not really that active in the dance music community,” Nathan confesses. “I do my own thing for the most part, and if I do go out clubbing it’s into London to have a laugh with a few friends.” Most of Nathan’s spare time is taken up with his solo musical pursuits, it would seem, and despite Nathan’s having only minimal formal musical training – “just a bit of piano as a kid, same as everyone else, really,” he tells me – his compositions and arrangements are decidedly non-amateur.
I ask Nathan about a note in his biography that says he “is not a DJ, never has been and probably never will be.” Nathan laughs. “When Outhouse was first released, I used to get a lot of booking inquiries from promoters that assumed I was a DJ because of the style of music I was making. They’d ask me to come and play, and of course I wasn’t able to help them, so we put that in to save everyone the hassle. I do play live now, though,” he quickly adds. “I’ve been playing live sets using my laptop and Ableton, and have been having a lot of fun that way – but I’m still not a DJ. I don’t even own a record player, although I do have some vinyl that I’ve collected here and there.”
Having touched on vinyl, I ask Nathan about the story behind the limited white vinyl release of his take on the Christmas classic Silent Night that hit record shop shelves over the Christmas period. “Ah, yes, that’s funny really. I made it two years ago, just for a laugh. We’d planned to do a Border Community Christmas EP, just as a little bit of fun, but it never eventuated, so we released it this year with a cut from the album on the other side.”
On the technical side, Nathan tells me that he’s been studying studio and live recording techniques for the past few years. “It’s fun to learn about, I suppose,” he says. “But, at the same time, the way I work is based around doing everything off my own back.” I ask Nathan what sort of system he uses to write his material. “It’s a terrible computer, really, quite old – it barely runs Cubase. I bought it when I was 18, and I’m 23 now, but I did manage to squeeze an album out of it! I suppose it’s important for any artist to be able to use whatever’s available and not rely on state of the art equipment.”
Like his labelmate James Holden, Nathan is known for trying some rather unorthodox recording techniques in pursuit of the perfect sound – in one of the tracks on Drowning In a Sea of Love, he tells me, he recorded the sound of an old Casio keyboard through his computer’s built-in microphone for that lo-fi sound. We chat some more, and before long the international operator cuts back in and our conversation draws to a close. I thank Nathan for his time, and pop my copy of Drowning in a Sea of Love into the CD player for yet another listen, listening intently for the Casio-keyboard-through-the-computer-microphone track.
Nathan Fake’s debut album ‘Drowning in a Sea of Love’ is out now through Bordern Community/Stomp.
