Nicholas James Murphy (born 23 June 1988), better known by his stage name Chet Faker, is an Australian electronica musician. In 2012 he signed to Downtown Records in the United States and issued an extended play, Thinking in Textures. In October that year he won Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Thinking in Textures won Best Independent Single/EP at the Australian Independent Records Awards.
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In January 2013 the work won Best Independent Release at the Rolling Stone Australia Awards for 2012. His cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” was featured in a 2013 Super Bowl commercial for Beck’s Sapphire. In April 2014 Built on Glass, Faker’s debut album, was released to generally positive reviews and debuted at number 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts. Three songs from the album were subsequently voted into the top ten of Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2014, including the number one spot for “Talk Is Cheap”.
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Murphy decided to play under a stage name after people came to his shows thinking he was a different and already established musician named Nick Murphy. He settled on the name Chet Faker as an homage to Chet Baker: “I listened to a lot of jazz and I was a big fan of … the way he sang, when he moved into mainstream singing. He had this really fragile vocal style—this really, broken, close-up and intimate style. The name is kind of just an ode to Chet Baker and the mood of music he used to play—something I would like to at least pay homage to in my own music.”Other influences he has cited include Bob Dylan, as well as his mother’s Motown albums and his father’s “chilled out Ibiza CDs”.
He first rose to prominence after his cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” went viral online, reaching number 1 on the Hypemachine chart in May 2011. He released his first EP, Thinking in Textures, on 22 March 2012 to positive reviews, being described as “wonderfully loungey” and praised for its ability to “mix subtlety with impressive beauty”. The EP was also popular with fans, with its second single, “I’m Into You”, landing at number 24 on radio station Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2012.
Faker has worked with several other artists since the release of his debut EP, including collaborations with Flume and remixes of songs by MS MR and The Temper Trap. He was a featured vocalist on Say Lou Lou’s “Fool of Me”, which was named Best New Track by Pitchfork in May 2013.
On 12 August 2013, Faker released a new single, “Melt”, featuring American vocalist Kilo Kish. In November 2013, Flume and Faker released an EP, titled Lockjaw. Faker’s debut album, Built on Glass, was released on 11 April 2014, preceded by the release of its lead single, “Talk Is Cheap”, and its accompanying music video on 11 February. The album debuted at number 1 on the ARIA Charts.
In January 2015, it was announced that Faker would perform at the Boston Calling Music Festival in May 2015. Later that month, “Talk is Cheap” was named the number one song in the 2014 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, while two of his other singles, “Gold” and “1998”, also reached the top ten, placing at number 7 and 8 respectively. In June, Faker released a new single titled “Bend”, a previously unreleased track intended for Built on Glass. It will be promoted by his upcoming Australian Built on Live Tour in October.
Faker will release a new EP in December called, Work. It’s a collaboration with London based DJ Marcus Marr. [22]