“After touring my last album on and off for two years, I didn’t write any new music I was happy with for another two so you could say it’s been a long process bringing ‘Providence’ to fruition.”
There’s been a pretty hefty gap since Nathan Fake dropped the critically acclaimed ‘Steam Days’ on us, with fans craving another full length update of his blissful brand of hypnotic techno ever since. Five years is more than a fair amount of time to wait for a follow up but albums aren’t to be rushed, especially when trying to maintain a standard of the quality which Fake’s current back catalogue boasts. In any case, it’s not like he’s been resting on his laurels, having taken his impressive live show on the road before suffering from a bout of writer’s block. “Having put so much energy into touring my live show I did find it hard to get back into my groove production wise. My confidence took a hit and I was struggling for inspiration for what seemed like a long time.”
So what was behind the lack of creativity? The answer seems to lay in the Norfolk producer’s own high expectations of himself.
“It’s been ten years since I released ‘Drowning In A Sea Of Love’ [his debut album] and I think the longer you’re around the more is expected of you,” Nathan tells me. “Critics scrutinize your work in ways they didn’t when you were an emerging artist, your new buzz has faded into expectation and your past works will inevitably be compared to your new material and that can be quite daunting. I’d often worry that new material I was working on wasn’t quite enough of a comeback statement despite quite liking what I’d produced – it’s easy to put yourself under pressure when really your goal should be to make something that excites you to work on. Music should never be about going through the motions, it runs contrary to what you’re trying or should be trying to do.”
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Music should never be about going through the motions…
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‘Providence’ really started to come together about a year ago for Nathan. Once he’d discovered a common theme in terms of how it sounded, everything else pretty much fell into place. “I got to a point where I could hear where it was going,” he explains, “The bulk of the music was made with a Korg Prophecy – which despite my heavy use isn’t a synth I’m sure I’d recommend to anyone else.”
So if he wouldn’t recommend it to others, what is it about this digital synth that saw it become such an integral part of his fourth album? “Well I bought it fairly randomly off of eBay,” he reveals. “I remember it coming out when I was a teenager and it getting rave reviews with me, not knowing anything about synths at that point thinking it sounded like the best synth in the world and imagining what it would be like to own a piece of kit like that. So I bought it out of nostalgia really but then ended up using it a lot despite its many limitations.”
“I’ve always quite liked using gear that’s not really very good” he laughs. “Working within perimeters can provide you with impetus to get something great out of an unlikely source. I like the challenge of making something good out of something quite crap, I’m not sure what that says about me!”
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Another talking point surrounding the new album has been Nathan’s inclusion of a number of vocalists on the record with his previous works – not counting remixes – being purely instrumental affairs.
“It wasn’t something I planned on incorporating on the record,” says the Cambria Instruments boss. “It happened quite organically. I had started writing the tracks already when the idea came about to introduce Prurient and Raphaelle to Degreelessness and RVK. I’m really pleased with the outcome as they both added another layer to my music. I’d really like to explore that further drawing up something totally from scratch with a vocalist in mind.”
With Prurient being known for his own productions as Vatican Shadow, might we see the two working again or Nathan producing an artist or group operating outside of the traditional perimeters of electronic music?
“Well me and Prurient had already been discussing collaborating on an instrumental piece before we he lent his vocals to the album so I’m sure we’ll work together again in the future. He’s primarily known for his work within noise and his techno orientated releases with his vocals ranging from spoken word to quite primal sounding screaming – I was certainly interested to see what he would deliver for ‘Degreelessness’ with his voice being his sole contribution to that track. I thought it would raise a few eyebrows – in a good way of course – and it certainly did that!”
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I thought it would raise a few eyebrows…
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“In regards to producing another artist or a band – I’d love that, it’d really interesting for me. I haven’t really pursued it but I think that would be a really fascinating experience as when you hear producers producing music that is very different to their own it does seem to open up a new dimension to their work. If you look at Mark Bell of LFO when he produced Bjork, I think that really opened up his sound palate – you could tell it was him but it didn’t really sound anything like anything he’d done on his own before.”
Nathan’s progression as an artist includes focusing on and developing his live show based around much of the material featured on 'Providence' and more. Now as so many of his contemporaries use the ‘live’ format to cynically add a few more zeroes onto their fee and let a computer do most of the work what can we expect from his live performances as he tours the album?
“Playing live as always been a big part of me making music,” he states earnestly. “My introduction to electronic music came through acts like Orbital who’s appeal very much lay in the strength of their live performances. You could tell were live as they were serving up rougher versions of their album tracks and they would bring their studio on stage in days before laptops took over. I’ve always really liked being able to produce raw, rough versions of my tracks live on stage but with technology nowadays it’s a lot easy to just bang out something a lot tamer if you wish.”
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It’s going to be hyper-real whilst psychedelic, drawing colours from across the spectrum…
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“It depends on what your aims are. My own view is that live shows should have a genuinely live feel to them. I’ve actually been recording some live stuff in one take which could be an interesting concept for an EP. Nathan Fake uncut!”
“In regards to my upcoming shows, I’ve been working on visuals with a great guy called Matt Bateman. It’s going to be hyper-real whilst psychedelic, drawing colours from across the spectrum whilst taking influence from virtual reality. Musically, I’ll obviously be playing stuff off of the new album but I’ve done quite alternative versions to play live. I’ve made the live versions of the tracks a little bit more versatile in that they can work in a club setting too. It’s been fun playing them out so far and sounds quite different to my previous live shows. Hopefully people like it.”
We’re sure they will Nathan!
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'Providence' is out now.
Words: Reiss Bruin
