Faker - Nathan Hudson on Sleepwalking, Rock Moves and His Love of Libraries

Renowned for his frenetic live shows, Nathan Hudson, from Faker, has an on-stage mania that resembles the restless lunacy of Alex, the protagonist from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. While Alex’s overexcitement leads to thuggery, aggression and ‘ultra-violence’; Nathan is his anti-thesis. Polite, mellow and slightly reserved, his intensity is magnified on a stage, where, with trademark exuberance, he free-falls from ten-foot high speaker stacks or struts with almost Jagger-esque bravado.

What is Nathan’s most memorable on-stage antic? “Probably jumping off the speaker stacks at Groovin’ The Moo in Maitland,” he states matter-of-factly. “It was in the middle of ‘Hurricane’. Phil had stepped back out of his guitar solo into where I was going to land and I landed on his head. We both crashed to the ground. He managed to keep playing and I came in with the lyrics as I was meant to.”

In speech, Nathan displays a hyper nature, which suggests that his ideas are moving quicker than his mouth. Talking in an almost chain-of-thought fashion, we discuss the physical ramifications of this overexcited imagination – like his tendency to sleepwalk. Could sleepwalking be the perfect alibi to ill-thought-out deeds? “There was one occasion, but I can’t tell you about that because then I would give myself away.” Nathan trails off before continuing, “I sleepwalk less when I’m together … (If) I don’t go through things emotionally – I respond to them kind of randomly, and explore that through songs or restless sleep. I think it is all tied to addressing things in life.”

Despite reflecting a relaxed and appreciative attitude to life, Nathan is a driven character who has persevered with Faker. As the only original member, he has endured more than twenty line-up changes. When asked about his theory of survival, Nathan is honest, but slightly aloof: “You just kind of learn and find out that some things are harder, and some things are easier, and you try and make some things easier and end up making them harder and all of that – or vice-versa.”

Surely there must be more to this. Is tension a necessary element in creating music of substance? “The Police made music ’cause the drummer hated the singer and that worked. But some people use tension and it just falls down and you just make nothing … I think you need a little bit of love to make music.”

Faker certainly exhibits the love of bringing their music to the mob, as they are one of the few groups who will tour without anything in particular to promote. How hard is it for the band to make a living as travelling musicians in Australia? “It can be really tough. The population of Australia is such, and the layout is such, that it is quite expensive to tour. To get your music across to the public, you end up employing a number of people who can help you out, and the people making the music sit kind of at the bottom of that food chain.” Nathan speaks on the topic with a matter-of-fact realism, but also an appreciation for the success of his band. “You realise it is about making music when you tour. Because you can have aspirations of a bountiful life with not a lot of work, but it is actually the other way around.”

One example of this blue-collar ethos of Faker is their willingness to put art before sleep. The film clip to ‘Hurricane’, which was shot at the Victorian State Library, was spawned in the twelve-hour period between 8pm and 8am. “All the close ups of me singing right into the camera were done in that last hour in the morning after being up all night running around the whole library … It was exhausting, but it was a lot of fun.” What about the fantasy of wreaking havoc in a library, did this appeal to Nathan? “You go into a film clip like this thinking, ‘I actually really like libraries’. So I don’t want to do this video that appears to be about being destructive in that kind of environment.” So it was more of a pro-library statement? “I hope so. I do like libraries.”

Finally now, after sitting down to interview Nathan Hudson, we can disseminate that being manic is not always evil, it can produce creative rewards. There is no thuggery in Nathan’s enthusiasm, no Beethoven in his music and, after professing his love of libraries, there is undoubtedly no ‘ultra-violence’ in his personality. While Nathan won’t admit to us the particulars of using sleepwalking as an alibi, he shows no sign of reneging on his manic on-stage energy. We should just hope that Nathan stops free falling from the rafters into band members - as it seems that Faker are now through with line-up changes.

Faker play The Pyramid Rock Festival held at Phillip Island in Victoria from 29 December to 01 January. The event is sold out. www.thepyramidrockfestival.com

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