NATHAN FAKE grew up in Necton, a village in the middle of Norfolk, he fell in love with music during his school years, and was turned on to electronica after hearing Aphex Twin and Orbital.
Having begun to acquire and experiment with his own gear, he met James Holden in 2003, leading him to align with the then new Border Community, which released his debut single 'Outhouse' that year. The Sky Was Pink and Silent Night EPs followed, leading to the debut album, Drowning In A Sea Of Love, which won critical acclaim from Pitchfork and The Guardian, and was hailed as one of Mixmag’s top albums of 2006.
The Englishman recorded two further albums for the label, Hard Islands (2009 ) and Steam Days (2012 ), before establishing his own Cambria Instruments label in 2014 with former Border Community associate Wesley Matsel. Their collaborative single 'Black Drift/Bismuth' was followed by Fake's Glaive EP in 2015. Throughout this time he also took on a number of impressive and diverse remixes, from Radiohead to Jon Hopkins to Clark, working for labels such as Ninja Tune, Domino, Warp and Kompakt. Fake eventually switched to Ninja Tune to release the Providence album last year.
Fakes plays Galway later this month, and he has talked about the impact his live work has had on his musical creativity: “Playing live a lot has had a profound influence on the way I make music now. It's all quite improvised and I actually formulate a lot of my arrangements while I'm playing live. I use loops which I can put in depending on the mood, it's all free form.”
Although now based in London, his rural Norfolk roots remain important to him and are a profound influence on his music: “I've got a really strong connection with the place I grew up in. Norfolk will always be my home, even though I don't have one there any more...I've put a lot of time into finding different ways to erode sounds, to make them sound wooden and earthy instead of plastic and metal."
Nathan Fake plays Strange Brew at the Róísín Dubh on Thursday February 22 at 9pm. Tickets are available at www.roisindubh.net, the Ticket Desk at OMG Zhivago, Shop Street, and The Róisín Dubh.
