It took three days for Chet Faker to sign with BMG
Things move quickly over at BMG, especially when creative visions are aligned.
That’s what Heath Johns, Managing Director for BMG Australia & New Zealand, tells TIO on release day for the rebirth of one of this country’s most exciting projects, Chet Faker.
“There was no doubt that the return of Chet Faker would be a defining moment in Australian music,” says Johns.
Johns and his team at BMG had their ear to the ground after learning that Nick Murphy was working on new music under his beloved, ARIA winning, Chet Faker moniker. His team jumped on a call with Murphy’s US management team and a deal was struck three days later.
“After hearing of the opportunity, falling in love with the music and speaking with Nick over Zoom, we had a series of calls with Nick’s NYC-based management (Alex and Chris of Love Detail Management) over the course of a weekend,” says Johns.
“The negotiation was painless – they liked our vision and ambition and we closed the deal on Monday morning after only three days. We like to move quick.”
It’s an impressive deal too, ensuring Murphy owns his own masters and has, as Johns puts it, “complete creative control.”
BMG’s Heath Johns
Released today, more than six months after the release of his second album under his birth name, Melbourne’s Nick Murphy has returned to his Chet Faker moniker, formally announcing the revival of this project yesterday.
First appearing on the scene close to a decade ago, Murphy launched the project which bore his more famous name soon afterwards, and released his debut EP, Thinking in Textures, in 2013. Following the release of his chart-topping, multi-ARIA Award-winning album, Built on Glass, and an EP with English producer Marcus Marr, Murphy announced that he would be retiring his stage name in favour of something more familiar.
“It’s been half a decade since I started releasing music as Chet Faker and all of you have been the driving force behind the music since,” he explained in 2016. “There’s an evolution happening and I wanted to let you know where it’s going. The next record will be under my own name, Nick Murphy. Chet Faker will always be a part of the music.”
Now, four years on from this announcement, and with two records appearing in-between, Nick Murphy has released “Low” under Chet Faker.
The track is exactly what a fan of Murphy’s music would come to expect, with his unmistakable sound washing over the track by way of an ambient flurry of muted bass plucks, delicate bowings of strings, and echoed guitar.
Combine this with hints of his earlier Chet Faker-like blues and melancholy-serene pop sentiments, and a lyrical confession of “just because I feel low, doesn’t mean all that I’ve got has run out” turns this into one of his smoothest, most vulnerable tracks to date.
Check out “Low” by Chet Faker below:
Murphy joins the BMG Australia & New Zealand roster alongside the likes of Dope Lemon, Dune Rats, Hockey Dad, CHAII, Julia Stone and Tim Minchin on the roster.
“I’d hold our roster up proudly against any of the majors down here,” Heath Johns tells TIO, “particularly when you consider BMG has built our recorded roster over just a couple of years of signing activity.
“We have bold ambition and incredible confidence in our young and hungry team’s ability to execute. When an artist of Nick’s calibre confides in your team and tells you his crazy idea to bring Chet Faker back, you do whatever you can to make it work,” Johns adds.
“The gravity of this return is not lost on us and we are excited to deliver an incredible campaign that does justice to this extraordinary new music.”
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.