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Faker.
 Faker have had a really busy 2005. I know this for a fact, seeing as I've interviewed band members on three different occasions throughout the year, each interview at a time when the band had something new to offer by way of aural sensation. So it's no wonder when speaking with guitarist Stefan Gregory in early December, he says what the band is doing at the moment is: "Relaxing! We got back from London about a week ago."
The last time Gregory and I spoke he was a bit anxious about the band making their flight from Perth to London straight after playing a show to finish up their national tour. Hence one of the first things I ask Gregory is how that panned out.
"That was hilarious actually," Gregory laughs. "We sort of got into the airport at one in the morning and then got hit with this enormous excess baggage fee - like, a ridiculous sum of money, and we managed to talk it down by talking to the guy and kinda pulling stuff out of our bags and taking it as carry-on [luggage]," he says. "Initially he was trying to charge us $3000 for excess baggage, but we talked him down...
"The flight was actually alright, but it was weird because we sort of came off that last tour and ended it in WA, and then went to London, and now we're back here [in Sydney] and it didn't feel like it ended. Like, I forgot that we did the whole Australian tour thing," he laughs.
As for London itself, Gregory says the feelings were positive and the trip was success - even though he later reveals he was carrying three guitars around for the tour, two of which were broken and unusable!
"We were playing really small pubs over there - we were just playing the pub circuit, and it's interesting; it's a different vibe over there with people rocking up with gear. You turn up and people sort of go 'OK, right, you're Faker, so you're playing: do you have any amps?' and we'd sort of go 'Yeah, we've got guitar amps.' Normally you'd sort of say, 'do you have a bass rig?' or 'do you have drums?' because it's possible you don't have that [on tour]," Gregory explains. "But they're at the point where it's sort of like, 'do you have any equipment at all?' And bands would literally turn up who were headlining the show, and they wouldn't have drums, they wouldn't have guitar amplifiers, they'd have a couple of guitars, and then they'd play a show and they'd use whoever's gear was on stage. It was a really different vibe to playing here. We supplied a lot of backline!"
Gregory says that most bands are happy to let fellow bands borrow gear for the most part, even if sometimes things go awry. "We have done that once and had an amp break for the support band that used our amp, but that wasn't their fault," he explains. "But I know that a lot of big touring international acts won't let people use their gear for that reason, and it's not a self-importance thing, but the practicality of, if for some reason it breaks or fucks up, you're stuffed and you haven't got a back up. And sometimes stuff will just break for no particular reason. But if someone breaks a string you lend them your guitar and kind of share the love."
As for Gregory's personal perspective on the venture, he's quite enthusiastic. "It went really well - it was really fun. My memories of it are as being very cold," he laughs, "but there being a really good vibe there and the shows were really good and successful; there were some good responses from people and we saw some interesting bands, and it was a lot of fun, actually. We did some recording while we were there as well - some demo sessions with a producer, and what came out of that was really exciting."
So there's a new Faker album in the works? "We've got a few demos of stuff now - some new material we're working on," Gregory says, "and I hope that this year we'll have an opportunity to record another album!"
Ann Marie Sosnowski
 | Faker play at the Big Day Out Blue Stage at 12.15pm on Fri 3 Feb. |
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