Nathan Fake: James Holden's New James Holden (& Future Star)

"It's quite bizarre, my Dad used to get a lot of shit about it when he was younger. It's pretty weird especially now I've got a record out with my name on, people assume it's a made up name.

Sitting in the beer garden of a West London pub, Nathan Fake chuckles quietly when asked about his name.

"At school I'd often hear really shit jokes about my name; "You're not real' and stuff like that- mainly from teachers," he continues.

And yeah, I still do get a lot of comments about it; but my name really is Nathan Fake."

And judging by the sheer excellence of his first two singles for James Holden's label Border Community, he's certain to hear more, as one of the best new electronic producers in the UK of the last few years. First single Outhouse dominated Holden's recent Balance compilation, its haunting melody, emotion and originality persuading him to include two consecutive mixes while second single The Sky Was Pink is equally powerful, winning support from the likes of Damian Lazurus, Laurent Garnier and John Digweed.

Loosely centred around the much maligned progressive house/ trance sound, both tracks stand up as exceptionally beautiful electronic songs in their own right, which is all the more impressive given Nathan's remarkably humble approach.

"I used to fiddle around on the computer playing with beats and the tracks really just fell together, Outhouse was exactly like that," he reveals.

"I was working on it for a few weeks but I never thought it would get signed, it was just a tune I was making because I was at college at the time studying music-I thought it was a track I'd probably use for a college project or something like that.

I tend to make lots of tracks on my spare time never thinking too much whether they'll get signed or not, which was also the case the The Sky Was Pink. With that track, it was something I knocked out really as an experiment. It's not like the dance floor stuff I was doing before, and I played it to James and he liked it."

To describe Fake as understated is an exaggeration as he appears genuinely bewildered at the reactions his music brings.

"t must have grown on James because he came back a few weeks later and said he'd like to sign it to Border Community," he continues.

I was like "wicked' and I was quite excited about that, because it's a different sounding track, not a club track. To think that James likes it and said he wanted to remix it was brilliant- I couldn't wait to hear what he'd do with it."


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): When did you start making music-

Nathan Fake: "I've always been into music since I was 15 listening to stuff like Orbital and techno, like most kids do, and I really liked it and wanted to make my own stuff. I played the piano and keyboard before so it was a natural from listening to music to wanting to make my own."

Skrufff: How did you connect with James Hoden-

Nathan Fake: "I sent an unmixed demo version of Outhouse to James, he liked it and asked for the full version, I sent him that, he liked that too and everything developed from there. That was Christmas two years ago, it took a while to come out."

Skrufff: Did you know much about James Holden before that-

Nathan Fake: "Yeah, I was a big fan of his, it was pretty cool having James telling me my music was pretty good when I worshipped his stuff (giggling). He emailed me after I sent him the demo saying "I'd like to sign it to my label, then phoned me up after that."

Skrufff: Have you heard it played in clubs since then-

Nathan Fake: "A few times though I don't really go clubbing that much, I've heard James play it and also on the radio a couple of times though I've never seen big DJs playing it. Its nice to know people and big name DJs like it. I used to think some of these people were the coolest people ever and to hear them playing my tunes is pretty cool."

Skrufff: How did you connect with Satoshi Tomiee's Saw Recordings, did you send him a demo too- Tags

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