Nick Murphy on walking away from Chet Faker for the Missing Link EP and Vivid shows

NICK Murphy has walked away from his celebrated creation Chet Faker to create his own music. His first EP will be showcased at Vivid.

Australian electronic musician Nick Murphy — formerly known as Chet Faker.

ONLY Nick Murphy could turn track pants into an existential artistic statement.

In the mysterious trailer for his Missing Link EP, the artist formerly known as Chet Faker is seen dishevelled in a tattered white T-shirt and grey active wear, running toward an abandoned rollercoaster in the middle of nowhere.

“Why track pants? The point is (he is) completely free of any material connections, here is a man who looks completely gone, the embodiment of acceptance. This is it and he’s so cool with it,” Murphy says.

Missing Link arrived unexpectedly on May 10, his first EP since dropping his artist pseudonym last year.

Its lead single Your Time, produced by one of the world’s hottest hitmakers Haitian-Canadian Kaytranada, has already clocked up more than one million streams ahead of the Missing Link’s “visuals” arriving on June 16.

That’s when the trailer’s mysterious scenes, featuring suited dodgy brothers and Murphy purposefully walking down corridors, stairs and across a rooftop carpark towards a hearse, will all make sense.

The Missing Link would appear to be the connection between Murphy’s alter ego, who produced the chart-topping debut record Built On Glass, and his sound of now.

Alongside his labelmate and friend Flume, Murphy exploded on to the alternative airwaves and festivals of the world with the release of his Thinking In Textures EP in 2012 and then debut record, propelled by beautiful electronic-driven, dark, pop gems such as Talk Is Cheap, 1998 and Gold.

He returned to the charts with The Trouble With Us, his collaboration with English DJ Marcus Marr and the recent Bonobo track No Reason.

The 28-year-old musician has based himself in New York for the past few years and returned home earlier this week to prepare for his 360 degree Vivid Live concerts at the Sydney Opera House.

Murphy has embraced the myth of New York.

“Living in New York, it’s inspiring, it’s gritty, it’s challenging. I think that’s what I like about it, especially as an artist,” he says.

Its effect is probably less obvious in the songs of Missing Link, which aren’t such a dramatic sonic shift from Built On Glass or last year’s singles Fear Less and Stop Me (Stop You).

But the visuals appear to parallel the identity crisis which led to retiring Chet Faker.

Nick Murphy would call home from the road in far flung countries to discover friends were getting married and having babies while he was contemplating which video game or mic to buy.

“WTF is probably the right phrase for what I’m doing at this point,” he says.

“I went through some changes, huge change in my life and in myself and that’s what is inspiring this short film.

“It’s about the duality of self I felt I was experiencing and how that all collapsed so I could just be me.

“Maybe I will call it a rite of passage in retrospect, when I come out the back of it, but it all feels pretty weird right now, a shedding of weird habits I had picked up.”

Still beardy after all these years.

Murphy thinks just as deeply about the details of the Missing Link concerts he is staging for Vivid.

Although he confesses he doesn’t have as much freedom or control as he might want in creating the show.

“I would not say it’s daunting but you would be surprised how much compromise is involved,” he says.

“Everyone has a great idea of how I should do what I do as a job but I love great ideas and to sit down and considered all the aspects of a show and see what I could do better.”

Electronic wunderkinds Flume and Nick Murphy. Picture: Instagram.

Murphy wrestles with strictly choreographing his show and changing it up every night. His compromise is to have a structure to accommodate the technical demands of lighting and sound which allows him to reinvent the setlist or his performance.

“Call me old school but I still like to pick the setlist on the night. Get to the venue and feel what the crowd is like when the support is playing,” he says.

“But then over the two years of touring after Built On Glass came out, I became semi-obsessed with a very structured, choreographed show. But that stopped feeling good to me.”

He jokes that the improvisational element could stretch to simply featuring him standing in a corner mumbling for five minutes. I suggest a mumbling section may frustrate his fans.

“I have been mumbling since I was a kid. My singing teacher used to tell me off at school. I can’t help it,” he says.

“I promise I won’t mumble during the Vivid show.”

HEAR: Missing Link out now

SEE: Nick Murphy, Vivid Live, Sydney Opera House, June 1 to 3, sydneyoperahouse.com

Originally published as Nick Murphy on walking away from Chet Faker for the Missing Link EP and Vivid shows