Brisbane six-piece ska/ funk/ blues band Cheap Fakes are ready to take 2015 by storm, with their new single 'Just In Case' out now, a string of shows in March and April, as well as their third, full-length studio album, 'Modern Vintage', expected on shelves in June.
Lead singer Hayden Andrews is firm in his belief the album is not only ready for release, but is their best piece of work yet. “Yeah, I’m really excited, it's sort of been a long time in the making, this album, 'cause we actually recorded it last year, but we’ve just worked so hard on the video and just the sound of the songs, we’re really excited, and really stoked that it’s finally coming out.
“I think we’ve definitely evolved. This new album, it’s more of an intense sound. There’s bigger build-ups and bigger breakdowns. We’ve made it a more full sound, different, and I think it's our best album easily to date.”
For this album, the band joined forces with producer John Merchant. Merchant, a veteran of sound engineering and mixing, is known for his collaborations with Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand, with the list continuing. “We’re unbelievably stoked to be working with John, he’s world class. He’s sold over 600 million albums of stuff that he’s worked on. I met him when he was over here with Barry Gibbs, from the Bee Gees, doing a tour with him, and I met him when did a production workshop in Brisbane, and I went along and gave him our CD, so that’s how I met him.
“A couple of months later he sent me an email saying he loved the CD. Even getting a response from him, I felt pretty lucky and pretty stoked. And he said he’d love to produce our album, and his exact words to me were ‘I’ve got to finish Barbara Streisand’s album, and them I’m going to be going on tour with Barry Gibb, but then I’ve got a three-week gap where I can help you guys out’.”
For this recording process, Hayden and the band approached the project very differently to their first two albums. “Our first two albums we did completely ourselves, and it was like done over a six-month period, whereas this album was really intense, like fourteen-hour days of just music and just recording. Obviously we did a lot of pre-production leading up to going into the studio.
“It was different in that way. We were in like lockdown, we just had to go hard while we had John over. I think the first 14 days with John was pretty much just laying down the basis of the tracks, and then we sort of spent a lot more time doing the overdubs and recording extra parts so, I guess the difference was it was really intense and then we could kind of take our time a little bit. Basically, most of the time was leading up to the album. We were in the rehearsal studio just trying to zoom in on our tunes and perfect them before he came over so we could go into the studio and knock it out, make it awesome. Pre-production, really.”
Now it's time for Cheap Fakes to return to the live arena, and Hayden can't wait to tread the boards once more. “I’m really excited to be playing these new tunes to crowds. I guess you’re sort of sitting on these tracks for so long, we’re not the kind of band that kind of sits around, we’re always writing new stuff and working on our live set, and try and make it exciting, for us and for the crowd as well, so we’re really excited to take it on the road.
“We always love playing the Sunny Coast, and the Gold Coast is starting to come into its own as well with the music scene. There’s a couple of really good places on the Gold Coast that are popping up to play.”
Written by Joel Marshall
Cheap Fakes Tour Dates
Sat 21 Mar – The Hi-Fi (Brisbane)Sun 22 Mar – Hotel Brunswick (Brunswick Heads)
Sat 28 Mar – Moonshine Bar (Sydney)
Fri 10 Apr – Solbar (Sunshine Coast)
Fri 17 Apr – Soundlounge (Gold Coast)
