You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
Chet Faker is the stage name of Australian singer and songwriter Nick Murphy.
His debut album, Built on Glass, won five ARIA Awards, Australia's version of the Grammys,
including Best Male Artist, Producer of the Year, and Best Independent Album.
In this episode, Nick breaks down the song Gold and traces the journey it took from a dream,
to a cover, to a love song.
This is Nick Murphy.
I write, record, and produce under the name Chet Faker.
The first thing I had for this song was that opening line.
And I dreamt it.
I woke up with it in my head in the middle of the night.
And I have a voice memo of me.
I mean, my girlfriend was asleep in the bed next to me, so I was mumbling really quiet.
It's almost indecipherable.
Boom.
I'm always recording ideas and stuff.
So it wasn't like, okay, that's going to be a song.
That was just a piece that got put aside into my palette.