FAKER (Nathan Hudson) returns with ‘Enjoy Your Problems’, a new album shaped across years of movement, setbacks, and self-discovery. Written in bedrooms, on the road, and on borrowed time across multiple cities, ‘Enjoy Your Problems’ is less a comeback narrative than a document of what happens when you leave, survive, and slowly learn how to return. Hudson describes the record as the result of getting lost in the world and finding the pieces of himself as he moved from place to place.
First emerging in the early 2000s, FAKER became a defining Australian indie rock project of its era, built on sharp hooks, restless energy, and a live reputation that travelled fast. For Hudson, it was always a project shaped by people and momentum.
Proudly queer, in the early years of FAKER, Nate had to deal with the common assumption that he was straight, which led to his decision to come out publicly with ‘Be The Twilight’, FAKER’s second record. That story was published in a major newspaper and then reshared all over the world in many languages. After the dust settled and despite the outpouring of public support, Nate and the band were to cross paths with homophobia in unexpected places. A moment that changed the trajectory of FAKER and Hudson’s life irrevocably came in the shape a homophobic attack toward Nate at a venue where the band had performed, not by the crowd but by staff of the venue (this venue no longer exists). After this, Nate decided to change his life, and run away from Australia, from the band, and from the version of himself that had been trying to hold it all together. What followed was a long stretch of movement and reinvention, getting lost in the world and learning, slowly, how to come back.
During those years, he continued writing and releasing music through other projects, including Map of Stars, while moving across the world. At one point he found himself in New York working at an optical store, piecing together a life that could hold both survival and creativity. Eventually, he returned to Australia and began the slow, patient work of finishing ‘Enjoy Your Problems’, pulling together songs written across bedrooms, borrowed studios, and different versions of his own life.
The album opens with Comet, a kinetic, guitar-driven single that captures the sensation of seeing overwhelm coming and choosing to stand your ground anyway. “It’s about a comet crashing down into the middle of your street, home, neighbourhood, town, and life and trying to stand your ground, even though it feels ridiculous to do so,” says Hudson. “It’s about what the world is at the moment, and trying to find an optimistic spin. Ultimately, we’re surviving.”
Across the record, Hudson’s songwriting moves between the heightened and the everyday, the romantic and the mundane, holding both without flinching. There is the restless pulse of Nightmare’s Coming Back, built from an old riff that finally found its moment, and the tender self-talk of Partner In Crime, where longing gives way to something quieter and more honest.
Collaboration is threaded through the album’s DNA. Longtime FAKER drummer Paul Berryman appears on five tracks, recorded during a short window in Seattle. In Brazil, Hudson worked with Adriano Cintra (CSS), alongside an Italian drummer, in what he describes as the queerest window of the record’s creation. Additional parts were shaped remotely with longtime FAKER bass player and guitarist Nick Munnings (based in Hong Kong), and the album was mixed by longtime collaborator Sameer Sengupta (Australian-born, LA-based), who has previously worked on ‘Map Of Stars’, helping unify songs made in different cities into something that feels like a band in one room.
The album closes with Heavens, a final turn that feels like the lights coming down and the credits rolling. The title ‘Enjoy Your Problems’ came from a phrase Hudson heard often during the sessions, lifted from a joke T-shirt with the slogan “enjoy your problems,” written on the front and on the back, “bye”. What started as a blunt, funny sign-off became a kind of thesis for the record. The last word of Heavens is “bye”, tying the album’s final moment back to the phrase that named it.
With friendships and creative relationships scattered across the world, ‘Enjoy Your Problems’ reflects a way of making music that follows connection, not geography.
With thanks to Hunger Digital
Discover more from Good Call Live
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
