Nick Murphy talks ‘Dangerous,’ Rick Rubin, DRAM and Neil Young on Apple Music’s Beats 1

April 22, 2019

Nick Murphy x Zane Lowe World Record ‘Dangerous’ + Interview

Nick Murphy’s track “Dangerous” is Zane Lowe’s World Record on Beats 1 on Apple Music. The song is featured on his upcoming album, Run Fast Sleep Naked, dropping this Friday.

The Australian artist also is known as Chet Faker talks about working with Rick Rubin at Shangri-La, tells a story about witnessing how DRAM and Neil Young ended up working together and plays a sample of his new song “Wildflower” on guitar.

Nick Murphy on working with Rick Rubin

Nick Murphy plays a sample of his new song “Wildflower” on guitar

Zane Lowe: You know, you went up to music heaven. Up at Shangri-La where the birds are louder and more beautiful, the ocean, you can hear the ocean even though it’s a few miles away. And you had some pretty crazy experiences up there too, because you were working with Rick. Then you had a few pretty incredible musicians kicking about as well. Can you sort of put us in the picture on this?

Nick Murphy: Well I- it was my first time ever working in a, in a studio because I … up until then I’d always worked on my own, you know, at home.

Zane Lowe: What? You broke out of your house and went to Shangri-La?

Nick Murphy: Yeah. Oh it made me re- it actually made me real, I was really nervous because it was like, I’d met Rick, what I really wanted at the time was drums. Like, some live drumming. Because I had always programmed drums but I just wanted that human feel. So he organized Chris Daddy Dave to come in and, and drum, who’s amazing. And then that’s where I met DRAM. We hit it off and had a killer time. And then like, Neil Young was hanging out in the back yard. So it was pretty great. There were lots of people I mean, Shangri-La … I saw James Blake there and uh, Lana Del Rey was there at one point.

Zane Lowe: What do you talk to Neil Young about when you’re hanging out on the lawn in between takes?

Nick Murphy: Oh I, I didn’t think he wanted much to do with me, he (laughs), it’s just like … my only memory I have is like, we’d go like, “How’s it going?” And he’s like, “It’s going.” That was about it. But DRAM and Neil Young ended up working together, I don’t know if you know about this I kinda saw that go down which was pretty interesting. Because DRAM I mean, you’ve probably spoken to DRAM. He’s amazing man. He’s just like … he’s a real, he’s a real one. He’s just like, real energy. He just like, walks in a room, there’s like, no holding back. There’s no faking it there. He just went up to Neil and was like, “Hey man, I want you to be on my record.” And I, I think Neil was just like, “Whoa, that’s pretty ballsy.” And Neil was like, “Ah, I’m not gonna be on your record, but you could sing on my record. Why don’t you come back on Monday?” So then DRAM did that and then I think Neil was like, “Oh, I like this kid,” and then he ended up singing on his thing.