Faker's Nathan Hudson can no longer live an inconspicuous life in Sydney's suburbia, writes VAUGHAN MAYBERRY.

Nathan Hudson has all the hallmarks of a rock star.

He’s a tad scruffy, laconic but reflective when chatting about his life and his band, and owns an indescribable aura.

So it comes as no surprise Nathan (second from right) is leading one of Australia’s hottest rock bands of the moment.

Sydney’s Faker launched itself into the public eye during the past 12 months thanks to its scorching sophomore album Be The Twilight.

The main success has come from the album’s first single This Heart Attack, which peaked as high as No.9 on the ARIA Singles Charts earlier this year.

The single has transformed Faker from an up-and-coming young rock band with a Triple J following to a commercially viable pop band.

Nathan has personally experienced their new found fame.

"I get stopped quite a bit now in certain parts of the city," says the singer, songwriter and founding member of Faker from his favourite coffee shop in Bondi Beach.

"I have also had people yelling out of cars to me, singing the words to some of the songs.

"It’s exciting when people know the words to your songs."

It’s not only This Heart Attack that has been swirling around people’s heads recently – the more than worthy follow-up Are You Magnetic has just been released as the second single.

And at least two other tracks, Killer On The Loose and Sleepwalking, have also been touted as potential hit singles.

But the main focus for Faker at the moment is Are You Magnetic, with the accompanying video clip doing the rounds on various music television programs.

The lads were able to toss around a few ideas considering the song’s subject broached the generic topic of breaking up a relationship and the struggles with moving on.

"There was one I liked that would have been quite difficult to make using animals but we decided it would be too hard," Nathan laughs.

"We decided to look at the science aspect of the story instead.

"We used magnets in the clip and I also asked about using lots of colour and we were able to do that with the lab coats."

Despite their current success, it hasn’t been a rapid rise to fame for Faker. In fact it has been a long, hard slog.

The band first appeared on the music scene back in 1996, only performing small gigs around Sydney and releasing two small EPs.

It wasn’t until 2005 that Faker released their debut album, Addicted Romantic, which had some moderate chart success with Hurricane making number 21 of the Triple J’s 2005 top 100.

But Nathan has made a much bigger impression with Be The Twilight, writing songs about the sinister side of his own experiences, even down to naming the album after his own fear of twilight as a kid.

Be The Twilight has stamped Nathan as a talented songwriter and proved his band can produce some punchy pop-rock numbers that work for their fans and commercial radio.

"We want to make records that tell stories and are accessible," Nathan says. "With the record before – Addicted Romantic – we wanted to feel it had some purpose.

"We wanted this record to be more spur of the moment."

This is Faker’s first show in Cairns and they’re one of the headline acts for the timeOUT concert on Saturday, August 30 at Cairns Showgrounds.

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