Artist Profile: Fail Sake

Written By G.C. Bellchamber
Fail Sake plays a banjo into a microphone on stage

Fail Sake, an indie artist from Sydney, Australia, crafts pieces that are equal parts eerily ominous and warmly comforting, simultaneously shunning the listener while inviting them into the depth of their soundscapes. 

​​Their debut album, “Where Rain Ends”, takes this contradiction into account wholeheartedly. From the dark, liminal space of the cover, represented on songs like “Frog Pond”, to the temperate, up-beat experimentation of songs like “Asleep”, Fail Sake routinely blurs the lines of emotional resonance throughout the project.

Originally inspired by artists like Big Thief, they began writing songs to merely add another creative outlet to their wide-spanning interests. However, they quickly discovered a passion for it and slowly worked out a creative process.

After overcoming an initial “writer’s block”, they began to let their ideas flow freely, improvising lyrics to fit the soundscape they were trying to achieve.

“I press record and then I just say the sounds, and obviously it doesn't work all the time. I just say sounds and then that forms into words later when I re-record on FL Studio… sometimes those words end up saying something that means something to me.”

Compiling a cohesive sonic landscape was a different challenge entirely. While Fail Sake describes their sound as simply “dreamlike”, its complex layers of vibrancy and opulence combine to form a sort of sonic stasis that is augmented by their toned-down vocal wanderings.

On a more fundamental level, their preference for open tunings provides a simplicity to their progressions, bringing compounded overtures to smooth resolutions.

“I [enjoy] Adrianne Lenker's style a lot because I like experimenting with open tuning. It feels very [comforting] because it always returns back to the [open chord]... It will always return to that, which I really like because it feels like there's always home to return to.”

However, while they plan to continue work under the name of Fail Sake, they plan to continue expanding their sonic horizons through other projects. While Fail Sake pursues a continual “dream-like” atmosphere, the artist also has interests in break-beats and electronic rock. Elements of these genres are present on “Where Rain Ends” but are ultimately subordinate to the DIY sound of the album.

They ultimately aim to make music under their own name, Blake Wells, that is “more tangible” than what has been produced as Fail Sake.

“I've got a lot of different songs that are on my computer that I don't think are Fail Sake songs, but I do want to continue doing acoustic folk. [I plan to go in] a similar direction from “Where Rain Ends” but maybe a bit more electronic as well.”

With their ability to create deeply reverberating songs in a stripped-down atmosphere, Fail Sake’s development, through this project and any others, will surely blossom into other genres and sounds.

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