Real honesty from a Fake Ophelia – In conversation with Luke Scerri
Fake Ophelia's 'Out of Time' EP is out now
Luke Scerri, the Malta-born, Berlin-based artist behind Fake Ophelia, has just surprised us all with a new EP called Out of Time. It arrived just weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere, and it's quite different from what we've come to expect from him – in the best possible way.
Fake Ophelia's journey started in 2021 with For Love and Light, an extremely strong debut album, rife with Luke’s crooning voice set against choirs, big synths, and strings. There were moments that reminded me of Dead Can Dance, which immediately won me over.
His sophomore album Till I Can Gain Control Again came out in 2024, and it showed Luke really honing his chamber pop sound. It’s an album with more risks – there are ebbs and flows, it’s dramatic but honest, and it’s every bit as beautiful as For Love and Light.
And now we have Out of Time, which is really quite different. Luke wrote this EP while finishing up Till I Can Gain Control Again. If you told me they were written years apart, I would have believed you. Out of Time is contained and direct, and drenched in an 80s pop sensibility. The title track sounds like chamber pop’s answer to Phil Collins, and I’m going to be blasting it all year.
I caught up with Luke to talk about this new direction, how Out of Time came together, and what it was like working on it while finishing his album. As you’ll read, it’s very much a case of stepping sideways in order to move forward.
You’ve mentioned that you wrote Out of Time while you were finishing up your 2024 album, Till I Can Gain Control Again. Do you feel that Out of Time was written in a different headspace compared to the album, because from a listener’s standpoint (mine), it certainly feels that way. And if so, how did you manage this, considering how quickly you started working on the release?
I’d have to say yes and no in a sense.
Till I Can Gain Control Again was one of the longest projects I’ve ever worked on, and as much as I love it, I felt like I was overwhelmed by it in the end, and I needed something to calm me down.
So yes, in one way, it came from a very different headspace because Out of Time started as a retreat from Till I Can Gain Control Again. I was playing with the sounds of a Yamaha Key Digital Piano preset, and I started feeling some form of oscillation between late-50s easy listening music and bright early-80s pop — both of which to me feel like brochures for some imagined exotic world.
In another sense, it was somehow a strangely similar headspace because the EP came as a result of the album. Although most of the lyrics developed alongside the music, I was so focused on the musical side that I didn’t fully realise I was revisiting recurring themes in my music: mainly love, fear, change, and the occasional thought of leaving this great party and knowing that it will still go on without you. Definitely not uncharted territory.
So yes, in some ways, there was a connection that came out of a desire to have a bit of a rest and escape; however, I still found myself dealing with the same demons, so to speak.
Was the recording process for Out of Time different compared to Till I Can Gain Control Again?
Definitely. Unlike the album, the idea for this EP came to me in a very packaged way, which allowed me to write it and deliver it in a much shorter span of time. All of the recording was done at home, with the vocals and some bass lines recorded in a studio in East Berlin.
What was really great about this recording was that I was lucky enough to have my partner, Martha Theuma, produce it with me. Since she was operating the DAW, I was free to pace around the room, think, and shoot out ideas. This was a complete game-changer for me since I had only done a bit of that with David Vella for some moments on my first album, but never really for a whole complete project, and definitely not on Till I Can Gain Control Again.
Naturally, since she knows me pretty well, we could communicate with ease, which created a great flow and allowed us to bounce ideas back and forth and try things out. I cannot emphasise enough just how big a part Martha played in this EP.
This is not the most elegant question in the world, but how are you getting such lush and full-sounding synth and guitar tones?
Thank you for that. I think the sound was a key focus of this EP, and so it all started with a very clear idea of what that would be. With the help of Martha, who co-produced the album, we made use of plugins that emulate the textures and sounds of certain ‘vintage’ effects and instruments. That, laying instruments to create new sounds, and using instruments that have a ‘glissando’ motion to them, to get this morning-sky type of atmosphere. That clean Strat guitar tone is just a sound I can’t seem to get enough of, and so that was there from the get-go.
I also want to mention Keith Fenech, who played bass on the title track. I messaged him asking if he’d be up for doing it, and told him I imagined the song with the sound of a fretless bass. He then replied by sending me a photo of his fretless bass. It was beautiful.
Finally, Martha’s mixing elevated the sounds to where they are now.
Do you feel that the direction you took on Out of Time is one that you’ll explore further on future releases, or are you already pivoting?
Right now, I’m not really sure if I’m honest. I have very different perspectives on playing live and recording. I feel I enjoy a particular form when I perform live, and there are definitely elements of that form in these songs, so I know that I won’t be leaving this direction in that sense. When it comes to studio work and recording, I think whatever the direction is musically, it is sometimes based on the mood, the subject matter, or the feeling that drives it for whatever reason. I feel like this EP was me going on a short cruise trip. I’m back home now. I could go again.
You recorded (almost) all the instruments on the EP. From a writing point of view, do you tend to gravitate towards a specific instrument as a starting point, or does it depend on the song you have in your head?
Lately, it’s the piano. For the most part, I found myself writing and recording at the same time on the DAW; however, for this particular EP, I decided I just wanted to write on an electronic Yamaha keyboard and record ideas on my phone. I found some presets on this keyboard that, to my mind, illustrated this image musically. For some reason or another, most of my recent songs were written on a keyboard, and I guess a sensible reason for that is that I gravitate towards that specific instrument.
After you listen to Out of Time, check out this wonderful inspiration playlist that Luke put together for this article: