Gotye

Fri 2nd Sep, 2011 in Features

For such a unique musical act as Gotye (real name Wally de Backer) the anticipation surrounding a new release is palpable. It seems for some fans however, that the 5 years since Like Drawing Blood has been too long and they have taken matters into their own hands, by hacking into the private videos on his YouTube account before the album was released.

While the attention is flattering and support is more than welcome, de Backer is more annoyed that the care and painstaking process involved behind crafting the artwork and refining the high quality audio is largely ignored to get a lo-fi sneak peek mere days ahead of the actual album release. But he’s willing to let it go, “It doesn’t really annoy me, I just find it interesting that that dude is so keen to help get my music out there”.

De Backer’s attitude to the scenario is indicative of his attitude to his music. While he is serious about how his music will be received by his listeners, he seems to be unafraid to laugh about material leaking early. Gotye’s songs are finely crafted, but don’t seem to carry any lofty pretence, which allows him to reach a wide audience, Ashton Kutcher included.

Since the release of Like Drawing Blood in 2006, de Backer has been kept busy touring the world with his other project The Basics and working on European and Japanese releases of the album. Work on Making Mirrors began two and a half years ago he explains, and reception to new material live has been overwhelming.

“[At Splendour In The Grass] my sound guy clocked the audience at somewhere like 10dB shy of a jumbo jet flying 10 metres overhead! And it felt like that…when Kimbra came onstage, the roar from the crowd felt like a wave of sound just smashing into the stage!... I remember that moment more than how I played or even how the music went!”

Punters recently had a chance to match that wave of sound in the Sydney Opera House as part of its comics and design festival Graphic. Gotye’s Making Mirrors album concerts sold out two nights in the Concert Hall, a daunting task for any, but this particular incarnation of Gotye presented many additional challenges. The reason for added nerves was the inclusion of specially designed short animated films and a mini 10-piece orchestra for accompaniment on the usual Gotye stage. Although de Backer confesses no interest in the pulp comics of today, he does express a love for animation and the graphic novel “as an aesthetic and as a style”. This is evident in the strong visual sense and style of his music videos. Who could forget the colossal black stilt-walkers from Hearts A Mess ?

“I think I think visually when I’m playing with sounds and figuring out how bits of music fit together, the space of a song with images forming in my head, but I’m not necessarily imagining video clips or specific visual directions when I’m making a record. That comes a bit afterwards when collaborating with animators”.

The performances not only included visuals to accompany Gotye, but a mini-orchestra that includes a three-piece horn section and multiple instruments being swapped at any time across multiple songs. This meant that for Gotye, de Backer must relinquish some control and is not in control of every sound emanating from the stage. “It’s a very different challenge trying to be a really good band leader as opposed to being a good songwriter or producer when you’ve got your own project”. There is a tension he explains between the stress of having more people involved, and the relief and joy to have people find their role in the band and in the music.

The songs inevitably change between the album versions and live performance for such complex arrangements and compositions. “The challenge of just recreating the scope of this album sound-wise even with 10 people, especially vocally…all that stuff has been enough of a challenge in itself, let alone yet having a time with the band for it to flower into its own ensemble to maybe improvise and take the music somewhere else.”