Gotye’s hit has a life of its own
TORONTO — Somewhere in Australia there must be a female singer shaking her head.
Specifically, the one who made the ill- fated decision to not record with Melbournebased experimental pop singersongwriter Gotye on his breakthrough duet, Somebody That I Used To Know — the video for which has, to date, garnered 70 million views on Youtube.
“There was a vocalist who was quite high profile in Australia who was all set to do it and then cancelled the night before we were going to do the vocal session,” said Gotye ( pronounced “go- tea- yay”), 31, in Toronto recently, but refusing to name names.
“In fact, we met at a festival months later and she was just like, ‘ Maybe that was a mistake,’ ” he adds with a laugh.
I nstead, Gotye, derived from Gaultier, which is French for Walter ( the birth name his Belgian parents give him is Wouter [ Wally] De Backer), ended up recording Somebody That I Used To Know with New Zealand newcomer Kimbra. She was recommended by the song’s mixer after he’d produced her debut, 2011’s Vows, which is yet to be released in North America.
“It was a huge hurdle just finding the right person for the song,” said Gotye, who is an established star in Australia and also sings and plays drums in the indie pop band The Basics.
“There were plenty of times between the start of 2011 and May, roughly, when ( Kimbra) did the vocal and I finally finished the mix of the song where I almost convinced myself that the song wasn’t meant to be. Like I couldn’t find the right person for it.”
At that point, Gotye had even tried to get his real-life girlfriend, singer Tash Parker, to sing on the song — but her voice wasn’t right for it.
“Kimbra has so much she can do with her voice,” said Gotye, whose sound is being compared to Peter Gabriel and Sting.
“On the one hand I feel like she’s able to channel all these great jazz vocalists, but then with Somebody That I Used To Know what I was really looking for, I just wanted it to be raw and direct. I wanted to hear singing sort of trying to tap into the feeling of it and she did that.”
Kimbra wi l l be on t he road with Gotye as opening act when he returns to Canada for three soldout dates on March 30 in Montreal, March 31 in Toronto and April 8 in Vancouver.
Gotye was in Toronto last week just as his third solo album, Making Mirrors, debuted at No. 5 on Canadian album charts. He also sang a brief set at Sound Academy for contest winners.
On stage, he sings and plays a standup drum kit and an electronic xylophone and said the reaction was palpable as he performed Somebody That I Used To Know.
“I didn’t kind of go, ‘ That’s a hit for sure,’ ” he said of writing the song that reflects on a rela- tionship breaking up.
“But I felt something special, hypnotic, whatever you want to call it, a spark when I first started writing it, and I feel like I’ve kind of managed to keep that spark. Sometimes it feels to me like that’s kind of my mission making a song, ‘Don’t f--- up that spark, you have initially.’ ”
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Gotye arrived in Toronto j ust as Burlington, Ont., band Walk Off The Earth’s five-people-playingone- acoustic- guitar cover of Somebody That I Used To Know, which has gotten 50 millon Youtube views, landed them a record deal with Columbia.
“Seemingly this song has a life of its own,” he said.