Gotye Not Satisfied With #1 Hit
News posted Tuesday, August 16 2011 at 12:00 PM.
Related: Gotye.
Gotye has revealed to M+N how he felt deflated after penning 'Somebody That I Used To Know’, his first number one hit.
The song – the first Australian song to top the ARIA Singles Chart since January – ended Adele’s seven-week run at the top of the charts this week. But in a soon-to-be-published interview with M+N, Gotye (aka Melbourne musician Wally De Backer) said he’s still not satisfied with the track, or its predecessor ‘Eyes Wide Open’, the first single from his forthcoming new album Making Mirrors.
“With both tracks, I still didn’t feel satisfied when I finished them,” Gotye told M+N. “In a way my feelings with both songs were a bit deflated afterwards … With distance and as I’m playing them live, maybe I’ll get to like them more.”
He said he was so conflicted by 'Somebody That I Used To Know’ that it delayed the release of the album by five months.
“I just kinda let them ['Somebody That I Used To Know' and 'Eyes Wide Open'] go. It wasn’t about being a perfectionist. I felt like I made them the best they could be, and there wasn’t anything pragmatic or realistic I could do anymore in terms of remixing, tweaking, re-recording vocals, trying another part, or spending more money and time. I’d only make them sound worse or start disappearing in my own head – or rectum.”
‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is a duet with rising New Zealand-born singer Kimbra, who Gotye decided to draft in after hitting a creative wall midway through writing the song.
“When I got to the end of the first chorus, I felt for the first time, in any song I’d written, that I’d said all I had to say. Any attempt to work an instrumental path, or bridge, back towards a repeat of the chorus felt very weak. At that point I went, ‘I think it needs another story. It’s going to be a duet.’ So I wrote the female part and looked for someone to bring it to life.”
Meanwhile, Gotye has added a Perth show to his run of national album launches later this year. He’ll be playing the Belvoir Theatre on December 9. Most of the tour – including four shows at the 1500-capacity Forum Theatre in Melbourne – have completely sold out.
Making Mirrors is out this Friday (August 19) via Eleven.
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Chin up Gotee!
chin up goatse !
I'm not satisfied either.
i can feel a meme coming on...
go wally!
Poor Gotye
Suck it up Wally!
i think it's nice
That song is #1? Really?
I don't hate it, but it doesn't seem to be the kinda song that would be #1 on any chart...
then again, neither did that angus & julia stone song...
look what is this?
hottest 100 no.1
I can't remember/don't care about her name, but I am disappointed every time I see this video and never seeing her nips.
It's bullshit.
cannot wait
isn't it a bloke?
Nah
Was even on the V music channel in KFC the other day, hadn't expected that.
She has a nice back. I bet she has really nice Kimbras.
YouTube comment by charliebrown407
Kimbra reminds me of someone I used to know, she's a professional make-up artist now and her ''look'' is quite popular.
ah
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A backhanded-complimentary 3 star review in the Guardian
''Thirty-one-year-old Wouter De Backer has been a big pop star in his native Australia since 2003....''
Ohmygod that reviewers name is actually hermione.
shuttupyaface - joe dolce
There was a staff meeting recently at the pub I work at where they told staff (I wasn't there) to keep it the fuck to themselves if they didn't like the acts I booked. I think this is a great idea.
Also just as I said at the start of this thread THIS SONG IS WELL WRITTEN AND VALID!
Compare it to the last 2 JJJ hottest 100 wins: Sex Is On Fire and Big Jet Plane.
Even a experimental sound artist would agree this song is 20 times the song either of those are. This song deserves widespread fame, it's good news for SONGS and songwriting.
I'm surprised it's a hit. I agree that it's a very well written song but not an obvious hit! In fact, a lot of the Triple J list was far better than last year*. Hope, perhaps!
*I can't think of any songs on last year's list, however heard around 10 from this year's on rage over the past few months and found them pretty refreshing.
Unconfirmed rumors that he will have to give away nearly all of the profits from this song due to uncleared samples.
It's pretty clear from listening to the song that it doesn't have any samples.
Its themes of lost love and rejection sample the 2003 hit Heart's a Mess.
Yeah thats what i thought too, but apparently the main rhythm guitar 2 chord loop is a sample.
Would he really try and risk it? Do people (still) do that these days? Maybe he thought it was going to be a single or such a hit.
All the prominent samples on this album are cleared. They weren't on Like Drawing Blood at the time of AU release - that's what held up the UK release as all the samples needed to be cleared or replaced/replayed.
''prominent samples''?
Identifiable ones. No one's going to be picking up one-shots or granular synthesis.
(for example)
My god - in the UK in the past month this song is on constant high rotation and now in Krakow Poland for the past week I have heard this song at least every day on speakers playing the radio, in bars, in clubs. Everywhere!
Let me ask you Lozenge, would you have the same problem with an African-American? I bet a lot of African-Americans have never even seen Africa. They're just paying tribute to their heritage. Is that such a bad thing? If I were born in America and my parents were of African heritage I would be an African American. Now, Gotye wasn't even born here. He could just claim Belgian. But no, he claims to be Australian as well. Why is this a problem for you?
The folks at NME just aren't quite sure what to make of him: http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=148&title=five_things_you_need_to_know_about_gotye&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Let's start a lynch mob dedicated to anyone who bumps a Gotye thread from now on..