New Music /

Gotye

The brainchild of 26-year-old Melbournian Wally De Backer, Gotye [pronounced ‘gore-ti-yeah’] fuses downbeat electro with atmospheric beats, treading a fine line between music and noise. ‘I’ve never been a follower of specific niche genres or scenes, so I’d be lying if I said I remembered something like a pure electro’, he says. ‘I grew up listening to wildly divergent stuff — from The KLF to grunge bands to Aussie country and folk music — so I guess the variety in my Gotye music comes from wanting to experiment in the different musical territories I’ve explored as a listener. In terms of how my music fits into a broader spectrum, the eclecticism on display might fit nicely in the mix-and-match playlist culture that P2P networks, mp3 players, podcasting and the intense mixing of genres over the last decade have ushered in’. His latest release, Like Drawing Blood, is a stunning soundscape of layers, with the title referring to the two-year (and somewhat painful) process of development it went through. The album’s artwork is as equally striking as the sound contained within, with splashes of deep blood-red paint on cream canvas. ’It’s a painting I did as a child, seemingly at quite a morbid stage for a six year old! It’s quite possible I was just cleaning my brushes over a piece of cardboard’, he laughs modestly. ‘But mum must have had an eye for cool things because she chose to keep it. Fortuitous as I don’t think I could paint to save myself anymore’. And as for the origins of the name Gotye? This is also something De Backer can thank mum for. ‘It’s a pet name my mum had for me as a young child’, he chuckles. ‘She was a French speaker and only spoke French with me occasionally, but my birth name is Flemish. I was born in Belgium you see. It translates into French as Gotye’. [see also Moby]

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