Gotye

Gotye’s real name is Wouter De Backer and he was born in Bruges Belgium on May 21, 1980.  He typically goes by the English version of his name “Walter,” or “Wally.”  Gotye is De Backer’s professional stage name and is pronounced gore-ti-yeah. De Backer and his family moved to Melbourne, Australia when he was two years old.  From an early age he showed a deep interest in music and he learnt to play piano, drums, and percussion.

In his teens De Backer formed a band called The Downstares with some high school friends.  They often performed live and were a local favorite.  Although the band went their separate ways after high school, one of the band members named Lucas Taranto still plays live with Gotye.  At this time some in De Backer’s life some of his favorite artists included Depeche Mode and Kate Bush.  After De Backer graduated from high school he received a collection of LP records from a neighbor and it is known that these albums helped to form ideas for what is now known as Gotye.

De Backer worked incredibly hard to have his music heard and sent his music into local radio stations.  While he was working on his solo music he joined an Australian band called The Basics who he still is part of and tours with. De Backer has independently released three studio albums called Boredface, Like Drawing Blood, and Making Mirrors.  In 2003, Gotye’s album Boardface was released and received good local reviews.  His second album Like Drawing Blood also received respectable reviews and was voted Number 1 in the listener’s poll of the Best Album of 2006 and has sold over 35,000 copies.  Gotye’s newest album was released in 2011 is called Making Mirrors.  For this album Gotye impressively wrote the songs, sang them, and also performed the drums, percussion, keyboards and did the production for the album.  The album name “Making Mirrors” was inspired by a painting his father made in the 1980’s and Gotye made the painting the album cover.  It has only been since the release of this latest album that Gotye has been successfully internationally.  Of his most popular internationally successful songs, is Somebody That I Used To Know, which Gotye performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that aired on February 1, 2012.

Gotye’s sound has been compared to Sting and Peter Gabriel.  The genre of his music is typically indie or experimental rock but he calls his own music alternative-pop.  Gotye has won five ARIA Awards and received a nomination for an MTV EMA for Best Asia and Pacific Act.