AnnieB's Detour: Gotye

You know, on rare occasions the Palms Out Blog does good things. While I may not like a majority of the mixes, it does introduce me to artists worth looking into a bit more, like this Belgium-born, Australian-raised, ARIA-award winning artist, Gotye (Wally De Backer). I honestly don’t even know where to begin in describing his sound because he has a very wide range. One song will you remind you of one artist, while another song will remind you of a different artist, or a combo…yet in the end, creating a sound all his own.

Anyhow, the song that came cruising through t61 is a remix of “Heart’s a Mess”. To me, the vocals in the mix start off like Junior Boys that then progress into something similar to Shiny Toy Guns. Check out the music video of the original version below.

He also has other crafty music videos which can be viewed here.

So where does the name Gotye come from? Well, according to wiki:
Wally was embarking on a project that was, in his own words, "about refiguring past things (old vinyl sounds) with my own ideas". It therefore seemed appropriate to draw on his past for inspiration for the project's name. Wouter, Gotye's real name, from Flemish translates into French as Gaultier (or Gautier or Gauthier). Wally's mother used to call him Gaultier as a pet name. Drawing on this and choosing his own spelling gives us 'Gotye'.

Gotye is pronounced "gore-ti-yeah" in Australian English.

In summary:
Wouter > Walter > Wally
Wouter > Gaultier > Gotye

Voila!

Gotye’s Website
Gotye’s Myspace