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Gotye

Friday 08 Aug, 08

Wally De Backer is Gotye, the infinitely modest and ridiculously talented musician behind such hits as "Heart's a Mess." In this interview read about Gotye's quest to balance his time between creativity and business, and find out about his much overlooked skills in billy-carting.

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Blurb

Name

Gotye (Wally De Backer)

Position/title

Musician

Full time/part time

Full Time

Introductory Excerpt

The fact is that I want to be across everything, keep learning, keep finding new and creative ways to release my music and present it to people, and this means I'm always balancing my time between heaps of admin and "need-to-do-this-for-my-career" typa stuff with my intense desire to spend more time just collecting records, writing songs, trying out cool production ideas and generally staying at home and making music.

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Way Back

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Belgium, then when I was 2 years old my parents decided to move to Australia. Hence, I grew up in Montmorency, in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

What did you want to be when you were little?

I don't remember! A professional computer games player?!

Did you have any talents that became apparent early on?

I was pretty good at pushing my mate around in his billycart. So much so I never got a go at riding it myself. Heh heh. If there were any latent musical talents they might have been apparent to some of my mates and teachers from about year 9 in high school when I started writing original songs and playing drums and keyboards and singing too.

Were you encouraged to pursue a creative career and what were the prospects like?

None of the music teachers at school ever directly suggested that music was a great career (maybe they thought I'd do better doing actuarial studies, as my maths teacher thought I was destined to). But the encouragement and support that music faculty staff at Parade College, my private drum kit teacher, my mates and my parents gave to simply get the most out of music was enough to keep me energised I think.

As a kid, who were your three biggest inspirations?

Probably my mum and my dad. And then...The KLF.

What was your first job?

Working at the Were St. Food Store in Were St, Montmorency. I worked there on weekends and sometimes extra days during holiday times. Eventually I prided myself on being a pretty decent barrista, what with folks sometimes coming in asking for me specifically to make their coffee.

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Career Development

Did you do any Uni or TAFE? If so, what & did you graduate?

I studied Arts at Melbourne University. Started off doing Law, Japanese, Philosophy and Film Studies. Eventually dropped Law and Japanese, and gravitated towards Cultural Studies. I intended on getting a Cultural Studies major but an final year subject-selection bungle left me one core subject down on the prerequisites for a major. I got a BA with no major! I was shattered for a while, since I'd worked pretty hard to stay-on at uni, often thinking about quitting to give music more of a concerted effort.

How important was formal study to your career?

To my music career. I dunno...probably not massive in any direct way. But perhaps doing cultural studies made me almost acutely aware of the different levels on which people relate to music, how they consume it, how they value it or rate its authenticity. This probably subconsciously affected some of my choices in terms of choosing material, how I packaged myself. Trying to be...cool...you might say (in my own estimation anyway). And failing miserably of course.

Is it important these days for emergent practitioners to have degrees?

Not anyone who wants to be a pop artist/experimental musician. Like I said, my Arts degree probably helped on levels other than composition, production, self-promotion etc.

Why this industry and when did you realise you wanted to work in it?

Well, I don't really want to work in the music industry. I just want to make music, firstly, and I want to find the most self-directed way to get it to people's ears, and make money from it so that I can (a) continue to be creative for a living and (b) potentially invest that money in other people's creativity. I've worked really hard trying to avoid all the music industry backdoor BS, political squabbles, usual commercial imperatives. All of which can rear their ugly head when you start dealing with labels, booking agents, press people...the music industry basically.

I mean, naturally, I now work with a manager and publicist and distributor...but maybe I've taken longer to forge those relationships to make sure I really respect them as people and professionals (I was self-managed, booked and promoted for five years)...and I've also chosen not to have relationships with some people in the industry because of the baggage that I think their potential involvement in my project represents. I guess this stuff is obvious. Find good people to work with...I realised the music industry can be a lot more fun if you're working and sharing time and spaces with great people.

How did you get your first career break?

It's pretty impossible to say. Fox FM once featured my high school band Downstares in a Hot 20 countdown "Battle of the Bands". We won the audience vote after they played 30 seconds of our song...after which the impossibly excitable DJ promised that Fox would be in touch about our "prize". When I called them up a week afterwards, no prize having surfaced, I was passed between departments until I gave up. Perhaps that's where my lack of interest in commerical radio in Australia started...? And THAT was my first big break!! (not getting too elated and then downhearted about experiences like that :-))

What were the three most significant evolutions/changes in your working life?

Getting my first computer (a Pentium III PC compatible), with [pirated] music software and plugins!

Quitting my day job in 2007 (library customer service officer) and trying to make music work as a full-time pursuit

Getting an Apple MacBook Pro laptop! (my first laptop)

Did anything jeopardise your career in its early stages?

Depression about my level of creativity and lack of response in the industry. And also lack of funds.

What is the most important thing you learnt early in your career that is still relevant to you now?

Always be enthusiastic, polite and persistent when talking to people about your music.
Simply do the absolute best you can, and don't always compare what you do or where you're at with other musicians. It's good to be aware of what's happening in the industry, or to "measure yourself" from time to time, but too much concern for your level of success can be a real barrier to being creative.

If you could thank anyone from your professional past, who would it be and what would you say to them?

Peter, Heidi and Gordon from Creative Vibes. For giving me a chance to release my music independently through their distribution arm, when no-one else was interested. Many, many thanks.

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Now

How do you presently earn money?

From cd sales and digital downloads of my music, from merchandise sold at shows or through my website, from live performances. Importantly, I think, trying to make sure that overheads never exceed potential returns on my music endeavours.

What are your responsibilities?

At the moment, with Gotye, I've been able to hand over responsibility for bookings, tour planning, point-of-contact for career opportunities and just general "representation" over to Danny Rogers at Lunatic Entertainment. As I wrote before, up until the start of 2007 I was doing everything from writing, recording, organising manufacture of CDs, sending out promo copies and organising press, maintaining my website and MySpace page, as well as all my own tax. My father is a gun with my day-to-day bookkeeping, so he helps make sure my books are always in order (and he also takes care of my direct sales of CDs and merchandise through www.gotye.com), and I have professional lawyers and accountants to take care of the serious tax and legal formalities that come up when running a music business (I have two companies, one for releasing my records and one for touring with Gotye).

That means that now my responsibilities are more focussed on writing music, arranging my live shows, travelling for touring, and overseeing all the people who represent me to make sure that the way they're "taking care of business" is always cool. I still maintain my own website and YouTube page, and have a lot of email to attend to daily. But I have to have someone help me out to maintain my MySpace, Facebook and Bebo pages.

What are the best and worst aspects of your job?

There's always work to do, and I'm a bit of a workaholic so I don't know when to take a break sometimes. But "work" is mostly creative, or admin that's in aid of creative pursuits, so that's the positive.

What are three essential attributes someone in your position needs?

In my specific position: organisation, organisation, organisation. I sometimes wish I was more flippant and could just fob off some of the opportunities that come up, or be so disinterested in business/tax/music industry practices that I simply have to trust other people who represent me to look after my best interests. But the fact is that I want to be across everything, keep learning, keep finding new and creative ways to release my music and present it to people, and this means I'm always balancing my time between heaps of admin and "need-to-do-this-for-my-career" typa stuff with my intense desire to spend more time just collecting records, writing songs, trying out cool production ideas and generally staying at home and making music.

I feel that, over the last two years, although the learning curve for me has been fantastic, perhaps I've pushed the balance a little too far towards the admin/organisation side of things and not left enough room for myself to be creative. I'm hoping to change that in coming months.

What sort of creative projects are you involved in outside your main profession?

Well, "inside" my main profession I also write/record/tour/co-manage/independently release music with The Basics. So that keeps me pretty busy. Between both projects I don't get a lotta time "outside". I like to spend time with my girlfriend Tash as much as possible. But since she's a muso too sometimes it can feel a little like "music overload".

If you, in your position now, were interviewing/auditioning your younger self when you just starting out, would you have given yourself a break? Why / why not?

For sure. Because I'm, like, really, really...really good looking.

What do the next 12 months hold for you?

Touring to Europe (Belgium, Holland, Germany, France, UK) and Japan in support of my first Gotye record release in those territories. The Basics will also be releasing a new album and touring outback Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, as well as high schools in many states of Australia. Aside from that I hope to write new songs, record as much as possible...and see my girlfriend more! Oh...and learn rock'n'roll dancing.

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Overall

What drives you?

My Ford Focus. It's a small car, but so roomy!

Well seriously, I don't know. My MASSIVE ego? Just a drive to make music, to grow as a musician and person, and to be successful, sure. I don't know if I'm as driven by the success thing as, say, Kiss were purported to be.

What gives you the most creative satisfaction?

Feeling that I'm expressing important things for me, and for people in the world, and that I'm doing so through music that is progressive, relevant and exciting. I've got a long way to go to achieve that kinda creative satisfaction I reckon!!

Who is your biggest inspiration now?

It hasn't changed much. It's still my folks, my friends, my girlfriend. There are so many great musicians who inspire my dreams, let's say, with their music. But it's the people in my life that I admire day-to-day.

What is your proudest achievement?

Everything I've done with my music so far. It's also my biggest embarrassment. I listened back to my high school songs the other day and nearly died. Then I listened to more recent stuff I've done, and which has been well-received by a lot of people, and also felt disappointed. So that's another thing that drives me- a desire to...be better than I am? or something. I've been told I display a massive pre-disposition to Scientology's tenets of self-improvement. Scary.

Is there anything you wish you'd done differently in your career?

Not really. Maybe got my hair cut more often.

What advice would you give eager beavers keen to make it in your industry?

Learn as you go. Always try to be a good person.

If you could have a coffee with anyone at all this arvo, who would it be?

My girlfriend Tash. She's touring in Western Australia and I miss her.

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