Gotye | Wally De Backer Gotye | Wally De Backer

Possibly the shyest, most modest Melburnian to ever feature on OnlyMelbourne must surely be, the very talented artist, Gotye.

Wouter (Wally) De Backer or as we know him, Gotye is a musician and singer-songwriter who grew up in Melbourne. He was born in Bruges, Belgium and in 1980, emigrated to Australia with his family when he was two years old.

The hit song that brought him to our attention is the very excellent: Somebody That Used To Know. The song was released on July 5 2011 as the second single from Gotye's third studio album, Making Mirrors (2011).

Somebody That I Used To Know

Featuring Kimbra
1,740,764,870 views - 2021

iTunes: Song

iTunes: Video

Something Few People Know

Gotye waves goodbye to $1m

It's the biggest selling single in Australian history but in a deal brokered well before the song topped charts, it's understood Gotye agreed to split royalties 55/45 with the estate of deceased South American musician Luiz Bonfa who, despite having died 10 years ago, received a co-writer credit on the tune.

DeBacker inked the back-end deal after sampling the guitar hook from Bonfa's Seville (released in 1967) which can be heard at the beginning and occasionally throughout the song.

He has also previously credited Bonfa's tune for providing the blueprint for his breakout hit single, saying the riff sparked the first few lines of lyrics.

It's understood Kimbra, too, gets a percentage of royalties. However, Bonfa and Gotye are equally credited as co-writers according to the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), supporting the claim the profits are evenly split. Article source below.

Re Picture (above) of the thousands of pics found on the web, we rather liked this simple black and white pic, found on his web site!

Somebody That We Used To Know

A little bit of trivia.. imagine our delight to discover Wally attended the same school as our son, Parade College in Melbourne.

Somebody That I Used To Know Lyrics

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember
You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well, you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No, you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now and then, I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch, you hung up on
Somebody that you used to know
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Somebody (I used to know)
Somebody (Now you're just somebody that I used to know)
Somebody (I used to know)
Somebody (Now you're just somebody that I used to know)
Somebody

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Gotye | Wally De Backer 

➼ www.gotye.com

➼ www.wikipedia.org/Gotye

➼ www.twitter.com/gotye

➼ Article Source: adelaidenow.com.au - Gotye waves goodbye to $1m






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