FEATURE It could be wrong to see someone’s passing he’s been asked numerous times to do but never After a big year – a single in as an opportunity for a new beginning, but found the time for – possibly a good thing for the Top 10 of Triple J’s Hottest the demise of Wally De Backer’s next-door- the poor sod who commissions him. 100, and a management deal neighbour proved to be a career catalyst. The Listening to Wally reflect on the history of recent widower found himself with a stack Gotye, while at the same time smelling the – Wally De Backer, aka Gotye, of records that proved a bit too much for the fragrance of wood that permeates the De bereaved. Memory serving him well, he had backs up and offers Backer chalet-style home (single-handedly a young musician living next door; a knock built by his father), you get the feeling that this a recount. at the door drew out a pre-Gotye De Backer. Flemish-Belgian sprite wasn’t raised a lazy lad. The elderly British gentleman, explaining his Text: Mark Davie But like so many other success stories, it took delicate situation and eagerness to get back fated intervention, get-up-and-go pep talks, to Old Blighty, offered De Backer his wife’s persistent friends and allies, the right creative records that would otherwise have ended up partner and the drive to keep him going. One on top of the Montmorency tip. Accepting the thing that must be noted to get a fuller picture offer, the next day crates of records arrived of De Backer’s resolve is that up until two on the front step of De Backer’s residence – a weeks prior to our arrival, he had been entirely musical legacy from beyond the grave. www self managed, spending his own hard-earned Gotye reveals his The vinyl library, still sitting on a bookshelf in on recording, mixing and promoting his two sampling methods De Backer’s home, is predominantly ’80s fare, records: Boardface, and latest release, Like online, direct from his home studio. with more than a few diamonds in the rough, Drawing Blood. This latest album recently won Also, have a crack at including The Reddings track, In My Pants, a the Triple J radio Listener’s Favourite Album remixing one of his newer projects; all local favourite of De Backer and his housemates, of 2006 – no mean feat for any Australian audio files are online and one that got plenty of airing during our independent artist. So, how does a young now. two-hour chat. He admits that he’s always musician go from a few crates of records to audiotechnology.com.au longed to play the track in a DJ set – something national success? We found out. AT 46 BEGINNING WITH BOARDFACE those formative days, lead the way in producing Wally’s Take After early music-making turned to the tracks? Or did you have something in mind Samples are a hard one to get past the watchful eye of disappointment on more than one occasion, early on, like Portishead, and say, ‘well, how can the law. And Wally is no stranger to the ins and outs of Wally realised that attempting insanely I make this work for me?’ the battle between artistic manipulation and original multi-tracked, complex, synth-laden, electro composition. Currently in the throes of trialing a sample WDB: I think I knew very little, and I think I rock recorded in one day at the hands of local replay house in the UK, Wally took the time out to explain still know very little. I felt a bit bamboozled. I the legalese of sampling and royalties. engineers wasn’t going to result in a finished think the Acid software definitely directed me product in the league of Flood or Daniel The Royalty Situation in developing songs a certain way, especially Lanois. Taking the lead from his Nine Inch If I’ve sampled something that incorporates a musical from loops and grabs. But I think I realised phrase or a production element that can be proved to Nails-influenced friend, Wally joined the fairly quickly – maybe more so than some be integral to the original song, and on which my song is legion of home studio owners. Figuring that he people who make dance music using this type trading, then I would probably have to seek publishing liked the sound of his friend’s tracks, the gear clearance and split the songwriting (hence mechanical of software – that it pushes you into doing more he bought was a carbon copy of that setup: a royalties) with whoever owns those copyrights (publishing looped, four bar, eight bar kind of stuff. And I Pentium III 733MHz, Sound Forge, Acid Pro, companies/the songwriter/their estate, if they’re dead just try and find ways to shift out of that and for instance). And they’d probably ask for a flat fee and a an Isis MaxiStudio card, an Audio-Technica make things more organic. Go beyond the grid, percentage of record sales too. AT4033 and a Technics SL-1200 turntable. The I guess. Any instance where I’ve used a timbre from an existing first speakers he had were two old Thorn EMI record (whether it encompasses a musical phrase or not) boxes from the ’70s, shelling out a whole five LEARNING ON LIMITED EARNINGS CURVE technically requires me to seek a license for using that dollars at Savers for the pair. “As long as there It’s not all laughter and high fives though. master recording and incorporating it into my own. Again, was sound coming out of them, it was alright,” a flat fee and a percentage of record sales would be the Cardinal mistakes have been made along norm. Of course, cases of ‘one-shot’ sampling are a waste reflects De Backer. “It was good enough – better the way, as will inevitably happen to any of time when it comes to snare samples, horn stabs… than sitting there with headphones on.” A tent cash-strapped musician eager to get his music building block materials in my opinion. But companies of mattresses served as a makeshift vocal booth, to the masses. The learning process included like Bridgeport Music Inc in the USA are trying to take hip complete with a stocking/coat hanger pop filter. hop artists in the US to court for sampling snare drums paying two different mastering engineers to from George Clinton records; copyrights in which George (If you want to get a better picture of the setup, each work on half of his first album, Boardface Clinton himself, or his drummer, engineer, producer etc head to www.gotye.com and click on visual for a (a self-confessed faux pas), not realising that have no financial/legal interest in anymore, and which, 360-degree view of the old house.) mastering is intended (at least in part) to help an according to a number of sources, Bridgeport Music Inc. screwed Clinton out of in the ’70s. With a library of records and a home studio album gel together. The situation was further exacerbated by the frustrating lack of support As you can see, there are a lot of parties potentially setup going begging, his friend Andy made a involved, and the artist tends to fare the worst. Imagine simple suggestion: start sampling some of the from (supposedly) interested independent record that, creativity and cultural expression not afforded records – a thought that hadn’t occurred to De labels that insisted the disc be remastered, precedence over money and private interests! I can see Backer, despite the fact that he was an ardent backing the suggestion up with zero-dollar lawyers rubbing their hands together already. Portishead and Massive Attack fan. This same friend parked himself in De Backer’s bedroom one night and insisted they sample something. No one told Wally that you Playing back the result of this first night’s work, can pick up a popshield for 20 bucks on eBay. consisting of a drum break with an alternating Actually we’ll throw in a intervallic horn part, and of course, a solid hook real mic stand for an extra 10 bucks. Lurking behind snippet from the hugely-influential In My Pants, is Wally’s main vocal the interview almost ended in tears of laughter. mic – an Audio-Technica AT4033. But the questions rolled on. MD: Obviously you didn’t nail it the first time you sampled and used Acid, but it feels like there’s already a Gotye blueprint there. WDB: Yeah maybe. This was one track of five or six that I initially made and started sending to people. Those other tracks didn’t make it on to Boardface because at that stage I was still trying to find what it was I should be developing, and what worked best. That tune works because of the vocal element, but I was Wally’s priceless copy doing more DJ-style cut-up stuff, where I was of The Redding’s In My Pants goes back into its sampling other people’s vocals. When I had sleeve. about 25 songs finished I had to choose a 10- song album, and I went with all the vocal stuff. They were the most original to me. MD: So you identified the vocals as the defining element? WDB: Those were the things that people were mostly responding too… on these songs anyway. And some of the other tracks didn’t interest me as much anyway.