walking upstream…
Gotye
sourcesSFist — Gotye Doesn't Like Being Compared to Sting (De Backer on the Sting comparison and his own cited influences) · The Nic's Periment — Gotye, Making Mirrors review ('best off in the Gabriel vein... especially on Eyes Wide Open') · AllMusic — Somebody That I Used to Know review (Jon O'Brien · musicOMH — Gotye, Like Drawing Blood album review (on the dub/reggae character of 'Puzzle With a Piece Missing') · Billboard — Gotye's Smash Hit Almost Didn't Happen (De Backer on building the song from the Bonfá sample) · Wikipedia — Somebody That I Used to Know (Bonfá sample and co-writing credit)
Wally De Backer, a Belgian-born, Melbourne-raised multi-instrumentalist, records as Gotye out of a converted farm shed on his parents' property, building songs from thrift-store vinyl samples, hand-shaken music boxes, and vintage electronic keyboards as often as from a conventional band. His 2011 single 'Somebody That I Used to Know,' built around a looped guitar phrase lifted from Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá, became a generational hit and an Album/Record/Song of the Year Grammy winner, but it capped a decade of denser, more eclectic sample-based records that got far less attention. De Backer has spent the years since chasing that same crate-digging instinct into stranger corners: restoring vintage electronic instruments and championing overlooked sound pioneers.
the sound in question
2011
Somebody That I Used to KnowGotye
walk the tributaries ↓
Luiz Bonfá1960s · Bossa nova / Samba-canção / Brazilian jazz
This is the foregrounded, credited sample underneath Gotye's biggest hit, not a vague stylistic echo. De Backer built 'Somebody That I Used to Know' directly on top of a loop from Bonfá's 1967 instrumental 'Seville': 'I started with the Luiz Bonfa sample, then I found the drums, and after that I started working on the lyric and the melody,' he told Billboard, adding that the loop's call-and-response guitar figure 'directly prompted the first line of lyrics.' Bonfá's estate is credited as co-writer and shares royalties on every version of the song.
listen: upstream & heresource: WhoSampled — Gotye feat. Kimbra's 'Somebody That I Used to Know' sample of Luiz Bonfá's 'Seville' ↗
1967
SevilleLuiz Bonfá
2011
Somebody That I Used to KnowGotye
listen forPlay Bonfá's 'Seville' first — that spare, minor-key guitar figure trading phrases back and forth — then drop straight into the opening seconds of 'Somebody That I Used to Know.' The loop isn't reworked into something unrecognizable; it's the song's entire skeleton, with De Backer's drums and voice built directly on top of it.
The Police1980s · New Wave / Reggae Rock / Post-Punk
De Backer has said he grew up 'playing along with Stewart Copeland on the drums, loving The Police' — a formative, hands-on apprenticeship rather than a passive listen. That off-beat, dub-inflected reggae-rock chassis resurfaces constantly in his own records: critics flagged 'Somebody That I Used to Know' itself as sharing a key and a reggae-inflected pulse with The Police's 'Can't Stand Losing You,' and the same one-drop, echo-drenched feel drives earlier deep cuts like 'Puzzle With a Piece Missing.'
listen: upstream & heresource: Tape Op — Gotye ↗
1978
Can't Stand Losing YouThe Police
2006
Puzzle With a Piece MissingGotye
listen forCue up The Police's 'Can't Stand Losing You' — that spring-loaded, off-beat guitar skank and Copeland's splashy, reggae-schooled drumming — then drop into Gotye's 'Puzzle With a Piece Missing.' Listen for the same dub-wise space: rim shots and echo standing in for a full band, the groove built on absence as much as presence.
Peter Gabriel1980s · Art rock / Pop rock / Worldbeat
This one is critics' consensus more than De Backer's own stated influence — he's been cagey and a little weary about the comparison (dismissing an interviewer's Sting analogy as 'such an obvious comparison'). But it's a well-sourced critical throughline all the same: a review of 'Making Mirrors' judged De Backer 'best off in the Gabriel vein... creating vast aural landscapes to plant his melodies upon, especially on Eyes Wide Open,' and multiple critics pointed to the same high, keening tenor and widescreen production Gabriel pioneered on 'So.'
listen: upstream & here
1986
In Your EyesPeter Gabriel
2011
Eyes Wide OpenGotye
listen forPlay Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes' — that huge, reverberant chorus built to swallow the listener whole — against Gotye's 'Eyes Wide Open.' Listen for the shared architecture: a plainspoken verse that keeps climbing into an enormous, multi-tracked vocal ceiling, drums arriving late and hitting hard once they do.