Gotye‘s Wally De Backer has got the old band back together.
The Australian singer-songwriter and drummer recently caught up with The Basics bandmates Tim Heath (guitar) and Kris Schroeder (bass) in New York City to record a batch of new songs.
The first fruits of that reunion is the politically-charged “Законопослушный гражданин (Don’t Be Deceived)”, sung in both English and Russian.
“Don’t be deceived / We’re not going to leave / Don’t care what you say / We’re not going to go away,” de Backer and co. sing in the chorus.
Paddy Milner adds piano, while English and Russian-language vocals are supported by Laura Burzacott and PPALEPINKK, respectively.
Formed more than 20 years ago, The Basics have five studio albums to their name, most recently the 2019 B.A.S.I.C. collection, and as many EPs.
Fast forward to now, each bandmate is running his own race.
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De Backer has kept a relatively low profile since Gotye enjoyed a global smash with “Somebody That I Used to Know”, featuring Kimbra. The enigmatic artist “is working away on his new repertoire while having also relocated from NY to the south of France with his family,” explains Philip Mortlock, co-founder of ORiGiN, which represents De Backer and The Basics.
Meanwhile, guitarist Heath is located in Castlemaine, Victoria with partner Felicity Cripps running the Theatre Royal venue.
Schroeder is now a doctor in Townsville, Queensland, where he lives with his young family and works at the local hospital.
The distance and the years, it would seem, are nothing compared with the pulling power of music.
“The band have consistently found ways to come together and collaborate despite their separate lives and activities,” adds Mortlock.
Anytime De Backer enters the studio is cause for some celebration. As Gotye, he had an all-universe hit with 2011’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”, a track that logged eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat which saw him become the first solo Australian male artist to lead the US sales survey since Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl” in 1981.
The love didn’t end there. He collected three Grammy Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and swags of ARIA and APRA Awards. Even Prince was a fan. Its iconic music video by Natasha Pincus is closing in on 2.5 billion views on YouTube.
Gotye and that one-of-a-kind track returned to No. 1 on the ARIA Chart earlier this year, by way of Doechii and her long-simmering “Anxiety”, which interpolates the classic song.
Doechii originally released “Anxiety” on YouTube in 2019. More than five years later, the tune caught fire on TikTok and charged to the top of sales charts everywhere. A separate cut by Sleepy Hallow, 2023’s “A N X I E T Y” featuring Doechii, recently crashed the ARIA top 40.
