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I interviewed Kimbra, aka the girl out of that Gotye song, about what it's like to be the girl out of that Gotye song. Also some other things. Pretty safe to say that if you don't have a giant musical crush/boner for her then you're doing something weird over there I don't need to know about. Also a regular crush/boner.
Excerpt from interview below. She also performed at something called the Spotify house at SXSW last week. Video + screen caps below (h/t Tom K.)
...the overwhelming success of Gotye’s song is all the more surprising. Since it was released last summer, it has scored multiple No. 1 spots throughout the world and the video has been watched on YouTube over 120 million times. It’s an impressive track record for such a reserved number, minimal in its instrumentation and production, and performed by a mostly unheard-of musician. It sounds downright out of place on pop radio.
The song is minimal it its approach to heartbreak as well. Unlike an Adele hit, for example, which elevates love into a mythical melodrama, the heartbreak at the center of Gotye’s song - and its success - is of the more pedestrian, resentful kind. Everybody has somebody that they used to know.
More important, it has that vocal track from Kimbra.
I wrote about her a few months back on PTSOTL:
What a shocker, I'm really into some new danceable female singer pop... Never saw that one coming. This track "Cameo Lover" from Kimbra, who is a total thing in her native New Zealand, is going to be my new official music crush for the next 48 hours or so. Kind of has a Marina vibe going on with the aesthetic of the video/dance moves/quirkiness factor, but with the type of bouncy old soul and Motown vibe the kids are digging lately (via Fitz and the Tantrums).
Also she looks like that bird out of the cell phone commercial with the pink dress on, so, you know, fair play.
You might recognize Kimbra from her appearance in Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" a song that I was ignoring for a long time because I figured it was going to be a really shitty Elliott Smith cover, and because it is probably the Platonic ideal of twee, hipster arstycraftwave preciousness, but woops, I've listened to it about 37 times in a row, and I love it now. I want to marry the song, yes, now that you ask. It's also a huge hit down under or in kiwi town or whatever, and in, like Belgium? Holland? I'd check but Wiki is all the way over there on the other tab. It's just starting to blow up here in the States though, so expect your friends to be into it/over it in a minute.
Here's her solo performance from SXSW. At first I thought this was super cute, but on second thought that looping your own vocals beat box thing is always kind of a dork move. Good for her though. Getting her shine from all the excited/bored tastemakers in the crowd.
This is the most SXSW crowd I've ever seen. Let's see, bored, sitting down, watching the show through their phone, superfluous hats/shades, flannel, denim cutoffs, stupid vests, neck beards, alt bbs, branded experience. That about covers all the bases.
This girl in the denim cut offs is my nominee for the mayor of SXSW.
This was my favorite part of the video. /nopervo.
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4 comments:
Gurl is the fucking shit. I'm glad she's getting what she deserves.
She seems rad indeed.
Not too many women can pull off those pants. /maybe no, but probably semipervo
I want to second your nomination for Sadtown by Slacker West. Her platform of dourness and boredom crossed with an unquenchable need to, nevertheless, still be in the front row to showcase these emotions is definitely on message for this year's festival. All she needs is a prosthetic neck beard.
I'd like to thank you for your last two SXSW posts as it has saved me thousands of future travel dollars. I no longer need to attend.
I think we're all in agreement then. Denim shorts wins by a landslide. All two of us.
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