Gotye Gives The Dwarf the ARIA Goss

Melbourne artist Wally De Backer (AKA Gotye) has taken time of his crazy schedule to discuss last weeks ARIA nominations with The Dwarf.

Gotye received five nominations for Mixed Blood, a compilation album of remixes and covers of tracks taken mainly from his album, Like Drawing Blood.

Speaking from the UK, where he is currently on tour with his other outfit The Basics, Wally told The Dwarf how he heard about the nominations.

“My girlfriend woke me up in London with a phone call. I was more excited to hear from her than about the nominations”.

De Backer says he owes a lot to the artists who helped make Mixed Blood a reality.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that the nominations Mixed Blood has received is flow-on from industry awareness about Gotye and the ‘original’ album Like Drawing Blood building over the last year (and perhaps the similarity with between the albums' titles). But that's not to take anything away from the 14 artists who brilliantly interpreted my tunes to make the Mixed Blood compilation. They may just have handed me an ARIA award”

Notoriously modest, Wally says he doesn’t like his chances, given the competition he is up against.

“All the musicians I'm nominated alongside do great work. It's nice to be able to say that I genuinely like Silverchair, John Butler Trio, Josh Pyke, Sneaky Sound System, Dan Kelly, Paul Kelly... The list goes on. Everyone there deserves recognition for their music”.

Gotye has been nominated for Best Male Artist, Best Independent Release, Best Dance Release, Album of the Year and Best Album Artwork.

Share this article on Facebook