Why somebody that i used to know popular

I went down to my local thrift shop near where I was living at the time outside of Melbourne, I rifled through a bunch of records, and I picked that album out because I found the title of the record so tantalizingly absurd. I figured I could put music out around the time of the song and continue to grow my fanbase. And we found the take, which is crazy to think about. These songs sometimes take multiple sessions just to get that take.

It was very cramped and the bed was one of the only seating spots in the room, but I think that just added to the vulnerability of the session. He also had a clear vision of what he wanted out of me. He wanted me to sound as little like a singer as possible — like I was having a conversation. I thought it was almost too direct when I first heard the lyrics.

Finding a way to tell a story that leaves things open to interpretation is always more interesting. He became more and more aware of my work until we eventually collided. Generally it was artists that came to me instead of labels, and Wally approached me himself in , before Kimbra had come on yet. If I was gonna use my face or elements of my body, it had to be interpolated into an otherworldly landscape.

Then Wally started hounding me, so I talked to him while I was by the pool about doing the clip. We used cheap eyeliner pens for all of the ink work. So I had that experience of getting into a meditative trance and letting someone make art on you. But it was still a lot to go there and be painted for hours and be almost naked with Wally. It was freeing not to have to overthink anything.

HACK: Around 17 hours, my vision was pretty tired. I lost complete view of what I was doing, it was really hard and Kimbra was really tired too — of course, she chose to wear boots when I told her to wear sneakers. It was a taste of where the next three or years would be. This is a once-in-a-generation thing. There was such a strong response. I guess it had an iconic quality, especially when people started parodying and paying homage to it.

It never crossed my mind at the time. I got two or three of those, and then it kept going and going. Having an unconventional artist from Australia find himself on Z was almost unthinkable at that point. Around and , the landscape had changed pretty fundamentally too. Facebook shares were still a big thing, and it was one of the first music videos that was just shared so much on those platforms that it was one of the most viewed things period.

Now, pop clips get billions of views and streams and whatnot. It was a global thing. HACK: It was interesting to watch the trajectory of what happened, because it was released in America first and nothing happened. Then when it became viral, it got relaunched to the right market. I was in Spain the following year, and every shop, restaurant, and nightclub I went to would be playing the song. Are we over this song yet?

It became a hit in Holland before we even did a licensing deal for it — we were scrambling to put it up on iTunes independently. What was your experience of receiving the Grammy for Record of the Year then? I was very excited to be in the same room as my idols. They were all sitting together. I had no expectations of winning the Grammy. I thought it was incredible that we were nominated. We were just excited that we were going to be part of the event.

Do you recall the moment when they read your name? Now that part I remember very well! That moment of the nominations being called out was very unreal. What happened behind the scenes to your life after the Grammys? My career was taking off, but I was kind of hesitant to even let that in because I am very wary of success. I know that it can be gone in a heartbeat. So I resisted it a lot. I used that notoriety from the Grammys to kind of pull together a really crazy cast of people for my second record: Rich Costey, who had produced bands like Interpol; Matthew Bellamy from Muse; Mark Foster from Foster the People; Thundercat ; Daniel Johns from Silverchair.

Why would I go and make a cookie-cutter hit after that, when I just had success with was something so obscure.

I just believed in the power of possibility after that moment. Prince did that. The greats always do that. I have no problem with various types of music, but I do believe that the music industry, and the pop industry, sells people short in terms of what it assumes of them.

It assumes that people can only hang onto a song with only two chords and repetitive melody that goes a hundred times over. People can wait two minutes for a chorus.