"There are just tons of bands in Melbourne, and I think there is a bit of a chip on the shoulder that too many of them are going unrecognized." So says Wally De Backer, aka Gotye.
The Belgian/Australian sampling guru's second album, "Like Drawing Blood," has been a phenomenon in Australia, and could be set for the same success when it is released in Japan next week — and he doesn't take his recent success lightly. He talks at lightning speed and with breathless enthusiasm about everything from KLF and Depeche Mode to 1960s rock 'n' roll to Japanese artists such as Cornelius, YMO and Yura Yura Teikoku. But at the moment he is talking about the state of the music scene in Australia, in particular the rivalry between Sydney and his adopted hometown of Melbourne.
"There is this kind of thing where you see the newest band signed to Modular and it's four more kids from Sydney with '80s haircuts, and they've got a drum machine and maybe they're gonna put some guitars on top. They've just signed this massive deal after four weeks practicing in their bedroom and the next thing you know they're on planes drinking champagne. And you're like, 'I started this 12 years ago and I've been working so hard to get a chance to do that!' "