I had an odd dream last night. I've been having odd dreams a lot lately. Last night Wally and I were moving through a strange kind of town hall together and he insisted on making these beautiful drawings with crayon and chalk, and getting his dress pants dirty while doing it. My mind works in strange ways. I'd wager Wally's does to.


I grew up in Perth, Western Australia. When I was ten years old my family and I moved to the Netherlands where I started writing music and playing guitar. I returned four and a half years later when I was fourteen and proceeded to play on open mic before I was offered my first paid gig. By 1999, I was nineteen, and moved to Melbourne to "Get Famous". That city claimed me for twelve years. I now live in Toronto.

Over the last sixteen years I have learned more about life and music on an emotional level than I ever imagined possible. I walked towards music with the hope to get fame and fortune. I never could have imagined the true rewards of what I do. My music career has afforded me such amazing experiences. I have seen parts of Australia and the world that I don't think I would have sought out independently. I have seen the sun set over the ocean on the most western tip of Australia and the most eastern tip of Australia within the same weekend. I have seen rain forests and great sweeping fog through the Blue Mountains.

I have watched the sun fall on several continents. I have played for thousands, I have played for one. I have played with many, extremely talented people. I have stood alone in front of several thousand people and felt safer than anywhere in the world, and connected to everything. I have met inspiring and talented people. And one of those people is Wouter De Backer.

Wally and I met in quite a lovely way. I was driving my little mustard yellow 1976 Honda Civic (with black G.T. racing stripes) on a hot afternoon in Melbourne town, listening to Triple J; which every now and again gave me a new song to contemplate. That was the first day they played "Heart's a Mess" on national radio. I stopped the car and wrote his name down. Gaultier. I was determined to connect with him.

At the time, Gotye managed himself, just like me, so his e mail address wasn't hard to find. I wanted to make sure he'd pay attention to the e mail, so noticing his name was Dutch (well, flemish, but it's almost the same), the subject line was something like "hey mister the baker!"
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His response to my "You're awesome I want to work with you" e mail was something along the lines of "I've loved your music for a while now too- let's do a swap!"                                                                                                                                                                                                 

We haven't spent a hell of a lot of time together, but we know a lot of mutual people. We've shared a few cups of tea, hung out back stage at a few gigs, and then he performed at my farewell show. That moment was so special to me and I am so grateful for that experience. His utter grace and professionalism was delightful. I think by the size of the smile on my face you can tell it was one of the happiest performance moments I have had yet!

We have since shared the stage one other time in Toronto, on his first tour for Making Mirrors. Kimbra wasn't available in Toronto so I got to sing her part with the crowd. That was pretty funny. And Intimidating! Wally is a perfectionist and I can't stand doing anything on a less than perfect scale. Kimbra sings differently to me so it was a cool challenge.

The wonderful thing about having friends in the music industry is that no matter where you are in the world you're guaranteed to see them once in a while, because we all tour around so much. I got to hang with him again in Boston on his last tour, and I guess I'll get to see him again in September when he performs his stadium tour. Bizarre. Considering the first real time we spent together was when he performed on my stage in Melbourne.
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I am constantly proud of him and he is a generous soul. He somehow finds the time to respond to me regularly and thoroughly. Like most people I know in the music industry he values and actively supports his community. I am blessed to get to hang with him from time to time. And I'm happy that he's a good hugger, just like me.                                               

Jess McAvoy - July 2012