Some of you paying attention may have noticed back in January that rising Australian star Kimbra had pulled off something that was nothing short of impossible.
In the midst of touring around the country as part of the Big Day Out 2012, she jetted off to the United States to perform live on television with Gotye before heading straight back to Australia to perform at the Big Day Out in Adelaide – all within 28 hours.
Now talking for the first time about her whirlwind trip to News Limited, Kimbra has revealed that she was already booked by Big Day Out when Gotye was asked to perform his duet ‘Somebody I Used To Know’ for the first time on US television.
Which presented a problem for Kimbra and her team. Not wanting the miss what could have a been a huge career starter in the United States marker, they also didn’t want to pull out of their commitments with Big Day Out.
So they hatched an audacious plan to fly over to Los Angeles immediately after Kimbra’s set at the Melbourne Big Day Out, rush to the studio to perform for four minutes live on television, and then leave immediately for the airport again the fly to Adelaide where they landed with just an hour to spare.
“I landed in LA, got in a car, went to the TV studio, sang the song on Jimmy Kimmel, got straight back into the car, went right back to the airport that night and flew into Adelaide,” Kimbra explained. “An hour after I got off the plane in Adelaide I was on stage at their Big Day Out. You get a second wind of adrenalin … ”
And the rest as they say is history. The television appearance was applauded by critics and cemented Gotye’s rising star in North America where ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ has risen to #4 on the charts.
But Gotye wasn’t going to enjoy all the spoils for himself. Kimbra, who was chosen to sing on the track after the original choice backed out, has been able to capitalise on the runaway success of the single because she already had an album in the bag.
“It has provided a fantastic platform to come to America and say, ‘Hey, let me show you another side of what we do’,” Kimbra continues. “I’m grateful all the hard work was done before we did that track. If you do a collaboration that becomes that big, the problem you run into is if you have nothing to release. We had three videos and a whole album, we were able to back it up. You still feel the pressure, but the work is there.”
“It’s crazy. I think about being in my room with Wally casually singing the takes, thinking maybe it might be a fourth song on the album, a nice ballad. I knew it was going to be a great song, but no one expected this.”
Gotye has now been invited to appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, just a few days after ‘Somebody I Used To Know’ will be sung by the cast of Glee in the season opener of the popular television series.
As for Kimbra, she is back home and due to embark on an Australian tour in May. She’s also been busy working on a new collaboration due April 5th with Mark Foster from Foster The People and A-Trak.
