Switched on Pop9 Mar 2021

Kimbra reflects on a song that we used to know

Ten years ago the Australian artist Gotye asked New Zealand musician Kimbra to feature on his song “Somebody I Used To Know.” At the time Kimbra had no idea it was going to be a hit. No wonder—the song lacks the trappings of a conventional pop song. The chorus shows up late and it only repeats once in a track composed of an obscure Brazilian guitar sample and nursery rhyme xylophones. But this slow burner about opposing sides in a relationship's bitter end found a global audience, ascending to No. 1 in more than 25 countries, and accumulating billions of plays across streaming platforms. In 2013, Prince anointed Gotye and Kimbra the Grammy for record of the year (it won best pop duo/group performance as well). The song created many opportunities for both Gotye and Kimbra, but both chose unconventional paths, resisting the industry’s desire to generate the next hit for hits sake. Reflecting on the song a decade later, Kimbra spoke with Charlie Harding from the podcast Switched On Pop about how this unlikely song inspired her to pursue her singular musical vision, and how it feels to be yet again co-nominated for a 2021 Grammy for her collaboration with Jacob Collier and Tank and The Bangas on “In My Bones.” SONGS DISCUSSED Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) Luiz Bonfá - Seville Kimbra - Miracle Kimbra - 90s Music Kimbra - Top of the World Jacob Collier - In My Bones Kimbra - Right Direction Son Lux - Lost It To Trying MORE Check out Kimbra’s course on Vocal Creativity, Arranging, and Production over at Soundfly Listen to our conversation with Jacob Collier Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(561)

The Gen-Z writing style (with Bella Kay)

Bella Kay almost shelved the song "iloveitiloveitiloveit." Instead she posted the song to TikTok and it changed her life. The song became a top 20 hit and launched her music career. Bella Kay joins ho...

10 Nov 43min

A unified popstar theory from Tinashe

On her eighth studio album Popstar, the criminally underrated multihyphenate Tinashe finally asserts herself as a Main Pop Girl, crafting a record about what it means to be a celebrity in the modern e...

3 Nov 46min

The 'bummer hope' of midwest emo (ft. Yvette Young and Mike Kinsella)

A few months ago, Nate came across a glittering guitar riff unlike anything he had ever heard before; it managed to perfectly balance careful optimism with plaintive melancholy, stirring the spirit. T...

27 Okt 30min

The rise of surrealist pop: KATSEYE and ADÉLA

The music of global girl group KATSEYE might be confusing on first listen. A less-generous read might consider their songs to be rudimentary: the lyrics are mostly nonsense, the instrumentals evoke le...

20 Okt 48min

Why we need bad music

For the 500th(!) episode of Switched on Pop, Charlie and Nate try to answer the question that has stumped critics and philosophers since the dawn of sound: does bad music exist? Their quest to answer ...

14 Okt 1h 1min

Has Taylor Swift jumped the shark?

One year after the release of her twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift is back with an encore. Specifically, The Encore, four tracks that have polarized critics and Swifties alike...

6 Okt 47min

Carly Rae Jepsen’s pop pedagogy

Five years after her first appearance on Switched on Pop, Carly Rae Jepsen returns to the podcast to talk all things Day and Night, her latest album. Born out of Swedish disco, big emotion, and substa...

29 Sep 49min

Tove Lo wants her music to sound out of control (ft. Tove Lo)

Swedish singer-songwriter Tove Lo’s new album ESTRUS can be summarized in the opening lyrics of the album’s closing track, “source of life”: “Feral, fragile, numb, ecstatic / sad, euphoric, catatonic ...

22 Sep 38min