GOTYE’S international hit ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ was released six years ago this month.

Recorded on a farm on the Mornington Peninsula, the DIY song would go on to sell 13 million copies globally, reaching No. 1 in the US, UK, Australia and 23 other countries.

It’s one of the most successful Australian songs of all time, joining an elite group of local acts to top the UK and US charts.

The instantly-iconic video is on track to being watched a billion times You Tube; now sitting just under 930 million views.

For Wally de Backer, the man behind Gotye, it’s incredible for his art, but not necessarily his bank account.

He’s turned down many lucrative offers to use his music in commercial enterprises but often lets students use his music in small films at no charge.

Most notably there are no pop up ads on his You Tube channel — a modern revenue stream for artists in an era of falling record sales and minimal income from streaming and downloads.

One hit wonder Gangnam Style made Korean pop star Psy $10 million from You Tube ads alone when it hit two billion views; it’s now close to three billion in online traffic.

“I’m not interested in selling my music,” de Backer says.

“That’s the reason I don’t put ads on my You Tube channel, which seems strange to people in today’s climate, but that is a decision you can make. I’m like that with all my music. I generally never want to synch my music for products (on ads).

“Ads are calling for our attention anywhere we turn in the world. If you can do something you care about and that other people care about and keep it out that world that feels like it’s all about ‘hey buy this stuff’ then that’s a good thing.”

“I don’t mind synching my music with creative projects like TV or film. I’ve got my own set of rules I made, if a student film wants to use my film I say yes across the board, there’s no money involved. If someone wants to use it commercially I look at what the budget is and the creativity of the project.”

The six year gap (although de Backer toured the Making Mirrors album for a good 18 months globally) has led to Twitter puns about Gotye now being somebody that we used to know or asking ‘Where’s Wally?’

Kris Schroeder, de Backer’s bandmate in The Basics (aka Gotye’s ‘other’ band) is quick to police his long-term friend becoming a social media punchline.

“When I see people saying ‘Where’s Wally’ online or making the ‘now he’s just somebody that we used to know’ I just think don’t you idiots know how to use Google?,” Schroeder says.

“In the time it’s taken you to write that stupid tweet you could have just googled it and maybe discovered some great music he’s been releasing recently on the other end. It’s so lazy. You’re not the first person to do that joke, just shut up.

“He’s my mate, I’m sick of people thinking he’s the butt of a joke. When Radiohead go quiet for a few years nobody thinks they have disappeared. He’s always taken his time to make albums. I’m just trying to stick up for Wal. He’s got a lot of inner strength but I know it must cut him.”

After touring Making Mirrors, de Backer relocated from Melbourne to Brooklyn, although he’s quick to add they live“south of the hip areas a lot of people move to.”

“There’s a pleasant thing in New York where nobody really makes a fuss,” de Backer adds. “I wouldn’t know if people recognise me or if they do they’re very cool about it and don’t mention it.

“I felt the difference when I came back to Australia last Christmas to tour with The Basics. Walking into cafes or restaurants someone would say something really nice and want a chat. I feel a lot more anonymous here in New York which is nice. But the other day someone came up and said they were a big fan and said ‘Please have a glass of wine on us’ which was lovely. It’s nice to just get along and do your thing.”

After the Gotye touring ended in mid 2013 de Backer decompressed by going back to The Basics, where he drums and sings. As well as recording 2015’s The Age of Entitlement, there were two tours during de Backer’s visits home for Christmas. Last December a hometown show resulted in The Basics’ recent live album In the Rude.

“Tim and Wally are the closest thing I have to family,” Schroeder says from Mongolia, where he’s currently doing advocacy work at the National Centre Against Violence.

“People know the Gotye thing and they love it, but it’s a bit of a blessing and a curse for The Basics. It brings a lot of people to us. Some of those people might go ‘Oh rock and roll, what’s this?’ and go away. And at the same time people who might be into it think ‘Oh Gotye’s in it, that’s not my cup of tea’ so they don’t really give it a crack when they might like it. There’s a bit of a disconnect trying to have people understand who it is we are.

“But when I get to see Wally play behind the drums and see him sing — to me that’s him. The Gotye stuff is a different side of him. That stuff is so considered and years in the making, but when he’s behind the drum kit and playing it’s a real release, it’s so spontaneous, he doesn’t have a chance to question ‘Oh is this good?’ which is his constant inner monologue.

“You spend time in a band with him, I know his trajectory is self doubt. He is a perfectionist, he is for all intents and purposes a genius, he wants it to be the best. There is a side of him, when you get him behind drums and a microphone, where that raw talent comes out.”

De Backer has spent the last two years working on what will be the fourth Gotye album — just the first with few million or so people around the world waiting for it.

In 2014 he took a creative detour to North East Arnhem Land, where he met with Djalu Gurruwiwi, a Yolngu elder and didgeridoo player, custodian and craftsman.

Djalu wants his music to carry on and reach new and wider audiences, filmmaker Ben Strunin captured de Backer meeting and performing with Djalu and his son Larry in the documentary Westwind: Djalu’s Legacy, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival next month.

The film shows a few locals watching Somebody That I Used to Know on their phones, but de Backer is happy to slip into the background and meet on a musical level, away from any fame that’s been a byproduct of his music.

“I’m a rabid music lover always looking for new things I haven’t heard before or give me a new perspective on things I thought were familiar,” de Backer says in the film.

As he has done in the past, de Backer recorded sounds on the trip. In the past those field recordings have been fashioned into sounds that become parts of his songs.

Somebody That I Used to Know was created from a small sample of Luiz Bonfa’s 1967 song Seville, before de Backer wrote an entire new song over the top.

After previous issues with clearing samples, a generous de Backer offered Bonfa’s estate 50-per-cent of Somebody’s royalties even before the song was released.

There were rumours the estate made more legal moves once the song became a mammoth hit.

“There’s never been lawsuits,” de Backer clarified. “There was a moment where I could have considered going to court, but I didn’t want to spend that time of my life doing that. The incredible work that my managers did protected me from very far reaching requests for percentages of my songwriting. In the end I decided it made more sense to focus on creative things and not get hung up on money and lawyers and courts. You don’t want to be in places that drain your energy.

“In the past I didn’t not cross my T’s and dot my I’s, but when you’ve got stuff out there making a bunch of cash you’ve got people out there going ‘I’ll have some of that cash’.

“The success of the last record makes all the projects for me possible, that’s the best thing about it. It’s one of the things I’m most grateful for, from the success of that song in particular.”

He’s supported Melbourne Electronic Sound Studios (a subscription system where people can loan rare electronic equipment) and has started a two niche record labels.

Spirit Level (co-founded with Triple J’s Tim Shiel) has released music by local acts Braille Face and Zammuto.

The other, Forgotten Futures, was christened with a compilation album of rare and unreleased music by the late Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Perrey was a French pioneer of electronic music who sadly passed away last November, aged 87, just before de Backer (who’d spent time with him) took part in a tribute to his music in New York.

He performed the tribute again in May in North Carolina using the prototype synthesiser Perrey was the sole virtuoso in — the Ondioline.

“I’m looking forward to spreading the word about a lot of his unknown and unreleased music,” de Backer says.

That archival research into vintage electronic equipment has fed into his own new music, some of which de Backer hopes to release this year — he’s finishing it in his living room.

“I’m a workaholic, I’m trying to bring it all together. I know there’s fans who’d love to hear new music. Sometimes I wish I could be more prolific and finish things I was proud of and put them out more regularly. But it is what it is.

“At some point I realise ‘OK, this is a record’ or this is becoming the project I’ve been trying to make and it takes the time it takes. That’s how I’ve always worked it.

“I’m trying to do a lot of things. Any Gotye record I put out in the past I finished the music and had artwork but any other components like film clips and documentaries might have been completed as I released music. I want a big chunk of it put together before I release anything this time. I’m being more ambitious than I ever have been before so that means it takes a lot of time.”

Schroeder has heard some of the material Gotye has been working on over the last three years.

“There was one poppier one, I think it was called Circling, and it was really great,” he says. “That could be a big hit. It’s got this weird time signature. I really hope he takes it up a notch. He had this huge song but he was kind of ignored after that by some parts of the media. It’s kind of like The Basics, we try and even get one song away and we can’t. He had a song that had nearly one billion views on You Tube and he couldn’t even get some radio stations to play a second song, I just don’t understand that.”

De Backer himself is still unsure about what the music will sound like, although admits to guest vocalists, guest players and a lot of sampling “in some cases people making appearances from beyond the grave.”

Due to his extended gestation period he’ll be releasing music in the new era of streaming, although he doesn’t track royalties for his global hit on the services.

“I’ve dipped in at different moments through an auditing process, I think I need to be more across it for the next record. There’s a lot to learn. The whole landscape has changed since Somebody came out. I’ve always had an independent spirit, with all the deals I’ve done with major labels I’ve been able to remain independent and work on my own timeline, it’ll be interesting to navigate what that means with streaming.”

The obvious question of pressure hasn’t weighed down on de Backer; who at least now is able to make a comfortable living off his music.

“Usually the pressure feels the most intense internally,” he says. “These days you could outline what the ideal commercial timeline would be to put out a single or an album after you’ve had some success to stay on the scene. I know I’m not able to make good music while trying to work on that timeline. And that timeline has gotten hyperfast.

“There’s a general sense that maybe quantity over quality has more value. It’s hard to resist that feeling that I should just put stuff out. Maybe it’s not even music, maybe it’s just being on social media doing stuff more regularly for the sake of being around.

“Conversely there’s a fatigue that a lot of people experience these days so maybe it’s nice to be like an old friend you don’t see for a long time and when you do it’s joyful because you haven’t seen them for a long time. There’s something new to talk about, you haven’t followed their feed on Facebook every day for years and know what they’ve been doing.”

Westwind: Djalu’s Legacy, Forum Theatre, August 9, 9pm, ACMI2, August 13, 1.30pm, miff.com.au