About to embark on his first national tour, and with tickets selling at a rapid rate, Wally DeBacker, the sole member of Gotye, is feeling mixed emotions. Here, in an interview with Wireless Bollinger, Gotye reveals his nerves as a ‘solo artist’ and some secrets of his live show; secrets that include a mini orchestra, a light show extravaganza, and apparently enough smoke to stop the nicotine-addled from complaining about the recent law changes.

So Wally, what have you been up to recently?

I’ve been touring a lot with The Basics, my other band, launching our new record on the East Coast. We did a big show at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne. I’m getting pretty familiar with the place, seeing as I’ll be there for four nights in August with Gotye.

Are you getting excited about your upcoming national tour?

Yeah, I’m probably building more trepidation at the moment, having just finished some of these Basics commitments, I’ve got a lot to knuckle down and do. It’s only three weeks away before dress rehearsal. So for me it’s just knuckling down and focusing. It’s nice to kind of have a load off, I know that the tours sold really well, it’s pretty much sold out, it’s amazing. So I just want to make sure that it’s the best show it can be now.

Were you surprised by how fast tickets were snapped up? People are obviously excited.

Yeah, definitely. I thought there would be a good response, there have been a lot of album sales, you can look at the figures and get the stakes and predict that there’ll be some kind of good response. But yeah the extent and speed of the response was pretty phenomenal.

Is your live show something that you are constantly trying to improve on?

I’m just trying to get it happening at this point. I’ve been disappointed with what I’ve done at a few festivals, such as Homebake and Golden Plains so far. So I think this will a better environment in which to present my music, with better lighting and visuals, and a better chance to get the sound right with a good sound check. You just don’t get that at festivals.

What can people expect, apart from you and a mini orchestra?

Well, they can expect an audio visual extravaganza, a great lighting show, and so much smoke that no-one will ever think about lighting up a cigarette ever again.

Do you find it challenging to make some of your music work live?

Definitely, I pretty much had committed to not attempting do it live, too difficult, waste of time, better to focus my energy on recording because that really excites me. So I kinda back tracked on that by even attempting to do it, and then actually doing it on such a large scale. So yeah it’s been a huge challenge, but I guess I like challenging myself, it’s what I’ve done for the last few years, trying to get money to cash in independently.

Does performance excites you?

It does. I think that it’s so different between the Gotye project and The Basics. What I like about the live stuff is the volatility of it. Playing drums especially, it’s a very physical instrument, and I really relish just laying into the drums. I suppose singing can be similar if I’m singing at the top of my range and really hitting big notes that can be quite a thrill, just that kind of flow of energy that you’re putting out there. The inner moment that follows life. I have to try to remind myself to kind of embrace that a little more because I’m someone who tends towards wanting to refine things.

Have you been record hunting recently for new samples?  Is that something you are always trying to do in your spare time, search for more sounds and inspiration?

I was up until about a year ago where I just kinda got so busy putting this record out that I haven’t basically sampled a single record or written a single bit of new music in just over a year. So it’s going to be an interesting process. I can see why it can take people like DJ Shadow and The Avalanches a long time once they have success and tour extensively and release a record. It takes you a long time, you need to be able to take yourself out, have a home base to be able to collect, organise, experiment, and realise.

I’ve got a bit of a mobile setup happening now, possibly sampling records on the run while on Basics tour with a laptop is possible, but it certainly feels like a crossing of energies. If you have an hour or two to kill, you just don’t really get any work done, and it’s kind of the wrong vibe anyway if you’re sitting in a hotel room waiting to play with another band to pull out the laptop and think of a sound. So I think I’m looking forward to towards the end of the year, or maybe early next, where I can withdraw, just take some time out, collect sounds and write new music.

Do you find it difficult to juggle between Gotye and The Basics?

Yeah, I guess challenging is the word again. But it’s not a challenge that I find annoying, I mean there’s just a lot of busyness. That’s the thing that can get difficult, just wanting a bit more time to myself and a bit more time for my girlfriend.

What are your plans for after the tour?

Straight overseas with The Basics, two months straight in Japan and the UK where we can try to make a go of hooking up with some people to get our record licensed over there.

Are you happy with how well things are going for you at the moment?

It’s great, maybe a bit conflicted at times with Gotye’s profile kind of sky rocketing in the last year and The Basics struggling a little more to get people interested to play us on radio, that’s made it quite difficult at times. But the show The Basics did at the Athenaeum on Saturday night was awesome, we put a lot of work into it and we’re all really satisfied with how it came off. So that was really good, I think everything is just moving forward. It’s nice to be a full time musician. I’m really lucky and grateful for that, so I’m just trying to work hard at it.