Song Premiere: Gotye's Eighties-Inspired 'Somebody That I Used To Know'

Gotye, 'Somebody That I Used To Know'

Courtesy of Universal Records

Click to listen to Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know (Miami Nights Remix)'

Producer Miami Nights 1984 gave Belgian singer and multi-instrumentalist Gotye's track "Somebody That I Used To Know" an Eighties-inspired synth-pop remix, inspired by his love of old John Hughes films.

"I'd actually discovered Gotye's track when a friend had shared it on my Facebook wall and was immediately hooked when I listened to it," Miami Nights 1984 says. "At the time, I was already in the process of looking for something to remix that had a pop kinda feel but hadn't really blown up yet."

Random Notes

His love for Eighties music and movies – and his desire to bring the old-school sound back – came into play when deciding how to treat the remix. "When I initially heard the song, it reminded me of one of my favorite artists Peter Gabriel, and felt that it would sound awesome with more of an Eighties retro, synth-pop kinda feel," he says. "I'm definitely influenced by the Eighties, John Hughes movies especially. When I'm producing, I always try creating a song that sounds like something you'd hear at the end of one of his movies. There's something about that retro analog sound that just brings you back to your youth and makes you feel good."

The Miami Nights 1984 remix of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" is available to stream at RollingStone.com, and the U.S. debut of Gotye's Making Mirrors will be released on January 31st.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter