Gotye And The Basics Form Political Party

Acclaimed Aussie musician Gotye is adding another title to his CV, with the Somebody That I Used To Know hit-making entering the politics game with his band The Basics.

Gotye, otherwise known as Wally De Backer, and his fellow Basics Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath have formed a political party called Basics Rock'n'Roll Party, Schroeder confirmed in an article published by Fairfax.

The trio are aiming to be an alternative option to what Schroeder called "life-long politicians" and hope to run in the November state elections in Victoria. The guys need 500 registered members of their party in order to be eligible to run in November and have been plugging and campaigning their party on Facebook, in amongst working on their new album.

Schroeder said the party are interested in issues relating to education and indigenous affairs, but music of course is also one of their main focus areas.

"We're interested in giving an equal opportunity to all as far as access to music is concerned, and I guess that's across the board what we're really interested in," he said.

Schroeder played down comparisons to Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett, who was a member of the Labor Party a few years back.

"I think it was a bit of a compromise between his own ideals and what was convenient at the time," Schroeder said of Garrett's Labor tenure.

"We look up to the ideals that Midnight Oil espoused through their music, and we would like to look at his example as a lesson learned and think if you're going to do something like that you should do it on your own."