Gotye Scores Australian Politics Win And Starts Political Party With Bandmates Plus New Song [WATCH]

Get ready for a rock'n'roll election, Australia. Gotye - aka Wally De Backer, the Grammy Award winner behind one of the most inescapable songs of 2011-12, 'Somebody That I Used To Know' - has broadened his outlook beyond music and, along with his bandmates in Australian band The Basics, can now add 'forming a political party' to his substantial list of accomplishments, reports The Guardian. The Basics Rock'n'roll Party is now official and will be on the voting ballot for their home state's election later this month.  

It comes as the band release their politicized new EP The Lucky Country today (Nov. 7) in the lead up to the election... and you can check out the lead single and title-track above.

The Basics - Wally, Tim Heath and Kris Schroeder - have been granted party status from the Victorian Electoral Commission after hitting the mark of 500 members just before the cut off ahead of the Australian state's election on Nov. 29. According to The Guardian, their political ideology is founded around three things: "innovation, education and rock'n'roll."

Schroeder and Heath will be contesting the northern metropolitan region for the Upper House. Speaking to The Guardian, Schroeder stated that the band's political platform isn't so much focused on winning the election as showing others that they can "operate in the political arena with honesty and integrity." 

Local political and community work isn't foreign to the band either, with all three of the band members passionate about and engaged in indigenous, environmental and humanitarian issues. Plus, Schroeder tells The Guardian, The Basics life experience outside of the political system in Australia is a definite bonus. "We all have brains, we all have higher education degrees. And perhaps we're a little less unsullied in professional lives and networks," he explained.

Perhaps they'll fare better than another musician-turned-politican, as 2003 American Idol runner up Clay Aitken this week lost his bid to win a congressional seat in North Carolina's 2nd congressional district... but may've scored a TV show in the process.