Even if you haven’t heard of doe-eyed singer Kimbra Johnson, you’d have to be living in self-imposed Internet seclusion for the past few weeks to have missed “Somebody That I Used To Know,” her duet with Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye. A viral sensation, it’s already reached number one in a dozen countries and currently has somewhere in the region of 125 million You Tube views—more than Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” and the original Susan Boyle audition combined.
“I had a feeling it was going to reverberate with people,” says Kimbra (she goes by her first name only) when asked if she had any idea of the song’s potential at first listen, “but predicting what has happened would have been beyond anyone.”
With or without “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Kimbra is already a well-established artist in the southern hemisphere. A former teen pop star, she moved to Melbourne from her native New Zealand at just seventeen, and has since been steadily building her career; earning a platinum-selling album—2011’s Vows—as well as Best Female Artist at the ARIA awards (the Australian equivalent of the Grammys).
Now, Kimbra is bringing her personal blend of offbeat quirk-pop (which has stripped-back moments that resemble “Somebody I Used To Know” but is, on the whole, much more colorful) to American audiences. Straight from a run of shows at South by Southwest, she’s currently supporting Gotye on the American leg of his tour, and Vows is scheduled for a U.S. release in May.
That said, Kimbra’s onstage brand of Katy Perry–meets–Stepford Wives kitsch, which is accentuated by her black bob, bright red lips, and a flair for party dresses, has undergone some scaling back for her U.S. performances. “In Australia [the production] is much bigger in terms of lighting and visuals,” she said while getting ready to take the stage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., last week. What she may have lost in ostentation, however, has been countered by the enthusiasm from crowds not wholly familiar with her ballads. “[It’s] injected a new sense of freshness and energy into the songs,” she adds.
This novel energy must be very welcome. “Settle Down,” the snappy, loop-laden first single from the album, was originally released in New Zealand in July 2010—another decade ago, technically. And though the American release of Vows features several new songs, written and recorded in Los Angeles at the end of last year with Foster the People producer Greg Kurstin, even Kimbra admits she’s looking forward to creating more original material.
“[Vows] tracks my life as a sixteen-, seventeen-, and eighteen-year-old,” she explains. “I’m turning 22, so I want to start getting into work that reflects where I’m at in life now.”
WATCH: “Settle Down” by Kimbra