Gotye Spent Nine Months Perfecting Animated ‘Easy Way Out’ Video

In Gotye's 'Easy Way Out' clip, which marks the first video since the cartoon visuals of 'Bronte' were released back in August 2011, the singer-songwriter is leading a humdrum life in an animated world of stop-motion tediousness. With all of the special effects and claymation work that went into the 'Easy Way Out' clip, in addition to the fact that Gotye is a bit of a perfectionist, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the clip took nine months to complete.

The 'Easy Way Out' video was filmed with a 360-degree view, where fans see Gotye going about his mind-numbing daily routine. First, he wakes up in his stuffy little apartment before he robotically heads out to the kitchen to puff away on animated cigarettes and chill with his black clay cat. From there, he heads out to his job, where he eventually finds himself smashing his head into the typewriter until he's bloodied and battered. Next up is the subway ride home, and then the nightly bathroom ritual. Soon enough, Gotye reaches his breaking point and finds his 'Easy Way Out' by burning everything to the ground. Is there a time when all of us working class folks haven't felt this way?

In a statement on Gotye's official website, animator/director Darcy Prendergast talked about the video treatment and how a crew built the five-room set from the ground up. "We completely disregarded good business sense, and created a piece of art that would hopefully leave the viewer's cerebral cortex sliding down the computer screen," Prendergast wrote. "From a visual perspective, we wanted to bombard our audience with magic. I'm a huge believer of in-camera trickery, and have always been an avid fan of stop-motion, but those skills ... enabled us to create some pretty astonishing, but deliberately understated, animation."

Nine months certainly doesn't seem like that long when you produce a clip of this caliber. It's an entertaining watch and almost feels like a mini-movie rather than a music video, with Gotye once again showing off his acting skills (don't tell us you can't see the emotion on his face when Kimbra sings "Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over" in the 'Somebody That I Used to Know' clip).

Despite the fact that this is the official video for 'Easy Way Out,' Gotye also released an unofficial visual for the song back in Oct. 2011, which contains fiery red anime-inspired cartoons.

Watch the Gotye 'Easy Way Out' Video