François Tétaz

François Tétaz
Background information
Born	December 22, 1970 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres	pop, experimental, classical, world music, industrial, electronic, rock
Instruments	Percussion, Violin
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Sony/ATV, Rubber Records
Associated acts	Gotye, Kimbra, Architecture in Helsinki, Bertie Blackman, Lior, Sally Seltmann, Chunky Move, Darrin Verhagen, Paul Schutze

François "Franc" Tétaz (born December 22, 1970) is an Australian film composer, music producer and mixer, who won the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) / Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) 2006 'Feature Film Score of the Year' Award for Wolf Creek (2005).^[1]

As a producer he has worked with Gotye, Kimbra, Architecture in Helsinki, Sally Seltmann, Lior and Bertie Blackman. He won an ARIA for his work on Gotye’s Making Mirrors album in 2011.^[2] He wrote, produced or mixed 7 songs in the triple j Hottest 100 for 2011.^[3]
Franc won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the 55th annual Grammy Awards for "Somebody That I Used to Know" (Gotye, featuring Kimbra) in 2013. The record was produced by Wally De Backer (Gotye) and engineered and mixed by Wally and Franc. The song also won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance as performed by Gotye and Kimbra, and the Making Mirrors album took home the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.^[4]

Biography

Tétaz is of Swiss descent.^[5] He grew up in a musical family on a dairy farm near Warrion, in the western district of Victoria. His mother, Heather was a music teacher; his father Frank was a dairy farmer and was obsessed with sound and music. In the 1950s he designed and built speakers to broadcast music around the farm, herding cattle to a soundtrack of Brahms and Beethoven. The family moved to Geelong so Franc and his brother Charles could attend Geelong Grammar School.
He and his wife Carolyn, have three girls named Vivienne, Suzanne, and Irene.

Early Years

After finishing school, he worked in Faggs hardware store in Geelong. Graeme Leak, who was artist in residence at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the time, suggested to Franc that he not go to university, but put together his own curriculum. While working, he sat in on a friend’s university lectures and studied West African Music, percussion, arranging and orchestration.
In 1992, François Tétaz with Charles Tétaz and Darrin Verhagen formed Shinjuku Thief, a Melbourne-based industrial and experimental music group.^[6] They released four albums by March 1994. Verhagen formed the record label, Dorobo Records, to release their latter albums including Tétaz' solo album, The Motionless World of Time Between or the Drunken Taxicab of Absolute Reality in 1997.

He scored student short films, worked on production for Paul McDermott, and The Doug Anthony Allstars.

Moose Mastering (1998– )

In 1998, Tetaz built a studio in a converted chocolate factory in Richmond, Melbourne. The studio was designed by Martin Gill and Roger Wood at Wood Marsh. The acoustics were designed by Chris Morton of Aro Technologies. Franc's mastering discography includes Merzbow’s Merzbox 50 CD box set of noise music for Extreme and the remaster of classic Triffids album Born Sandy Devotional for Domino.

Composition and Production (1998– present)

Francois wrote choreographic scores for Chunky Move, Shelley Lasica, Kage Theatre, Lucy Guerin and wrote the soundtrack for Patricia Piccinini’s Venice biennale show in 2003. He composed the score for Wolf Creek which won the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) / Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) 2006 'Feature Film Score of the Year' Award.^[7] He scored Luke Doolan’s short film Miracle Fish, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010.^[8] In 2012 Francois scored the music for Underground: The Julian Assange Story, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Wally De Backer and Tetaz worked together on the Gotye albums Like Drawing Blood and Making Mirrors. He suggested Kimbra for the song "Somebody I used to Know".^[9] Francois co-wrote "Settle Down", "Good Intent", "2 Way Street", and "The Build Up" for Kimbra's album Vows. In 2012 he co-wrote and produced Bertie Blackman's 4th studio album, Pope Innocent X and the soundtrack to the light sculpture Fiat Lux with Drew Berry for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
Franc won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the 55th annual Grammy Awards for "Somebody That I Used to Know" (Gotye, featuring Kimbra). The record was produced by Wally De Backer (Gotye) and engineered and mixed by Wally and Franc.^[4]

Discography

• Lo-Fang – "Blue Film" (2014, 4AD) ^[10]
• Spiderbait – Spiderbait (2013, Universal)^[11]
• Bertie Blackman – Pope Innocent X (2012, Mercury Records)^[12]
• Kimbra – Vows (2011, Warner Bros.)^[12]
• Gotye – Making Mirrors (2011, Samples & Seconds / Republic)^[12]
• Architecture in Helsinki – Moment Bends (2011, Modular / V2 / Cooperative Music USA / Downtown Records)^[12]
• Lior – Tumbling Into the Dawn (2010, Independent / Lior)^[12]
• Sally Seltmann – Heart Thats Pounding (2010, Arts & Crafts)^[12]
• Bertie Blackman – Secrets and Lies (2009, Forum5 / Indies Aus / Zoom)^[12]
• Lior – Corner of an Endless Road (2008, Independent / Mushroom / Phantom Sound & Vision)^[12]
• Gotye – Like Drawing Blood (2006, Samples N Seconds Records)^[12]
• Lior – Autumn Flow (2005, 2006 Lior / Independent)^[12]
• High Pass Filter – Soft Adventure (2004, High Pass Filter / Phantom Sound & Vision)^[12]
• Snog – Beyond the Valley of the Proles (2003, Metropolis Records)^[12]
• Snog – Relax Into the Abyss (2000, Metropolis Records)^[12]
• Snog – Third Mail from the Sun (1999, Metropolis Records)^[12]
• Snog – Buy Me … I'll Change Your Life (1997, Metropolis Records)^[12]
• Shinjuku Thief – The Motionless World of Time Between...(with band Shinjuku Thief) (1997, Dorobo Records)^[12]
• Shinjuku Thief – The Witch Hunter (March 1994, Dorobo Records)^[12]
• Shinjuku Thief – The Witch Hammer (October 1993, self-release)^[12]
• Shinjuku Thief – The Scribbler (May 1993, Dorobo Records)^[12]
• Shinjuku Thief – Bloody Tourist (November 1992, Extreme Records)^[12]

Filmography

• Underground: The Julian Assange Story (2012)
• Hesher (2010)
• Miracle Fish (2009)
• The Square (2008)
• Rogue (2007)
• Wolf Creek (2005)
• Thunderstruck (2004) (co-credit with David Thrussell)
• Under the Radar (2004) (co-credit with David Thrussell)
• I Love U (2002)
• Hard Word (2002) (co-credit with David Thrussell)

References

1. "APRA|AMCOS : 2006 Winners". Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). Retrieved 16 February 2010. delete character in |title= at position 5 (help)
2. "Winners By Year – 26th ARIA Awards 2012". Retrieved 12 November 2012.
3. "triple j Hot 100 – 2011". Retrieved 12 November 2012.
4. "55th Annual GRAMMY Awards Winners". Retrieved 21 February 2013.
5. Paul Tingen. "François Tétaz: Mixing Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know'". Sound on Sound.
6. Spencer, Chris; Zbig Nowara; Paul McHenry (2002) [1987]. "SHINJUKU THIEF". The Who's Who of Australian Rock. Noble Park, Vic.: Five Mile Press. ISBN 1-86503-891-1. Retrieved 16 February 2010. Note: [on-line] version established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.
7. "APRA|AMCOS : 2006 Winners". Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA). Retrieved 13 April 2012.
8. "Miracle Fish (2009)". Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved 13 November 2012.
9. Adams, Cameron. "Anatomy of No.1 hit Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye ft. Kimbra". Herald Sun. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
11. Mathieson, Craig (15 November 2013). "Spiderbait's tangled web still weaved after nine year album hiatus". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
12. AllMusic Credits