Songfacts®:

• Gotye wrote this song about some friends of his who were letting go of their 21-year-old dog, Bronte. He explained to Artist Direct: "When you love and care for an animal, you don't want it to suffer too much. You also respect nature and the natural cause of things. They really struggled with the eventual decision of deciding they had to let go of the dog and put it down. I thought they did it in a very loving way. From what I could tell, it was very instructive and inclusive for their daughters. They did it as a family. I wrote that song like I was vicariously experiencing it. That's what I'm proud of. In its simplicity, I felt like it captured my feelings of that experience even if it was at a distance. You don't have to necessarily interpret it as a relationship between people and animals. You can flip it on its head and turn it into a group of animals letting go of this peculiar relationship with a human child they have in the forest."