Cut Copy is the musical lovechild of Melbourne human giraffe and 70’s MOR fetishist Dan Whitford. A project born in the early 21st century, Cut Copy was originally more of a solo project for Dan to exercise his love of sampling and instrumental hip hop, before he took a turn for the dancefloor and released the I Thought Of Numbers EP in 2001.
Cut Copy is the musical lovechild of Melbourne human giraffe and 70’s MOR fetishist Dan Whitford. A project born in the early 21st century, Cut Copy was originally more of a solo project for Dan to exercise his love of sampling and instrumental hip hop, before he took a turn for the dancefloor and released the I Thought Of Numbers EP in 2001. Following it’s release and a live mishap that saw his sampler fried, Dan recruited a posse of friends for the recording of his sparkling debut album, Bright Like Neon Love.
Enter Tim Hoey [guitar/bass/keys], Sonic Youth groupie and all round renassaince man with a penchant for mainlining espresso shots; Mitchell Scott [drums] avid bird watcher, owner of the largest collection of rare African stick insects in the world; and Bennett Foddy, [bass/keys] library dweller, the sensible one.
These gents joined Dan in the recording process to form like Voltron and make the Cut Copy sound what it is today – scuzzy disco, post-post-punk, electric lovers rock, sweet space pop. A sound that references 70’s rock staples like ELO and Fleetwood Mac, late 80’s/early 90’s indie like Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices, the disco production of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, post-punk and French house.
Since Bright Like Neon Love’s release in Australia, Cut Copy have gone on to sell out shows nationally, play the festival circuit, appear on the Kitsune Midnight compilation, complete a bunch of remixes, find God, lose him again, break hearts and win them back, release Future and Saturdays as singles, and win a massive amount of love along the way. Bennett took a leave of absence and has been buried in the books studying for a Phd, and the outfit was streamlined down to a 3-piece mid-2004.
March this year saw them play their first shows overseas, with appearances in the UK, New York, Texas for SXSW, LA and Miami. So successful was the jaunt they were invited to support Mylo on his 12 date UK tour, and have scheduled more shows and trips for the remainder of 2005 to capitilise on the albums UK and US release.
The music of Cut Copy is like rediscovering lost memories and hearing the sound of the future both at the same time, and making you want to grow a discoball for a head and electric guitars for arms. Let it light up your life, Bright Like Neon Love...
In Ghost Colours (2007-09)
For much of 2006, Whitford had been working on the second album using the three-piece template that had been touring. Towards the end of September he had much of the album complete in demo form. These recordings were sent to Tim Goldsworthy who agreed to produce the new record. In early 2007 the band travelled to New York where the new album was completed in a six week period. Whitford commented on Goldsworthy's contribution that 'he was almost like an extra member of the band and gave us feedback on things that were working and things that he thought we could change. On top of that he has an incredible wealth of experience with what he's done with other records and brought some of those recording techniques to our music.' In 2007 the band had announced the completion of their second album, In Ghost Colours, but its Australian release was delayed until 22 March 2008 to co-ordinate with its international release. In Ghost Colours debuted on the ARIA Albums Chart at number-one.
In 2008, "Lights and Music" was used in FIFA 09. "Far Away" was played on Nip/Tuck, a United States TV series, on one of its final episodes, in a club scene.
Zonoscope (2010-12)
In July 2010, radio station Triple J broadcast the teaser track "Where I'm Going", ahead of their third album, Zonoscope, which drew inspirations from the early 1980s. It was largely recorded in a Melbourne warehouse with only the band and an engineer working on it.[10] The band confirmed they had officially become a four-piece with the addition of bass guitarist Ben Browning. "Where I'm Going" is the theme song of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook's sneak-preview video, which was released in September 2010.
Zonoscope peaked at number-three in February 2011. The band had premiered its first official single, "Take Me Over", in November 2010 on Triple J's breakfast show with Tom & Alex. In an interview with The Music Network, guitarist Tim Hoey described it as "certainly one of the more pop moments on the album."
In March 2011, the group performed on the Saturday of the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, US. In June 2011, the band played at Indie Fest in Puerto Rico and later that year at the Zappa Club and the Barby Club, in Tel Aviv.[citation needed] In July 2011, the band performed to an audience of 25,000 people at the Camp Bisco Ten festival in Mariaville, New York. On 10 September 2011 Cut Copy played the Virgin Mobile FreeFest in Columbia, Maryland, US.
In March 2012, Cut Copy bassist Ben Browning released his debut solo EP Lover Motion. It was preceded by the single "I Can't Stay".
Free Your Mind (2013-14)
In early September 2013, the full version of the title track to their fourth album Free Your Mind debuted at six specific locations worldwide. Fans were informed that they could visit selected billboards in Mexico, Chile, Australia, two locations in the US (Detroit, and California) and one in the UK at Blaneau Gwent in South Wales. When fans were standing near the billboard, they could open an app which would allow them to stream the track through their smartphones. The track quickly appeared on Triple J's hitlist getting regular airplay. The music video for "Free Your Mind", directed by Christopher Hill and released in October 2013, stars True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgård as a cult leader.
The album Free Your Mind was released on 1 November 2013. After rehearsals in Nashville, Cut Copy embarked on a world tour of North and South America through to Europe and Russia.