Cut Copy are responsible for one of our favourite albums of 2011 in 'Zonoscope', the brilliantly ambitious follow up to 'In Ghost Colours' – one of our favourite albums of 2007.We recently had a quick chat with Cut Copy’s lead singer Dan Whitford about both of these brilliant albums and some other bits and pieces. But when we say ‘recently’ we mean ‘quite some time ago and this should have gone live ages ago, but we’ve been awfully busy so we apologise to all concerned’. But the interview is here now, and that’s what matters.
In the following transcript Dan discussed riding to school on a kangaroo. So that’s got to be incentive to read on, right? Right.
Hello Dan from Cut Copy. When you’ve recorded an album as brilliant as In Ghost Colours, how do you even get started on a follow-up?
We tried not to set out with any specific thing in mind. We just started out in the studio and let the songs dictate what direction we went in. But after the first five or six demos things seemed to be coming together and there was a sort of commonality to a lot of the tracks, there was a lot more emphasis on percussion than on previous records. On In Ghost Colours we were encouraged to try percussion because it was something we hadn’t tried in the past, but this time that’s where we started to base ideas for a lot of the tracks.
So you didn’t think – ‘shit, we really need more songs as brilliant as ‘Feel The Love’ and ‘So Haunted’?
Generally, we try not to fall back on cliché or things we done in the past. We’re always looking for new ways of working, new instruments, new synthesizers and drum machines.
Did you buy some really big new synthesizers and drum machines, because Zonoscope sounds bloody massive. Epic even.
Some of the records that we’re inspired by, the early eighties pop stuff like Talking Heads and the Trevor Horn produced stuff like Malcolm McLaren and Grace Jones, I guess that music is really big and lush. Heavily produced kind of stuff and in that way, it’s reflected in the way Zonoscope sounds. We’re literally exploring this expansive world.
Do you think growing up in the Australian sunshine made your music sound more jolly instead of the dreary old crap that guitar bands from London generally come up with?
Maybe. A lot of the music that we like has a bit of a dreamy, uplifting aspect to it. Much like people in London, we spend too much time indoors working on tracks. It’s not like we’re at the beach every day dreaming up songs.
Have you ever had a run-in with dangerous Australian animals?
I could make something up – maybe that we ride to school on kangaroos. To be honest with you, it’s really not that bad. If you live way out in the outback you might encounter a lot more animal life but it’s not all like the Steven Irwin show.
You’re music is adored the world over but you can’t live on adoration. Do you think it is about time you had some commercial success too?
Yeah, well it certainly wouldn’t hurt. At the same time, we never started out in music for mainstream success. If we look at most of the bands that we looked up to when we started out, we’re at the same level as they were or have even surpassed some of them. For us, the goal lies more in having an opportunity to keep creating interesting records and keep being inspired by making music. If success was to find us, then that’s great, but it’s certainly not something we’re falling over ourselves to do, get on Radio One or in the charts. We’re pretty comfortable to keep making our art and that’s what we enjoy the most.
If you could work with one UK artist, who would you choose?
I’d probably say Brian Eno, is he too old? Being someone who spans 30 years of music and art, I’ve loved everything he’s ever done – collaborations with David Bowie, Talking Heads or early stuff with Roxy Music, his more experimental stuff. He’s someone who seems to condense the theory or art and music into something very understandable.
So not Jessie J then?
Who’s that then? Not heard of her. I’ll keep and ear open for her.
Thank you very much, Dan from Cut Copy.
Get Cut Copy's amazing 'Zonoscope' album from iTunes.
Go say 'hi' at the Cut Copy Facebook page.
Tweet
0 comments:
Post a Comment