Photo of Cut Copy's Dan Whitford by Elaine Reyes
The last time Australian dance rockers Cut Copy released a LP-- 2008's In Ghost Colours-- it ended up scoring the number 61 spot on our Best Albums of the Decade list. Not bad. Their as-yet-untitled follow-up is due in January with a single coming out in the fall.
Band leader Dan Whitford recently chatted with us about the self-produced record, which is currently being mixed by Ben Allen, whose resume includes Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion and Gnarls Barkley. The band also plan to debut a few newbies live when they hit some festivals this summer, including Lollapalooza. We've heard a few new tracks ("Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution", "Take Me Over", "Alisa", "When I'm Going", and "Turning From Stone"), and they sound more groove-based and less rock than In Ghost Colours.
Click on to read about the new album and Cut Copy's odd connection with Lady Gaga. Watch a cryptic little in-studio video, too:
Pitchfork: You had a lot of success after your last album, In Ghost Colours. Did you find yourself trying to tailor the new music to bigger venues and audiences?
Dan Whitford: Not really. To be honest, I've found that if fans get initially excited about a song they just want more of the same. So you'd end up doing the same record over and over if you let that dictate the way you work. It would be like on Groundhog Day. That's almost the opposite of how we work. Going into this record, it was like, "Let's find something new that excites us and just run with it."
It was a much more open-ended process where we just sort of went off on these more jammy tangents where we'd just sit there and play stuff for 10 minutes and see what happened-- we might end up putting out a 10-disc box set of all the weird extended jams we did on this record. [laughs] There's more of a repetitive, hypnotic, rhythmic aspect to a lot of the tracks.
Pitchfork: Was there anything you were listening to that influenced that hypnotic sound?
DW: I was obsessed with Fleetwood Mac's Tusk while working on this record-- a lot of the Lindsey Buckingham tracks have a proto-80s African feel. Also Talking Heads, Slave to the Rhythm by Grace Jones, and Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock album. And a lot of acid house era, post-rave indie music like Happy Mondays and Primal Scream.
Pitchfork: Are there any other new things you guys are trying on the album?
DW: Yeah, we had this idea of getting a choir and some strings to add an extra dimension to some songs. I listen to a lot of David Bowie and I really love his Young Americans record where got all these soul singers to do backing vocals. If we're talking Bowie albums, the production and general sound of this new record is probably closer to Low or "Heroes", but Young Americans was my reference for the vocal sound in particular.
Pitchfork: Where did you record the new album?
DW: In a warehouse in Melbourne. There's a certain romance to it. It's in the middle of this industrial area with lots of fabric warehouses-- in fact, right underneath our space is this, like, clothing sweatshop where they play this weird psychedelic 70s pop music. So there might be a hint of that floating into the mics.
Pitchfork: I heard Lady Gaga invited you to open for her on tour recently. What did you think when you got that offer?
DW: It was one of those weird moments where you're not sure whether to burn the letter or frame it and put it on your wall. We were simultaneously repulsed but also tantalized by the idea of touring with her for a whole year. It is funny how you can write off some huge, ultra-popular musician, but if you find out they actually like your music, you're like, "Oh, well maybe they're all right!" To be honest, I don't listen to the radio at all. I get a lot of stuff online and the rest is all old records. I don't really know her music that well.
Pitchfork: Seems like it could've been a cool experience.
DW: Yeah, that's why I was intrigued. We've been asked to do big tours before and never really found anything we would want to do. We're more focused on our own music and our own fan base. But yeah, if I were in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel it would've been interesting to go on tour with Lady Gaga and see how that affected my career and life. I don't think we ever seriously thought we'd do it, though.
In-studio footage of Cut Copy recording their third album:
