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04/08/08 :: URB web

DFA guru Tim Goldsworthy is not alone to be praised for the work in producting Cut Copy's forthcoming album, In Ghost Colours. The band wrote most of the tracks entirely before going to work this with indie dance rocker mastermind. Bits and pieces that were to be re-recorded allowed songwriter/frontman Dan Whitford's hands to ooze in and out of unique samples without losing what Cut Copy is actually about.

But what exactly does the unique Cut Copy sound echo? Could it be the electro-futuristic paired with rock elements, the danceable indie aspects, or the ultra-current new disco under-pinnings? Pop music and love songs are what Dan says best describes them in a united manner. The threesome have the ability to make the danceable tunes like the singeing "Hearts on Fire," but also the facility to slow the down the electronic music progression and let listeners and dancers dwell on the texture.  "We went with the flow of the crossover music scene," admits Whitford—not so much as to blend in with these bland chromatic acts that lack the ability to stand out—but "less about the straight dance stuff and about losing yourself in the music."

URB spoke with Cut Copy before a performance at the 500 capcity Echoplex. Their next LA show won't be so intimate.

How do you feel about playing at Coachella?
We sort of talked for a long time about one day playing at Coachella because it’s such a good lineup every year.  We'd always read the lineups back in Australia, because at our festivals no one probably knew us and its pretty much every band that you want to see that year playing all in one place.  To get added to the lineup is awesome.

Is there a certain reaction expected when playing there?
Hopefully we get a decent size crowd and I hear it’s pretty massive.  I think it’ll be fun playing in a strange environment.

You've played massive crowds before, right?
We’ve usually played some big festivals, but I don’t think its anything that’s going to affect us too much that way.  It’ll be more fun then off-putting or anything like that.

How did you like playing with Daft Punk?
It was good and it was sort of like something beyond being a regular artist.  Pretty much every band these days sees them as an influence, so to play with them is pretty huge.  Obviously for us when Cut Copy started they were the big influences for us; so yeah it’s kind a bit of a career goal crossed off the list and the shows were so huge.  I think the biggest one was about 40,000 people in Sydney.  So yeah, playing in front of crowds like that is even in itself kind of a pretty cool thing, let alone playing with an act like Daft Punk and it’s a huge influence

Seeing one of the videos it seems pretty intense to be touring with them.
Yeah, definitely. It’s funny because when you’re actually playing the shows you don’t really think about it so much, but then when you’re looking at videos it does look pretty insane.  It’s like when you’re actually doing it, you’re sort of just working and doing your thing.  Playing the show, you just don’t take things in the same way and then when on a video or something, you take in the first 30 or 40 rows, and then it just goes into this endless sea of about thousands of people.  So yeah you it’s pretty crazy for us.

Cut Copy opening for Daft Punk in Sydney

How do you feel about the French electronic scene blowing up in the last three years?
I was a big fan when Daft Punk first broke through.  I was a big fan of Cassisus and Motorbase and all these original acts.  So the new stuff now to me just seems like a bit of a progression from that, so yeah I think it’s great and obviously we know a lot of those guys and a lot of our friends are kind of involved.  Everyone kind of knows each other so its it’s definitely an exciting scene.

Was there a certain direction from Tim Goldsworthy with the production of the new album?
We'd written the record already, at least in terms of the songs, then there was just working on the sounds  and re-recording the parts that we already had rather than just starting the tracks from scratch with him.  I think he just helped us get a sound that is more us really rather than trying to change the songs and doing a DFA sounding record.  So I think the end results probably sound more like us live or definitely compared to the last one.  It’s kind of cool, I think I recorded tracks as the actual way we sound live and it’s probably fairly close to it.