Cut Copy
2001–present
- Dan Whitford
- Tim Hoey
- Mitchell Scott
- Ben Browning
The band achieved breakthrough success in 2008 with their second album, In Ghost Colours, which included well-known singles "Lights & Music" and "Hearts on Fire".
History[edit]
Formation[edit]
Cut Copy was established in 2001 in Melbourne, Australia as the solo project of Dan Whitford, a DJ and graphic designer. Whitford was educated at Scotch College and studied graphic design at Monash University. During his studies he became interested in dance music and began DJing while hosting a radio show. Around this time he bought a sampler and keyboards to experiment with. Musically he was "inspired by indie low-fi stuff as much as dance".[2] Upon graduating Whitford co-founded the design agency Alter,[3] who continue to produce all of the graphical material for the band.[4]
According to Whitford, the band's name was a random choice: "I was in the edit menu [of my computer] and I moved down in the document to the few words that didn't make sense together, and at that particular day and time the words 'cut' and 'copy' really stood out to me. At the time it felt like a fairly abstract choice but now it feels very tied in with what we do".[5] The name is often displayed as one word with a forward slash in between: Cut/Copy.
Whitford began producing music at his home-studio and submitted a demo-tape to Modular Recordings, who subsequently signed him sometime in the first half of 2001. He enlisted the help of veteran guitarist Harry Howard to record the debut single "1981", which was released on vinyl only.[6][7] With Howard filling in on guitar, Whitford asked his childhood friend Bennett Foddy to join on bass with the view to release an EP.[8] The band was assisted by Robbie Chater of The Avalanches who produced the seven largely instrumental tracks that were leaning heavily on samples.[9] I Thought of Numbers was released in September 2001 and spurred a number of remixes on vinyl. The following year saw Whitford remould the band with a view to take to the stage. Their live debut was at the 2003 Livid festival where they performed in front of 5,000 people.[8]
In 2003, Howard was replaced by Tim Hoey, a student at the Victoria College of Art after he and Whitford began exchanging demo tapes.[2] Drummer Mitchell Scott joined shortly after, explaining that "we were just in the same circle of friends, and Tim was sort of roped in because he could play guitar and Dan's sampler had actually broken down, which kind of brought on the need to find a new way of thinking about a live show".[10] Prior to Hoey and Scott joining, a Cut Copy performance was essentially Whitford together with Joel McKenzie doing a DJ set that included sampling their own material. Throughout their career, the band has continued to do DJ sets and remixes for others.[7][11]
2003–2006: Bright Like Neon Love[edit]
Whitford began working on the band's debut album in early 2003 and had written half a dozen songs when during a DJ gig, one of their samplers broke down. Together with Hoey, Scott and Foddy he began reinterpreting the material. Later in the year, Whitford gathered all the recordings and travelled to Paris to mix the album with Phillippe Zdar and his team, and found that he had "two different versions of the recordings, so I started taking parts from both of those, and putting them together".[12] In April 2004, Cut Copy released their debut LP Bright Like Neon Love to moderate success, supported by the singles "Future" and "Saturdays". The four-piece began rehearsing for a tour and began to play 'a garage band version' of the material.[2] At this stage Foddy left the group to study for his PhD, and the band continued as a three-piece.[8]
In 2005, the trio toured internationally for the first time, as support to international acts such as Franz Ferdinand, The Presets, Junior Senior, Bloc Party and Mylo while also playing a number of European festivals.[13] By playing a large number of shows their fan-base grew and three members became more proficient in their instruments. In contrast to previous occasions, Whitford began songwriting with the others in the band.[14] In the first half of 2006, Whitford was asked to produce a mix for the Fabric label, which included a number of Cut Copy mixes. It was released in August 2006 as FabricLive.29 and described as "collection of indie, hip-hop, electroclash and straight up rock".[15] He did the same for the American clothing company Triple 5 Soul in the same year, which Modular later released as a podcast.[16]
