Cut copy uncut

In March this year, Cut Copy fans had a welcome surprise. Formed in 2001, and with a debut album under their belts that hadn’t troubled the ARIA top 100, the band were nonetheless carving out a niche as a popular live act. 

But the release of their sophomore album, In Ghost Colours, exceeded all expectations, shooting straight to number one in the charts.

We didn’t really have any expectation of having any mainstream chart success, softly-spoken frontman Dan Whitford told Sydney Star Observer.

There was talk before the album was released that maybe we’d be in the charts somewhere, and we thought somewhere in the top 40 would be nice. To get to number one was kind of ridiculous for us -” we thought it was a joke.

Whitford said that the album’s success was celebrated with a rather messy party and a splitting hangover. The number one was a deserved accolade for a band whose blend of indie and dance, while now hugely popular, wasn’t always so. In 2001, if you weren’t sutured to a guitar and your band name didn’t start with The (Vines/Hives/Strokes et al), you weren’t a proper band.

That was pretty much our issue to begin with. That wasn’t the way we sounded. It’s been a cultural shift lately -” there’s a huge scene for dance music now. Now you see rock bands trying to incorporate some sort of electronic elements to try and get popular, whereas it used to be the other way around.

When we started out, there wasn’t really a scene for our kind of music, at least in our country.

The success of the band’s second record is warranted. Where their first, Bright Like Neon Love, felt sketchy, Ghost is a more full-bodied album. Whitford acknowledges the change in sound.

There’s a lot more attention to detail on this record, you can hear the texture. It’s a lot closer to how we play live.

Playing live is how the group have earned their reputation. It’s ironic, then, that it’s where they used to feel least comfortable.

We were totally naïve to the idea of playing live when we first started. We had ideas in our heads about what we wanted our show to be like. It wasn’t even close to what we’d imagined. It took us a while to figure out how to play our instruments, let alone put on a good show! These days we’ve probably got our shit down a bit more.

Having travelled the festival circuit for much of the year, Whitford said he was excited to be coming home to play the Nevereverland festival. The Melbourne show is being held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl: as a Melbourne lad himself, I ventured that Whitford must have seen his fair share of gigs there.

Like Carols By Candlelight? he laughed.

It’s one of those things that you look forward to, playing your home town. It’s a bit special for us, because pretty much all our friends are playing as well. It’ll be an interesting night after the show. I’ll have to try and keep things in check a little bit.

info: Nevereverland is on December 14 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Go to www.nevereverland.com.au