When listing Australia's electronic icons, it's hard to go past Cut Copy.
The Grammy-nominated band behind 'Lights & Music' and 'Hearts On Fire' have added the longevity pin to their decorated chest, welcoming seventh album 'Moments' into the world this September.Frontman Dan Whitford reflects on their journey and the new album. "It's crazy. It's been a long time since we put out a record. Everyone's very excited about it and excited about the music.
"We have band members that don't live in the same place, some live in the States, so getting to play altogether will be awesome. Super excited about all that and touring the new songs as well."
Now hailing from separate ends of the globe, Cut Copy haven't had a lot of time to prepare for their tour, but Whitford is optimistic about their chemistry returning.
"In the past, we'd meet up and have a few weeks, but this time we're only gonna get a few days rehearsing. We're going to be in a rehearsal room working some pretty long hours to get up to speed; but there's muscle memory from having played together for so long."
"I would say historically Sydney has had better coffee, but I think Brisbane has caught up. We'll do some research at the Sydney and Brisbane shows, and decide the ultimate winner." - Dan Whitford (Cut Copy)
Cut Copy is well known for being at the forefront of electronic experimentation. With 'Moments', the band decided to fully spread their creative wings and lean into spontaneity, finding inspiration in unlikely places.
"We've made a lot of albums and we're always looking for something new, the spark that unifies us for the songs. This time we chose strange combinations of instruments and working in ways we haven't before.
"Sometimes we'd start the day with a weird instrument that we didn't know how to play, and by lunchtime, we're making sound with it and it's part of a track.
"We used a lot of random things for creative spark. Mitchell [Scott, drums] drove in with a massive trailer full of stuff from old, stringed instruments to a box of cassette tapes to Asian and Arabic instruments and odd percussion. It was really cool. It definitely added to the flavour of the new tracks.
"We're always going to have my voice there and Tim [Hoey]'s guitar sound that make it Cut Copy, so there's a license to throw a few curveballs.
"We weren't afraid of doing weird things because our DNA is there in the music. We wanted to see how we could recontextualise everything, which is what happened with this album."
Whitford achieved a lifelong dream with the album's first single, 'When This Is Over', employing a children's choir from Candlebark School to fill out the track's organic grooves and expansive synths. "I think choirs have some kind of primal human thing," Whitford muses.
"We respond to the sound of other human voices. Before we had TikTok or smartphones, this is what we did, meet-up and sing songs together. "There's something magical about that combination of human voice, particularly children's voices, there's something imperfect but perfect at the same time.
"A lot of tracks I love feature children's choirs, it's such a memorable thing. It gets through the armour and grabs a hold of you. We had this idea of working with the children's choir for a long time when the right song came up.
"We took a leap of faith with this song and it turned out really great. It's one of our favourite songs from the new record. The kids would finish a take and be so excited they'd scream out. We left a lot of background noise in, because it was part of the vibe, crazy and loose and fun. It's all part of the song now," Dan smiles.
The electronic world can raise a bastion of arguments defending analogue versus digital production choices, but Whitford is happy to settle for whichever side prompts inspiration. "I'm kind of both.
"I'm not a purist, like it's all gotta be analog or it's all gotta be all futuristic and in the box. There's advantages to both. I could be equally inspired by a new piece of software as I would be by a synth that I've had for 15 years. It's a combination. Good ideas can come from anywhere."
Whitford handed off the album artwork for 'Moments', selecting his favourite artist to represent visually all that the album holds sonically. The ensuing artwork by Bráulio Amado encapsulated the album's vibrant and somehow cohesive chaos in a stunningly beautiful combination of colour.
"My background is in artwork and graphic design, so I designed every Cut Copy album cover up until this one," Dan shares. "We had a pretty tight deadline, so I thought who does the best artwork and record design at the moment?
"I asked Bráulio and he jumped in and we workshopped ideas. He's amazing, he gets messy with paints and scissors, but it's a beautiful mess and we resonated with it.
"I don't even know how you would describe the artwork. It's almost like those inkblot things in psychotherapy. You'll see weird shapes and images. We feel people see whatever they want to see.
"I feel that with music, too. You know, sometimes you don't want to conceptually define too much what people are listening to. Just give people something more open-ended; and that's what I like about the artwork.
"It's beautiful and deep, but it's not telling you what the music's about. You can make up your own mind and I think that's really cool."
Cut Copy will be playing the wildly popular Sydney outdoor concert series Night At The Barracks, which will expand into Brisbane for the first time this year, selecting Roma Street Parkland for Night At The Parkland. The September to October series will also feature favourites ICEHOUSE, Amy Shark, Grinspoon's 30th Birthday, as well as Lime Cordiale, Xavier Rudd and James Johnston, beside a heap more support acts.
Whitford remembers his favourite onstage moment. "I think back to Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City ten years ago. It was an enormous crowd, 70,000 people in a soccer stadium, packed to the rafters.
"Having that many people singing along with our songs is a pretty surreal moment. Sometimes you don't realise a special moment until afterwards, but this moment I was drinking it all up.
"I can't wait for this concert series. In some ways, we're almost an international act because we have people living overseas, so we don't get to play in Australia as often as we would like.
"I'm excited to play to our fans in Sydney and Brisbane. Doing Night At The Barracks is a bonus. We've heard about it before and we think it'll be super fun."
Hailing from Melbourne, Whitford is impartial to his local coffee, and reluctantly deliberates on awarding second place between the series' locations – Sydney and Brisbane. "I feel I'm going to alienate a bunch of people by answering this," he laughs.
"I would say historically Sydney has had better coffee, but I think Brisbane has caught up. Maybe this time can be the litmus test. We'll do some research at the Sydney show and the Brisbane show and decide the ultimate winner."
'Moments' is released 5 September (pre-order it).
Cut Copy 2025 Tour Dates
Thu 11 Sep - Forum MelbourneFri 12 Sep - Night At The Barracks (Sydney)
Sat 13 Sep - Night At The Parklands (Brisbane)
Sat 4 Oct - Wanderer Festival (South Coast)* DJ set
Night At The Barracks 2025 Line-up
Fri 12 Sep - Cut Copy with KLPSat 13 Sep - Icehouse with Rolling Holy
Sun 14 Sep - Kate Ceberano: Australian Made with special guests Mahalia Barnes & Gypsy Lee
Fri 19 Sep - Hoodoo Gurus 40th anniversary 'Mars Needs Guitars' show
Sat 20 Sep - Lime Cordiale with Lola Scott
Sun 21 Sep - Amy Shark: Songs & Stories with Chloe Parché
Fri 26 Sep - Ian Moss & Mark Seymour with Sam Buckingham
Sat 27 Sep - Furnace And The Fundamentals with Nicole Tania
Sun 28 Sep - Yesterday's Gone: The Fleetwood Mac Legacy feat Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe), Fanny Lumsden, Charlie Collins & Karen Lee Andrews
Fri 3 Oct - James Johnston with Zac & George
Sat 4 Oct - Grinspoon: 30th Birthday Bonanza with Bad//Dreems and Purple Disturbance
Sun 5 Oct - Missy Higgins with Rachael Fahim and Tilli Kay
Night At The Parkland 2025 Line-up
Fri 5 Sep - Icehouse with Rolling HolySat 6 Sep - Lime Cordiale with Jack River
Sun 7 Sep - Xavier Rudd with Birren
Thu 11 Sep - Amy Shark: Songs & Stories with Chloe Parché
Fri 12 Sep - Grinspoon: 30th Birthday Bonanza with Bad//Dreems and Loose Content
Sat 13 Sep - Cut Copy with KLP
Sun 14 Sep - James Johnston with Zac & George
