Cut Copy are set to release their fifth studio album 'Haiku From Zero', which is being labelled their 'most sonically diverse work yet'.
Guitarist Tim Hoey explains how the new album centres around a theme of creating something beautiful from nothing. “The title and the artwork reflects this idea that at the moment we're constantly overwhelmed by news and images,” Tim says.
“It's an overload of information and there's something unrefined about it at times and aesthetically not really pleasing.
“It can be a bit cold as well, so the idea of the record and the theme behind it is trying to find beauty within the chaos of information. Picking out things like music, art or an article you read that resonates with you and stays with you, as opposed to it washing over you.”
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Cut Copy released their previous album 'Free Your Mind' in 2013 and Tim says their development as a live band since has played a major role in dictating the creative direction on 'Haiku From Zero'. “The biggest difference with this record compared to previous Cut Copy records is that it's probably the most band-sounding record,” he says.
“On a lot of the tracks, the mixes switch between us as a live band playing the songs in a room, to songs that were more painstakingly picked over on a computer and infinitely produced. So the sound switches between both. But as far as the overall sonic direction of the record it's supposed to sound like a band in a room and [recording the album] was about trying to capture the energy of our live show a little bit.”
Though ostensibly an electronic act, Tim says Cut Copy have always prided themselves on presenting a stage performance more akin to a live band than that of a DJ or producer. “That's always been a point of difference between us and some of the other electronic acts,” he says.
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“While there is a computer involved in our show, there's also a band element. We wanted to really focus on that, so it's a lot rawer-sounding than previous records in that regard and maybe a bit louder in parts.”
The new album was recorded and produced in studios across the world: from their hometown Melbourne to Copenhagen, Washington DC, New York and finally Atlanta where they worked with producer Ben Allen. Tim says the trans-global process played a major role in sculpting the album's broad soundscape that sets it apart from their other releases.
“We were all moving on with certain other aspects of our lives, like where we wanted to live and where we wanted to be located,” Tim says. “Rather than that be a hindrance we played on that, us being inspired by the places we were in and using that to inform the record a bit more.
“From a logistical standpoint it was a nightmare trying to meet up and work together but it was a series of different stages that maybe we haven't gone through on other records.”
