"Technically Kylie's supporting us as we're playing after her in the tent. Maybe that's been written on our myspace page wrong – she's actually supporting us."
Daydreaming about your ultimate music festival line up: who hasn't done it? Lord knows I'm guilty of such flights of fancy. I quite often find myself mentally salivating at the prospect of artists such as Jeff Buckley and PJ Harvey gracing the stage in the festival of my mind. Well, somewhere in Colombia, one lucky music fan's improbable music festival wish will soon be granted. Come early November, Bogotá, the Colombian capital, will play host to a festival that sports a line up combining the unlikely duo of Melbourne indie-electro party starters CUT COPY with none other than Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue. How did this peculiar pairing come about? I demand that Dan Whitford, frontman of Cut Copy, explain himself.
"It's kind of a strange one," Whitford admits between chuckles. "Kylie's on one stage and we're playing in the dance tent." So who is supporting who then Dan? "Technically Kylie's supporting us as we're playing after her in the tent," he boasts. "Maybe that's been written on our myspace page wrong – she's actually supporting us."
Bigger than Kylie. This is a bold claim from a man whose band is only two albums into its career. But one look at Cut Copy's exhaustive touring schedule quashes any doubt that Whitford and bandmates Tim Hoey (bass) and Mitchell Scott (drums) have earned their stripes. Since the release of their sophomore album, In Ghost Colours, in March this year the band has criss-crossed the Atlantic as if it were a small puddle and played a swag of shows across North America and Europe.
When asked to discuss some of Cut Copy's stranger touring experiences, Whitford relays a tale about a predominantly metal-based Swedish festival. "I think there was only one act that we really knew on the bill and that was Interpol. The rest were weird Swedish metal bands," he recalls. "We were actually really scared of going on stage because we thought 'this is going to be intense' and 'they're gonna throw bottles at us' but when we went on it was one of the most insanely positive festival crowds we've ever had," he reveals. "In between songs they just started chanting 'Cut Copy'. Not even for the encore! In between regular songs in our set, they just started chanting and it was just absolutely nuts!"
Cut Copy's popularity is unsurprisingly not strictly limited to obscure Scandinavian metal festivals. When I speak with Dan, he's calling in from Seattle, at the end of a long tour across the United States co-headlining with Modular labelmates the Presets. "Doing this tour with the Presets has been great because we're big fans of theirs and great friends as well," Whitford muses. "When we first started, we toured for a long time with those guys so it's cool we get the opportunity to tour again."
Unless you've been hiding under an extremely large rock, you'd be aware that in addition to Cut Copy and the Presets, Modular boasts a stellar line up of the hottest indie-electro acts that Australia has to offer. Whitford expands a little on the subject of the camaraderie felt between Cut Copy and their labelmates. "What we really value about Modular is, beyond the label itself, the other acts," he says appreciatively. "[They're all] people that we really get along with and enjoy hanging out with. We obviously have musical admiration for them as well but just as people, we all hang out and we're all good friends."
The Yanks seem to be embracing the Aussie electro explosion like a long lost relative, with the majority of shows on the current Cut Copy/Presets tour selling out in quick time. "The States have been where our record's caught on the most of anywhere in the world," Whitford points out. "We've sold a lot more records in the States than we have anywhere else and our shows here are as big as the ones in Australia." He notes that the sheer size of America has enabled them to expand their tour to thirty odd shows, a feat not so easily achieved in their homeland.
Breaking into the overseas market can prove to be quite difficult for some Aussie bands. Whitford reflects on the factors influencing Cut Copy's rise to international stardom. "When we first started we didn't really think of ourselves as being totally like an Australian band," he ponders but is quick to add, possibly to ensure he doesn't offend anyone back home, that "we obviously identify with our roots and starting out in Australia. But I think we always considered our music would have a fairly broad appeal internationally so it's reassuring that it seems to be catching on so well."
The success of an album can so often depend on the timing of its release. With a four year gap between Cut Copy's debut, Bright Like Neon Love, and its successor, Whitford is keen to come clean about the delay. "[Our first record] came out in the States maybe six months or a year after it came out in Australia and then later again in the UK and Europe," he explains. "It was spread out over a couple of years, so we ended up touring for probably a couple of years longer than we would have had it just come out all at once." He notes that the delay boiled down to a scheduling issue, which is something the band is keen to avoid in future. "We hope to have our next record written next year and released as soon as possible after that. I don't think we're going to be waiting three or four years for the next one."
Whitford admits the band was worried about the possibility of their name dropping out of the public eye, but ultimately felt confident in the quality of the music they'd created. "I guess if people didn't catch onto it because of the timing of it we still would have been happy that the record itself was a really good one," he says with pride. "But thankfully it doesn't seem to have made a massive difference. It's almost like it was almost too long but not that long that people don't still appreciate what we're doing musically."
With outstanding album sales and sold out shows across the globe illuminating their musical résumé, Cut Copy could be forgiven for wanting to take a break. But Dan Whitford is not one to rest on his laurels. "It's definitely not like it's time to retire [and we don't feel] like we've done everything that's there to be done," he tells me. "Our measure of success is more based on what we're doing creatively rather than achieving commercial success or big crowds at our shows. We're just excited to try and push the envelope on the next record and to continue to innovate and write great tunes and make good records. That's what our aim is, ultimately." With their glittering track record and passionate outlook, it wouldn't surprise me if Cut Copy are indeed the most popular act at this upcoming festival in Colombia. Watch out Kylie...!
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