It’s hard to believe that this was once a bedroom recording project by frontman Dan Whitford. Since then Cut/Copy has evolved into a full-fledged band with guitarist Tim Hoey, drummer Mitchell Scott, and bass player Ben Browning. With each member being a multi-instrumentalist, in Cut/Copy albums as well as in their electric live shows each member tends to participate in more than just their assigned station.
In the past decade, Cut/Copy has truly become an international act. Touring across the world, headlining massive sold-out shows, and slated on prime slots of prestigious festivals worldwide like Coachella, Ultra Music Festival, and Lollapalooza in the US; Europe’s Pitchfork Paris; Japan’s Summer Sonic; Australia’s Big Day Out. They’ve released four critically praised albums and accumulated a few hundred (and counting) tour dates in the process, the majority of which to sold out audiences.
Cut/Copy’s high-energy live show is matched only by the beautiful complexity of their songs. Layers that have parts with melody, sections with dissonance, nods to many genres like both disco and post-punk, all cleverly packaged into a present of a pop song. There is a Cut/Copy song for everyone. Their songs tend to be ageless – suitable for both teenage angst and cocktail parties.
As a result, each of their four records has reached critical acclaim. Much of Cut/Copy’s catalog has been nominated for awards in the US and Australia including the GRAMMYs®, J Awards, and ARIA. Zonoscope, their third full-length release won 2 ARIA Awards in 2011. Cut/Copy’s diversity has also landed their songs into television with Nip/Tuck, gaming with FIFA ’09, even mobile devices like Blackberry used a Cut/Copy song for their theme music and a spot in Levi’s® #LiveinLevis campaign.
DJing and mixes have also been a big part of Cut/Copy’s identity. From their famed Fabric mix, Fabriclive.29, to their release 2014 Melbourne dance compilation Oceans Apart, Cut/Copy mixes are highly anticipated, often duplicated, and profoundly inimitable. Whitford and Hoey also perform as Cut/Copy DJs embarking on their first DJ tour in the summer of 2015. To the delight of fans you’ll still hear the Cut/Copy sound within the songs they include in their DJ sets, but moreover, for music lovers – they’re known to introduce an unlikely song or remind of a much-loved track that was accidentally forgotten.
Cut/Copy is full of surprises. With each album they’ve grown stronger as songwriters, performers, experimenters, and curators. As those who have been lucky enough to witness can attest, it has been an amazing evolution for this Melbourne band and the journey is far from over.
