Cut Copy have been building a wave of good will over the last few years of touring the world and have no doubt brought a few Irish admirers back from trips to their native Australia. Their new release Zonoscope has smoothed their dance-rock template into a groove-based synth-pop sound, fed on a diet of classic 80’s twelve inches and self-imposed isolation. Totally Dublin spoke to guitarist Tim Hoey about the creative process, rockumentaries and underappreciated Aussie bands.
There’s a documentary about Zonoscope that shows the warehouse space you worked in. Was it influential on writing or was it just for recording?
A bit of both – we had this idea that every piece of art is a product of its environment it was really important for us to find a space where we could feel totally comfortable. We didn’t want to go into a big recording studio because you’re constantly watching the clock, worrying about how much money you’re spending, using expensive producers and engineers. It gave us the freedom to set our own deadlines. There wasn’t any internet or telephone – we set up our own little world there, and that’s something that we wanted Zonoscope to reflect, creating this new world for listener to immerse themselves in.
It really reminded me watching [Wilco documentary] I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, except minus all the drama.
Yeah, that’s actually one of my favourite documentaries. We certainly didn’t have the intense lows that they went through making that record! We’re always watching those “Making Of…” films, regardless of who it is, it gives a really unique insight into how a record is made.
Are the filmmakers [Krozm] friends of yours?
They’re a film company here in Australia and we’ve been friends with those guys for years so it wasn’t like they were really invading our space either – it didn’t feel like we had to perform for the camera or anything like that.
There’s some serious gear porn in the documentary – is there any particular favourite piece of equipment that influenced your writing?
I bought a guitar around the end of touring when I was in America. It’s this old 1960’s [Fender] Jaguar, which is something that I’ve been wanting ever since the band started. It was hard to get that out of my hands and it found its way on to every track.
Another part shows you picking out records for each other, are you all collector nerds when you’re on tour?
Exactly – that’s pretty much exactly what we do on tour. Every town we’re in, we’ll go and find the second hand record stores. I still love that ritual of digging through crates of records, finding that diamond in the rough.
Any particular recent purchases?
We were in New York doing press at the end of December and I found a copy of Neil Young’s On The Beach. That’s probably my favourite Neil Young record.
You guys are pretty big in Australia. Do you feel in anyway distant from America or Europe?
We always had the intention of taking our music overseas because when we started out, rock was kind of the flavour of the month and it was really tough for us to even get played on radio or to get festival bills. We were gaining a bigger audience overseas, triple what they were in Australia and then a lot of that started to feed back. It’s a very common theme in this country. I can think of a lot of examples like The Avalanches, The Go-Betweens or Severed Head where they blew up overseas before things really caught on here at home. They actually have a bridge named after them in Brisbane now, the Go-Between Bridge!
Are there remix projects planned for songs on Zonoscope?
For Taking Over we have Midnight Magic, Tim Goldsworthy, Flight Facilities and a Milo one. We’ve got an amazing Gavin Russom remix too which I’m absolutely in love with – very beautiful, not really made for the dancefloor. Also for Need You Now we have maybe one of the godfathers of techno doing one but I don’t want to give too much away otherwise I might jinx it and then people would be really disappointed!
Words: Ian Lamont
