Cut Copy

With its overt nod to climate change, Cut Copy’s sixth album Freeze, Melt is their most contemplative to date. Danny Turner delves into its making

- Danny Turner

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia electropop veterans Cut Copy were established almost 20 years ago by former graphic designer Dan Whitford. The band’s debut album Bright Like Neon Love (2004) flew under the radar, but the follow-up In Ghost Colours (2008) truly signalled their intentions, hitting No. 1 in their homeland and attracting global critical acclaim.

The group took a more radical approach to their latest release, Freeze, Melt. Conceived by Whitford in Copenhagen, demos were file-shared to globally dispersed band members Tim Hoey (guitars), Ben Browning (bass), and Mitchell Scott (drums). The collective then regrouped at Melbourne’s Park Orchards Studios to complete the album.

Going full circle, Whitford and crew returned to Scandinavia and Christoffer Berg‘s Svenska Grammofon Studios in Gothenberg to mix. The result is a stripped back, emotive and more electronic-oriented collection of songs, drenched in warm layers of monochromatic synths, ambient textures and Whitford’s mellow, reflective vocals.

You’ve been compared to bands like Daft Punk, Fleetwood Mac or The Human League. Is that flattering or lazy? Dan Whitford:

“Both. I love all of those artists – they’re part of the canon of electronic music, but in my mind, we represent something a bit more than that. Journalists will often hear synths and an emotional chorus on a song and make the most obvious comparison, but our influences go a lot deeper. I started collecting records in the mid-to-late ’90s and my research crosses so many genres that a lot of different sounds infiltrate our music.”