Cool Copy Cats

By Joe Kavanagh

Despite what much of the antipodean side of the globe likes to think, aside from a brief period in the late 1980s, which appeared to coincide with the advent of one Crocodile Dundee, the rest of the world has not exactly been fixated on Australia, particularly when it comes to music.

For everyone that says that ACDC are an Australian act, you will find an equal number that refer to them as British, which they certainly are by birth.

Although they sold truck loads of records Downunder, acts such as Midnight Oil, Silverchair, Men At Work and the Go-Betweens were little more than brief flashes in the pan in overseas markets, while acts like Savage Garden and Air Supply, well they barely qualify as music in the eyes of most people.

In fact, aside from their one true global force, INXS, Australia's most popular act on the world stage has been kiddies favorites, The Wiggles, whose 17 million DVD sales and four million album sales include tracks such as Whoo! Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins, Wiggledancing and Dorothy The Dinosaur Dance Party; hardly the stuff of a rich musical legacy.

Admittedly, for those willing to scratch the surface, there have been some real Australian gems such as Powderfinger, Eskimo Joe and Not From There, while Triple J is undoubtedly one of the finest radio stations on the planet for anyone interested in finding new and unusual music.

Like the prejudices met by Irish bands, Australian acts often suffer from the perception of Australian music as being quirky and jocular, somewhat undermining its legitimacy as a player on the global market.

This perception is undergoing a change however, thanks to a group of electronically-driven acts that are presently shaking up the indie music world.

At the head of this innovative pack are trio, Cut Copy, whose recently released sophomore album is currently charming fans around the world.

The very fact that Cut Copy ended up as a band, not to mind a global success, is down to pure chance.

In 2001, Melbourne resident, Dan Whitford, began playing under the moniker, basically to make use of the huge record collection he had amassed, as opposed to having any real ambition to pursue a career in music.

Initially, he and a friend would simply spin records at friends' parties and local haunts, but as they became more polished at their act, they soon began playing to bigger crowds in bigger venues, and added samplers and other gadgetry to their equipment, in order to make their set more distinct.

Being somewhat of a technophile, the recording end of the business carried as much appeal to Whitford as the live shows, and it wasn't long before he began making his own tracks for his live act, and sending out demos to record labels.

Within weeks, he heard back from famed electronic imprint, Modular Records, home to CSS and fellow Australian act, The Avalanches, and the label was impressed enough to sign him up on the spot.

He recently confessed of the experience: "It was pretty much a standard story for an unsigned artist. I had done some demos at home and sent them out to a few labels in the hopes of getting a release somewhere. I remember at the time that the only label I really wanted to be on was Modular, which was lucky because they were the only one that got back to me!"

A short time later he made his recording debut on the Australian scene with the vinyl-only single, 1981, which exhibited his retro-electro leanings and announced him as a potent force on the national scene.

Shortly afterwards, he made his recording debut half a world away when his track, Hundertwasser, was chosen for inclusion on a little-known UK electro compilation, and such achievements were enough to secure him opening slots in Australia with names like Groove Armada and Jamiroquai.

It was, in fact, this latter gig that would change the course of his career, with a moment of serendipity that would have far reaching consequences.

Given the growing complexity of his deejay set, virtually all aspects of it were planned out in advance, so when his sampler blew up only hours before he was supposed to open for Jamiroquai, he was forced to attempt to cobble together a set that fell short of his usual standard.

The entire experience served to wean him off his reliance on electronic equipment, so instead of buying another sampler, he made the capricious decision to use a band format, and welcomed three friends into the fold in the form of Tim Hoey (bass/guitar) Mitchell Scott (drums) and Bennett Foddy (bass/synths).

Indeed, Scott - who had only just bought a drum kit on eBay - was initially only meant to stand in until they found another drummer but he remains in the stool to this day.

Their remit was simple, create music that they themselves would listen to, although Whitford remained songwriter-in-chief.

In 2004, Cut Copy made their full-length debut in Australia, with the release of Bright Like Neon Love, an album that Whitford later claimed "got half way there" in terms of the ideas he was trying to convey, hardly surprising when you learn that all of the album recordings were done during one hectic day in the studio.

Given that knowledge, and the band's collective lack of experience, it is nothing short of amazing that they created a club-driven record that still holds its own today and was good enough to secure the band global distribution with Universal offshoot, Island Records.

The good news was tempered somewhat by the fact that Foddy decided to leave the band in order to pursue his PhD and they continued on as a three-piece.

In 2005, the album was released in the US and the band embarked on their first international touring schedule, taking in Austin's SXSW, Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

Six months later the album was given its European release and their fresh sound brought them to the attention of some of the biggest names in European music, resulting in tours with the likes of Bloc Party, Junior Senior, Mylo and Franz Ferdinand, who used them as the opening act for their tour of the States.

The staggering of release dates around the globe meant an unusually long cycle of touring and promotion and it was not until late 2006 that they reentered the studio to begin working on a follow-up.

In stark contrast to their first effort, this time around they spent a huge amount of time working in the studio, with acclaimed New York producer, LCD Soundsystem member and co-founder of DFA Records, Tim Goldsmith, who set about breathing life into the band's sonic ambitions.

Incorporating influences as diverse as ELO, Fleetwood Mac and The Beachboys with indie inspirations like My Bloody Valentine and Krautrock, along with their electronic instincts, the group created something they like to refer to as "skuzzy-disco" or "electronic lover's rock."

The combination of the band's experience and growing skill, with Goldsmith's savvy conspired to create a record that was already the buzz of the industry across the globe long before it hit shelves of music stores.

It helped that the band's extensive touring had transformed them from nervous neophytes into a slickly polished machine capable of rousing even the most resistant of audiences.

It helps too that Whitford and Scott are accomplished graphic designers, while Hoey has a qualification in fine arts, which has driven them to work assiduously on the visuals for their live act, leading to a show that is almost as optically arresting as it is sonically compelling.

In Ghost Colors finally got its release in March of this year and has been gaining fans by the truckload ever since, driven by an almost fanatical following on the internet that has lit up chat rooms and blogs with effusive praise for the band.

More song and vocal driven than its predecessor, the album compares most favorably to New Order, with pop sensibilities, big choruses and hooks that are catch in an instant and stay in your head long after a single listen.

To use a metaphor that is particularly apt given the images associated with the country that they come from; a wave of electronic music has washed across the world this year and Cut Coy are surfing it to global popularity.