Cut Copy (sometimes stylised Cut/Copy) are an Australian electronic band formed in 2001 by DJ Dan Whitford (vocals, keyboards and guitar). Initially a home-recording project, the band now includes Tim Hoey (guitars), Ben Browning (bass guitar) and Mitchell Scott (drums). So far they have released four studio albums, an EP and a number of singles and remixes, all on Modular Recordings. They achieved breakthrough success in 2008 with their second album, In Ghost Colours. Some of their most well-known singles include “Lights & Music”, “Hearts on Fire” and “Take Me Over”.
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Cut Copy was established in 2001 in Melbourne, Australia as the solo project of Dan Whitford, a DJ and graphic designer. Whitford was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne and studied graphic design at Monash University. During his studies he became interested in dance music and began DJing while hosting a radio-show. Around this time he bought a sampler and keyboards to experiment with. Musically he was “inspired by indie low-fi stuff as much as dance”. Upon graduating Whitford co-founded the design-agency Alter, who continue to produce all of the graphical material for the band. Whitford began producing music at his home-studio and submitted a demo-tape to Modular Recordings, who subsequently signed him sometime in the first half of 2001. He enlisted the help of veteran guitarist Harry Howard to record the debut single “1981”, which was released on vinyl only.
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According to Whitford, the band’s name was a random choice: “I was in the edit menu [of my computer] and I moved down in the document to the few words that didn’t make sense together, and at that particular day and time the words ‘cut’ and ‘copy’ really stood out to me. At the time it felt like a fairly abstract choice but now it feels very tied in with what we do”. The name is often displayed as one word with a forward slash in between: Cut/Copy.
With Howard filling in on guitar, Whitford asked his childhood friend Bennett Foddy to join on bass with the view to release an EP. The band was assisted by Robbie Chater of The Avalanches who produced the seven largely instrumental tracks that were leaning heavily on samples. I Thought of Numbers was released in September 2001 and spurned a number of remixes on vinyl. The following year saw Whitford remould the band with a view to take to the stage. Their live debut at the 2003 Livid festival was described by Foddy as “our first show was in front of 5,000 people at a festival, which was sort of terrifying”.
In 2003, Howard was replaced by Tim Hoey, a student at the Victoria College of Art after he and Whitford began exchanging demo tapes. Drummer Mitchell Scott joined shortly after, explaining that “we were just in the same circle of friends, and Tim was sort of roped in because he could play guitar and Dan’s sampler had actually broken down, which kind of brought on the need to find a new way of thinking about a live show”. Prior to Hoey and Scott joining, a Cut Copy performance was essentially Whitford together with Joel McKenzie doing a DJ set that included sampling their own material. Throughout their career, the band has continued to do DJ sets and remixes for others.