Cut Off Your Hands

After debuting on Speak n Spell Records in 2006 with the bristling Shaky Hands EP, Cut Off Your Hands quickly set stages and airwaves on fire across Australia and beyond. And with steady attention to touring and the production of melodic, musical gems their avid fan base and the cavalcade of media hyperbole has only continued to grow.

With their nationwide billing on 2007’s Laneway Festival and jaunts to Los Angeles, SXSW and New York really getting the ball rolling, it was, tellingly, the band’s first visit to London that would prove their watershed moment. Having been bewitched by the band in Texas, the lovesick indie-maven Steve Lamacq (hosting John Peel’s old show on BBC6) wasted no time in pulling them into his Maida Vale studios for a live performance when he knew they were in town. All of a sudden the boys from the antipodes were a bright pin punched on the British musical ‘map’, and as a consequence, their remaining shows were rammed full of hungry industry folk.

It was also while in London that the group, through various channels and the snowballing momentum, found themselves working with ex-Suede guitarist and Producer de jour, Bernard Butler, for the first time. Their second EP, Blue on Blue, being the fruit of their labours. While the records lead tracks, ‘Still Fond’ and ‘Oh Girl’, settled quickly into the higher echelon of the radio charts at home, things continued to move for the band abroad. For the release of their debut English 7” - the double a-side Still Fond/Closed Eyes – through vinyl-ists Fandango was followed almost overnight by the inking of a deal with 679 Recordings (home to The Streets, Mystery Jets and Death From Above 1979).

Through the heady rush of record deals, single releases and the imminent debut LP however, the group’s dedication to their first love, the live arena, never waned. Incessantly in the van, Cut Off Your Hands forged solid friendships with fans and bands alike through UK tours with the whip-smart Foals, the legendary Edwyn Collins and Florida’s Black Kids - not to mention shows with The Duke Spirit and Les Savy Fav. All this while also treading the festival circuit, playing eight shows in just three days at last year’s CMJ festival in New York before winging their way to Iceland’s epic Airwaves festival and a return to Australia to play Falls Festival and the full Australasian tour of Big Day Out - alongside Bjork, Dizzee Rascal and LCD Soundsystem.

Now based in the dynamic environs of Hackney, London, the band have finished juggling life on the road with life in the studio, (for now) having put the final coat on their debut LP ‘You and I’, with Butler once again at the helm. With such an amazing album waiting in the wings, Cut Off Your Hands couldn’t be set in a better position to win over the world’s hearts.