Cut Off Your Hands - Say Yeah!

They haven’t even released their first LP, yet Cut Off Your Hands have already charmed the New York and London music scenes, broken limbs, and got into almost as many fights as they have piss ups. So how are the new darlings of indie rock adjusting to spiralling fame?

By Lizza Gebilagin

Philip Hadfield, bassist and self-professed number two drinker of Cut Off Your Hands, can pinpoint the exact moment when their destiny went from recording in home studios to strutting around the world in tight new jeans thanks to their Levi’s owned record label Levity.

It was February 2006 and the Auckland four-piece, then known as Shaky Hands, were playing the Children of the Night Festival in Melbourne. Among the fervent dancers in the crowd mimicking frontman Nick Johnston’s erratic movements were the three head honchos of Speak N Spell. Their future managers, who also look after Sydney band Dappled Cities and Canada’s The Dears, had been courting the band via email for some time, but this was the first opportunity that all three had to see them play live.

“It just started happening from there,” says Hadfield. “We never expected to get signed or even to make it out of New Zealand or Australia. The excitement kept us going and it’s driven us to want to take it as far as we can.”

So far, it has taken them across the world: an appearance at South By South West, a record four shows in one day at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York (Johnston was quoted beforehand saying “I hope I don’t faint”) and gigs throughout the UK. This year’s Falls Festival and Big Day Out shows were their first since the band’s Australian tour dates were cancelled last December when Johnston broke his ankle after jumping from a 15-foot balcony during a gig in the UK. COYH were also the first act to sign to Levity and they sealed a deal with London label 679 Recordings, home to The Streets. And all this on the strength of two EPs.

Read the full story in Corker Issue 1: Autumn 2008

Image courtesy of Cut Off Your Hands