When you think of the stereotypical artist-as-social-outcast, huddling in a garret in isolation, you don’t think of them tweaking a synthesizer. But in Australia, where boozy rock bands and thundering riffs roam the plains, it takes courage and bravery to forsake AC/DC, as Cut Copy have done, and publicly embrace the likes of New Order and, um, ELO.

Of course, they didn’t start that way.

“When I first met him,” says Cut Copy leader Dan Whitford of drummer Mitchell Scott, “he was like the most indie person I’d ever met. He knew like every tuning on every Sonic Youth record.”
Whitford himself has long had a fondness for indie-rock; on Cut Copy’s website, he lists discs by Guided By Voices and Beck among his all-time favourites. You can hear their subtle influence on the band’s second and latest album, In Ghost Colours. “Feel the Love” starts the disc gently, floating out on a raft of chiming acoustic guitars, vocal ooh-oohs, Tim Hoey’s anchoring bass throb and a loping drum beat. The textures announce the track as pop-rock as loudly and unmistakably as a thumping bass drum says “house.”

“In Australia,” Whitford explains. “there’s a huge history of pub rock and that sort of thing so finding old guitars and things like that; it’s not that difficult. You can lay your hands on guitar pedals and amps and things like that.”

By the time he had finished high school, he says, Whitford found himself going to dance clubs with one set of friends, and rock clubs with another. And however it happens, whatever the gateway drug (an ecstasy-soaked conversion? Experimenting with a delay pedal leads to an interest in dub reggae, and so on?), Whitford started down the path towards making dance music, with whatever gear he could find — which, in a rock-obsessed island nation, isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“When I first went to Paris I was really amazed they just had like all these keyboards and drum machines and crazy old electronic things, because disco was really huge there, back in the day. In our country there was never really quite such a scene for any of that kind of stuff. But you can certainly find things like that. You know, you’ve got to know a guy that knows another two that maybe used to play in a band or played keyboards for INXS or something like that.”

Cut Copy’s first album, 2004’s Bright Like Neon Love, is a spunky if less distinctive mix of ’80s dance textures and modern vocal edits, like Grace Jones being produced by Todd Edwards. In Ghost Colours puts the emphasis on Whitford’s songwriting, while DFA guru Tim Goldsworthy’s careful production coats songs like the epic “Lights And Music” in a smooth disco sheen. These days, that degree of polish is refreshing — though he has kind words for Justice, Whitford praises Goldsworthy and “the traditional DFA approach, that’s more interesting to us because the more noisy, cut-up sort of French sound has totally oversaturated things.” He notes that in Australia, the Ed Banger sound has actually overtaken traditional funky house in commercial clubs. That’s not as surprising given the Aussies’ historical fondness for serving up their rock ’n’ roll with a side of distortion, but it also suggests that, given the right presentation, people will give new things a chance. Even a swoony dance-rock band like Cut Copy, who just played two sold-out shows in Melbourne.

“It’s been useful coming from having no scene because our live shows had to compete with all these crazy guitar bands. So instead of being onstage with a keyboard and a turntable, we actually had a proper live show. I think that’s really helped, having had that initial environment. And now I think that’s created a real scene for itself in Australia.”

Maybe the key difference that sets Cut Copy apart both from Australian pop and general dance trends is that most of their songs, including the disc’s first two singles, “Lights and Music” and “Hearts on Fire,” are sweeping love songs with broad themes; Whitford says that a song like “Far Away” is “a little more personal for me.”

After some prompting, he explains: “It’s me being in a relationship with someone that I didn’t get to spend as much time with as I would like to have. The song’s really about saying that it’s gonna be OK, but unfortunately it didn’t work out, so it’s a little bit difficult.”

A sad coda, and one that gives In Ghost Colours’ undercurrent of wistfulness a real-life parallel. But Whitford accepts his lot, perhaps discovering that visionaries sometimes have to wander the global touring circuit on their own.

“With artists who don’t like playing particular songs live, I never really thought I’d have that experience. But I do, with that song.

That’s life; it’s what happens when you’re going to write a song and put yourself out there.”