For those of you who are unaware, let’s simply begin with the typical introductory tidbit of information. Cut Copy is an Australian electronic band, that have has around since 2001, with DJ Dan Whitford performing lead vocals, keyboards and guitar, Tim Hoey on guitar, Ben Browning on bass and Mitchell Scott on the drums, with all of them on backing vocals.

Initially a home-recording project, they’ve grown into a band that regularly performs for large crowds at music festivals. Although most of the crowd in Manila, may not have been unaware of this fact, it was a special treat none the less, witnessing a rare intimate performance by this band.

The crowd just ate it up, they were totally into it and simply having a blast. Unfortunately for the promoters, it wasn’t a sold-out show, but favorable for the attending fans, who had some wiggle room, perfect for dancing. A handsome looking crowd of twenty/thirty-somethings, all dressed with style, you’d think you were at a magazine photoshoot, many recognizably faces present.

Tim Hoey on guitar is a music photographer dream subject, with an overabundance of movement and interesting expressions, not to mention his occasional shenanigans, like climbing on the drum kit. Certainly set-up for some visually striking images.

I arrived early, overheard parts of their press interview… Someone asked them their criteria when checking out an untraveled city, “Our usual benchmark is finding good coffee. We succeeded in that little task — had some amazing coffee, really surprised. The place is called The Curator, and it’s really nice there.” Mitchell

I was catching parts of the interview, as I greeted some of my cohorts on the way into the venue…”Spice, disco, indie. It’s always just a string of words.” Mitchell “The word synth is used a lot in describing us. Synth something-something-something.” Ben

According to Whitford the band’s name was a random choice: ‘I was in the edit menu 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.

These guys have toured around the world and had a plan when they arrived in Manila. “When we flew in, we went straight to the beach! It was amazing. So beautiful. We went swimming and had massages. Such a beautiful landscape.” Dan said

“Music these days, it lost its sense of being special when albums come out. When they come out, you can just check out the stream, and move on to the next thing and things kinda went by so fast. I guess we wanted the release to feel a bit more special, And being on a label, there’s some budget to release the album. And we used that money to create something interesting and something people haven’t seen before.

In an interview with Stereogum, the Australian group said a new album was “on the cards” but they had yet to start work on it. Drummer Mitchell Scott said: “It’ll be on the cards. It’s always like this thing that’s sort of waiting until you get to work on something new. We usually treat it as a separate stage rather than write little bits and pieces. Wait till we get home.”

Taken by Cars was first to perform, followed by Up Dharma Down, both of which, shared a stellar performance.

The quality of the sound was fantastic, again confirming, Samsung Hall is the highest quality sound set-up in the country. But the lighting had much to be desired, as far as music photography goes. Nowhere near enough front light, which is readily apparent on this faceless image of Dan.

The strong sidelight, lots of backlight with low-placed strobes, made this extremely challenging show to photograph, but with a little luck, you could grab something super interesting.

Big thanks going out to the gang at Vybe Productions for putting it all together, nice work, as usual…their next event is with Chvrches…