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Dec 24, 2010 By Under the Radar Staff Cut Copy

For Under the Radar’s 8th annual Artist Survey we emailed some of our favorite artists a few questions relating to 2010. Pick up a copy of Under the Radar’s Year End issue for interviews with: The Antlers, Bon Iver, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Hot Chip, Lost in the Trees, Love is All, The Love Language, Mogwai, of Montreal, Okkervil River, Yoko Ono, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Superchunk, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Vivian Girls. Here’s a survey from Tim Hoey of Cut Copy.

Top 10 Albums of 2010

I’m not sure if I listened to 10 records this year, so here is a top 10 of various things I liked in 2010.

1. Gonjasufi: A Sufi and a Killer—Kind of sounds like if Tom Waits was a yoga teacher and listened to J Dilla records. A record that really blew us away this year.

2. Harmony Korine: Act da Fool—A short film he made for Proenza Schouler. It’s everything you’d expect from Harmony, beautiful imagery, and the girl’s voiceover is truly amazing. Some of my favorite dialogue from anything he’s done in the past.

3. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest—Probably the album we’ve listened to the most this year. We always follow every Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, and Lotus Plaza release with great interest. Halcyon Digest has the spontaneity of the Stones’ Exile on Main Street and Bradford Cox’s voice seems to be getting more angelic with every release.

4. Patti Smith: Just Kids—I’m attracted to this period of music and art in NYC and this document comes straight from the source herself, Patti Smith. While her account of that scene is fascinating, the truly absorbing aspect of the book is her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

5. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Before Today—“Round and Round” has what I think is the best chorus of the last decade after some seriously tension-building verses. This album has exposed him to a larger audience, which is fantastic. I really hope new fans track down his earlier releases because of this.

6.Pavement live at Enmore Theatre in Sydney, Australia—While everything else was falling down around me, I found comfort in some old friends.

7. Nicolas Mendez: El Guincho “Bombay” video—Really cool track and probably my favorite clip of the year. It kind of reminds of a darker version of Keith Schofield’s clip he did for Charlotte Gainsbourg. Some memorable images in there, like the girl lighting her cigarette from a taxidermy pigeon.

8. Midnight Magic: Beam Me Up—My favorite 12” of the year. The original is a dancefloor filler and the accompanying remixes from Goldsworthy, Gavin Russom, and Jacques Renault are all amazing, which should extend the life of this track for the years to come.

9. Little Joy: My Disco—Uncompromising Melbourne band and masters of the atonal. Probably the best live band in Australia. They’ve made a reputation as an intense live act and this record really captures that.

10. Ricky Swallow: The Bricoleur exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre—Although this exhibition opened in 2009, I didn’t see it until January this year. I really loved seeing some of the woodcarvings again and the watercolors I hadn’t seen before.

What was the highlight of 2010 for either you personally or for the band?

Finishing our album Zonoscope.

What was the low point of 2010 for you?

Lakers beating the Celtics.

What are your hopes and plans for 2011?

On the road for the best part of it. I hope to get married… or divorced.

With the Internet making every artist’s music potentially available to a wide audience, is it now easier to find listeners or more difficult because you have to compete with so many other musicians?

I think if you’re always honest with what you’re doing then you’ll always find an audience. You probably shouldn’t write with an audience in mind; otherwise the music becomes compromised somewhat. You should always serve your fans first while growing artistically. They’ll appreciate you for it.

Who would you rather listen to—a totally original musician whose compositions are groundbreaking but difficult to listen to or a musician whose songs are immediately enjoyable but derivative? Why?

Guided by Voices. All the answers to your questions are in any of the great albums they’ve released.

In the race to find new bands, are too many unworthy bands being hyped up by music blogs and websites? How are music fans supposed to filter through all these new bands being hyped?

I think it’s nearly impossible for bands to be in control of it. If the press decides to jump on something and hype it up, then it’s a hard thing to stop. Half the time it feels really arbitrary anyway. As an audience it’s even harder to not get swept up into hype. I do it all the time. Although there seems to be a lot of bandwagon jumping, I also find that there is a lot of cynicism out there, too. People are always ready to cut someone down as soon as they see some success. Warranted or not.

If your house was on fire, what would you grab as you were running out?

I think I’d go down with the ship.

If you could relive one day of your life, which would it be?

August 12, 1994.

What’s the strangest fan encounter you’ve ever had?

A girl made Cut Copy candy for us once. She somehow managed to incorporate our faces into the candy.

If you had a bucket list, what would be the Top 4 things on that list?

1. Play a game of ‘HORSE’ with Michael Jordan.

2. Learn how to play guitar.

3. Paint a famous watercolor.

4. Finally get around to seeing The Matrix.

(www.cutcopy.net)