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Nov 14, 2017 Cut Copy By Dan Whitford (As Told to Lily Moayeri)

The concept for My Favorite Movie is a self-explanatory one, a musician tells us about their favorite film. For this edition we talk to Dan Whitford, frontman for Cut Copy. The Australian band released a new album, Haiku From Zero, back in September via Astralwerks. Here he talks about Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog’s cult classic from 1982 that starred Klaus Kinski.

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My background is a graphic designer. I ran a graphic design company in Australia. One of my employees worked part-time with us and part-time at a video rental place that rented out art house videos. He was this aficionado. You have to be working somewhere like that. He told me he thought I would really love Fitzcarraldo. I checked it out and just couldn’t believe it. Then he told me to watch the making of it. And it’s even better. That totally floored me, crazier than the movie itself.

Fitzcarraldo has a direct connection to making albums like Zonoscope, which is heavily influenced by this film. The sense of being on this crazy journey into Amazonia was pretty directly connected to that. It’s such an interesting idea and a unique story, this crazy guy that wants to basically build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon. Such a far out idea. But there’s something about it I relate to as a creative person, the idea of something impossible where you’re not daunted by the fact that it seems impossible. The allure of the thing itself, this weird intangible thing is worth striving for, even if you’re doomed to failure. It’s like a romantic idea.

Obviously Herzog is a very extreme guy. He’s very German. Wants to go to the ends of the Earth to make films. I think in some ways he sees himself in the lead character of the film as well and that’s probably part of what he enjoyed about making the film. He could go to the Amazon for a couple of years and almost have this extreme experience himself. This guy that’s driven to the extreme for something that’s a beautiful idea, but it’s something that also impossible. It’s kind of amazing.

Cut Copy 2018 Tour Dates:

11/14 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
11/15 - Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
11/16 - Lawrence, KS @ Granada
11/17 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
11/18 - Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
11/21 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
11/22 - Montreal, QC @ Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre
11/24 - New York, NY @ Terminal 5
11/26 - Boston, MA @ Royale
11/30 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
12/1 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
12/2 - Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
12/3 - Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
12/5 - Orlando, FL @ The Plaza Live
12/6 - Miami, FL @ North Beach Bandshell

www.cutcopy.net

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