Cut Off Your Hands may sound like a macabre metal band, but this foursome from New Zealand are anything but. When singer Nick Johnston answers the phone, it sounds like he’s standing in the middle of a construction site. Actually, as he explains calmly over the racket, the commotion is a camera crew setting up for a day-in-the-life TV special. The band are rapidly getting used to the kind of attention their knee-jerk power pop and recent signing with Levi’s off-shoot record label Levity have attracted.
Levity approached the band after hearing their independent release with Speak n Spell Music (released under former moniker the Shaky Hands). “It’s an interesting thing, and for us it’s a reality of what we’re doing, the most important thing for us is to be able to sustain what we’re doing with our music.” Johnston says of the mutually convenient arrangement, “We’ve never seen finances as a problem, not that we’re particularly wealthy, we’re a band that looks at the best way of achieving the goal.”
“At the end of the day, we own the music. It’s a one off – more like a grants scheme than a label thing.” Johnston says of the non-traditional relationship. The deal includes funds for the Blue on Blue EP, a manic music video, and full page levi’s advertisements in industry magazines like Rolling Stone. A tour of Australia in planned this month to promote the release.
Cut Off Your Hands are feeling comfortable in the red tab jeans for the time being, and they’re not alone. They took a “special interest” in the selection of the next Levity band (new recruits Mercy Arms are nothing to sniff at), and are part of a world-wide trend that has seen the power shift from traditional record labels towards, well, multi-national brands with cash to splash. “We’ve come from quite an underground scene in New Zealand and you get heads turning, like ‘what’s going on there’” Johnston admits, “but I think people start to understand when bands like Sonic Youth are releasing their ‘Best Of’ on the Starbucks label.”
What you might not guess from their sparkling EP and squeaky clean look (merino wool black turtle necks to match the regulation issue skinny black jeans), Johnston also boasts a reputation for his outlandish onstage antics, and a self-described “confrontational” attitude to performing. “We started out playing shows with post hard core bands, and put that energy into what we were doing”, Johnston says, with what I imagine is a big fat grin on his face. He has been known to launch himself off the stage – despite complaints from venue managers whose insurance probably doesn’t cover the main act taking a dive out onto the balcony or bar, and slamming into tables covered in drinks.
This formidably focused group of young men clearly aren’t going to let money, distance or even getting thrown out of New York clubs stand in their way. “There are some other New Zealand bands that had the same opportunities, like to go to South by Southwest, that just didn’t get round to doing it. We just say ‘we’re doing it’, and then there’s no way in my mind that we won’t do it.”, Nick says matter-of-factly, “Next we’re doing a tour in Iceland. Our aim is just to be on the road and doing live shows where we enjoy ourselves, and we get what we want to get across to people.”
