Click here to view the embedded video.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands while they were unwinding in the Kilby Court green room post-energetic set.  Armed with an etch-a-sketch and a bag of chips they dug up a little dirt on their record labels, some “unlearned” tracks from their new album You and I, and the status of their future.  Just in case you’re wondering, I never got to see what Nick was drawing on that etch-a-sketch.

UPDATE:  Some sad news from the Cut Off Your Hands camp.  Cut Off Your Hands drummer Brent has been suffering from a decline in his hearing since he was a teenager and recently it has gotten to the point now where must give up drumming for the next year in order to help determine the cause for his hearing loss.  You’re a great guy Brent and we wish you the best of luck.  Here’s the link to Brent’s post on the COYH blog.

Tell the story behind your band name and then each of you introduce yourselves and say what you do in the band.

Brent:  The story goes like this.  3 years ago, 4 years ago maybe, we started a band called “Shaky Hands”
Phil:  Was it 4 years ago?
Nick:  December 2005
Brent:  2009 now, yeah well that’s like 4 years eh?
Nick: Well it’s March now.
Brent:  3 and a half years…
Nick:  Three.
Brent:  Hehe…Anyway, so yeah we did that and we were based out of NZ so we would spend a lot of time touring NZ and did a bit of time in Australia and we had an EP that came out called Cut Off Your Hands.

About a few months before we came over for SXSW in 2007 we got an email from a Portland based band called “Shaky Hands” and they basically just said to us–like legally and formally said–that we had to cease using that name or we’ll sue your ass.  So we tried to come up with a compromise like calling ourselves “Hands Are Shaky” or “Shake Your Hands” or “Shaky Hands 1979″ or anything like that.  They weren’t really willing to compromise so we thought, “Oh fuck it, we’ll just change our name to the name of the EP,” which was “Cut Off Your Hands.”  That’s basically how it all came about.

Brent:  My name is Brent and I play the drums.
Jono: I’m Jono and I play guitar.
Phil:  Phil, bass.
Nick: I’m Nick and I sing.

You guys have been on the road since February right?  How’s that been going?
All:  It’s been good.

What was it like tonight, playing your smallest show since probably your first practice?
Phil: Tonight was a bit different.  It’s always weird coming from doing the Australian summer circuit, festivals where we’re we reasonably high up on the bill to coming over and doing the West Coast.  A few of the shows are really big, like the [armory?] was sold out in LA.  And so to play to 10 people, I found it kind of fun; I enjoyed it.  Did you guys count?  Was it 10? 12?

Brent: Its nice when there are a small handful of people that really enjoy it; that are actually into the band.  You kind of feel like it makes it more worth your time anyway.  If there are a couple of people there that like the band and want to buy the record and want to say “hi” then that kind of makes a bit more pleasant.

You guys have toured all over the world–Japan, Australia, Europe.  What makes touring in America different than other places?
Brent: There’s obviously the size issue.  America’s a really big place.  In NZ you can do an extensive tour of the country in 3 weeks maybe.  And that’s playing to all the small towns. So its kind of like the difference is the size.  In America there’s so much going on.  You have to do so much to even make any kind of a mark.  Another interesting thing about America is its got a depth of culture I suppose, you know, where everywhere is really different.  It was really interesting just driving to Salt Lake through Nevada and seeing these like crazy little places that you’ve never gotten to see before.

MA: You guys missed Vegas though.

Brent: We got to Reno though, which the “littlest biggest city in the world.”

On your album, especially the latter half, you guys have a few slower tracks.  Do you guys ever play those live?
Nick:  No, we never really learned those.  We’ve never played those together as a band.  Like the last song on the album I just recorded by myself.  We haven’t learned it.

I notice those lyrics are very religiously based.  Did you guys grow up in a religious community?
Nick: Yeah we grew up in church and that’s what the story’s about.  Just interesting stories that I could recall from childhood but at the time didn’t really think about and looking back as a 23-24 year old kind of went “there’s something interesting going on there.”  That’s basically it.

In another interview, someone asked a question about your time on Levity records, kind of a unique one-off kind of record deal with a clothing company.  It made me think about how a lot of bands are using other means of promoting themselves.  It’s no longer the standard, just sign with a record label and hope that they pump your music out there.   Are you guys doing anything interesting or differently to try and take advantage of that?
Phil: Not really since then, but it was a really good was for both us to get money to record an EP; it was just a 4 song EP.  So that got us a record to start with and then for them it was a chance to promote their brand and associate it with a cool band.  So it makes sense for both people.

Nick: We probably wouldn’t do it again unless there’s lots of money.  Just anyways to get money’s all right pretty much.  It’s funny because pretty much right after that we actually got signed to the classic major label thing after all those interviews.  At the time we were like, “we’ve got to do it this way [not with a major]” and then we got the classic major label deal.  And now we’re not on there anymore.

What were the differences you noticed between the major and non-major?
Nick: Major labels don’t really care about music, they’re just in it for the money.
Phil: They’ve got heaps of money; they don’t care about music at all.
Brent: What we kind of realized was you may as well be signed to like anyone…like McDonalds or Sanyo TVs or whatever.  If they’ve got money.  The better thing is if the give you money and you have a couple people that know what they’re doing to advise you.  That would probably be a better way to go about it than signing to a major label; like the one we signed to anyways cause they didn’t really care..at all.  And they had a bit of money to help us get somewhere, but we didn’t get anything from it.  We made a record which is the cool thing about it.

And now you guys are on French Kiss.  How’s that been?
Nick: So far so good.  But we would have said the same thing about this time into our major label deal.  You can’t trust anybody except for the four guys in your band.

You guys recently lost Michael Ramirez right?  And now you’re [jono] in on guitars.  How has that shift been for you guys?  Was it an easy transition?
Nick: Yeah, pretty easy.  What was it like 3 weeks to learn all the songs?

Did you [Jono] know them from back home?
Jono:  Yeah, we all grew up in that whole church background and knew each other through there.  And then even growing up, later on, older and older, I was in other bands at the same time as these guys.  And actually, it’s kind of  funny cause the first show I played with these guys, my old band was supporting them, so it was cool.  So yeah, it’s been pretty natural.

You guys are hitting SXSW pretty hard.  You’re playing 10 shows down there.  Are you guys excited or nervous?
Nick: We’ve done lots of showcases before.  We did SXSW in 2007 and then we did CMJ in 2007 and 2008 and then Great Escape.  So its probably going to be real exhausting.  Cause the most we’ve done is I think 7 shows at CMJ a couple years ago and I remember the last show was really exhausting.  You normally put your best show into those shows as well, which means really energetic, so its going to be really hard but at the same time there’s bit of a purpose in those shows so it’ll be all right and fun to be considered an all right band for at least 3 days.

After you’re done touring in April, what are your plans?
Nick: Don’t know yet.  Nothing.  Might break up.  Anything is on the cards.