Back in 2020 we discovered the Gothenburg based rock outfit Cut City – its been a long time since we last heard new music from the band but we are stoked to hear their new single ‘Lost It’. Alex caught up with the band who have shared their brand new music video exclusively to Nordic Watchlist!
It has almost been two years since we last spoke – what have you and the band been up to?
Well, after we released Absolutes we were supposed to do a lot more live shows than we did but there was sort of a global sneeze that prevented us from doing anything but to isolate ourselves. Thankfully, filesharing is a thing now so we were able to write more songs than the entire A*** C*** discography holds.
Some of those our dear ex-Mancunian friend Kevin released through his Box Bedroom Rebels label. We wrote a bunch of tunes specifically for that release that were inspired by early SST releases, more punk rock, more hardcore. That became the RAGE AT THE BADLANDS 7″ and it later spiralled way out of control and now we’re all over the place but we still find a way to call it home.
Talk to us about your new single?
LOST IT is a banger we wrote after binge-watching Parks & Recreations for an entire weekend and felt compelled to make a song that could go along with the murals in the city hall corridors. Oskar came up with a bass part that we discarded immediately. So we asked Magnus to write something instead. That was shit too so we stole something from somewhere and it must’ve been good enough. We sprinkled some fairy dust upon that and, voíla, LOST IT.
But then a feeling of low self-esteem rolled in like a heavy storm, as per usual; thinking the song couldn’t stand on its own legs we convinced our old friend (and artisanal funeral director) Sonny Kay (owner of defunct label Gold Standard Labs and vocalist in Angel Hair, The VSS and Year Future) to lay down some additional vocals. The fire needed some extra gasoline and, boy, did he burn down the entire neighbourhood.
You got a music video to go with the track – tell us some more about the video and its director?
The video was directed by La Mano Oculta, a dear friend of ours that we just can’t seem to get rid off. He showed up one day and just started filming us. It was in no way consensual and in hindsight we probably should have murdered him on the spot but none of us know that business.
The video is just the four jerks of us strumming and banging on our instruments, playing it cool, trying not to embarrass the country of Sweden from within but failing miserably. We were aiming to be as cool as Siege were on their “Live ’84” clip but that wasn’t happening. Even so we’d like to give a shout out to La Mano Oculta (director), Anna Wagner (editor) and Dan Widing (color correction) for managing to work under sweatshop conditions. Also, thanks to Sonny and Jen for going along with stupidity.
We got new tracks, a music video… what is coming next? An album or might we get to see you guys live soon?
So LOST IT is the first (only?) single from our upcoming zen masterpiece and meditation album TAPE DAYS, our third full-length. TAPE DAYS was written with John McEnroe’s famous words in mind – “Answer my question, jerk!”.
We took his anger and frustration and fused it with a ridiculous nostalgic trip around the 1980’s, which all the four of us were brought up in. The nice thing about nostalgia is that we were able to filter out the nuclear threat and the economy being a joke and dial everything in on the good stuff. We scavenged old skate videos, looted from mainstream hit singles and just acted as if that decade was ours to steal from.
TAPE DAYS is a perfect marriage between “Boys of Summer” and “Boys Don’t Cry”, not to say that it sounds that way but you get the picture.
Have you had any new influences going into making the new tracks?
The main take away from the sessions we had was that we had ZERO constraints (except for my lacking guitar skills), no pleasures were considered “guilty” and if we needed a metal guitar solo in a song then that was what we were going to throw in there. I can only speak for myself (but also the rest of the band because fuck those guys), we jammed a lot of Bryan Adams, Jennifer Rush, The Outfield, W.A.S.P. and Dio. We also blasted Hüsker Dü, Descendents, Lemonheads, The Replacements, The Sound and all that jizz that came in from the musical penis of the 80’s. So stealing from everything that is great is a no-brainer and the best recipe for hitting a homerun.
What can Cut City fans do to keep supporting your music?
It’s not easy to grease our wheels as we commit career suicide on a daily basis by acting like we don’t know how to operate a band (which we don’t). We have some merchandise, odd sizes of t-shirts, stocking every release but Exit Decades which is what everyone wants. Seriously though, the best way to support us is to hijack the stereo wherever you are and just blast our music on repeat until people just give up and nod along. Spread the word. Buying our shit is not essential but it affords us the luxury of rehearsing drunk.
What was the last film you watched, book you read, and album you listened to?
I watched Predator again just a couple of weeks ago. They don’t do action movies like they used to. Where are all the swollen pecs, heavy machine guns, snide comments and men shaving their faces with combat knives? It’s a sorry state we’re in.
I haven’t read that much lately but I did look at a picture of Sting doing naked yoga on a beach, with his assistant bending his legs in various angles. That picture says more than the entire library of Alexandria. As for music: I, David, Magnus and Oskar have the same album on repeat these days: Spidergawd – IV. That’s your desert island album right there.
Listen to more of Cut City’s music over on their Band Camp – http://cutcity.bandcamp.com/
Interview by Alex Minnis
