By Ila Couch in New York

We're in Brooklyn somewhere - at the corner of Freedom and Bushwick Ave, says Phil Hadfield bass player for Auckland band Cut Off Your Hands. Two hours earlier I had been out scoping the neighbourhood for a quiet spot to conduct an interview, asking everyone I passed where the nearest park was. I wasn't having any luck until I spied a tree off in the distance and like a sailor in search of land discovered "The Freedom Triangle."Spanning a mere 00.4 of an acre I doubt this sliver of park has ever played host to a baseball game so the discarded bat at the base of the bronze statute isn't a reassuring sign. When I come back with the band two hours later it's gone.

Cut Off Your Hands is Nick Johnston on Vocals, Michael Ramirez on Guitar, Phil Hadfield on Bass and Brent Harris on Drums. They're in New York to play at the Cake Shop in the East Village and at an impromptu venue called Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn. While I may have discovered a nice little "park" for this interview it is smack in the middle of a busy intersection. If that's not bad enough it's also underneath an elevated train line. Since I'm filming this interview I end up having to stop them mid sentence as a train rumbles by or a bus stops at the corner. It doesn't help the flow of information much but none the less we push on.

How many times have you been to New York City now?

Mike: We've been here three times as a band. We did CMJ last October and played seven shows in the space of three or four days. I love this place. In my head this is what America looks like to me. High rise buildings, people everywhere.

Brent: I like the dirtiness of it. The grimy streets.

Phil: The few times we've been here we've seen some pretty crazy shows. These guys made their own instruments and were playing on the street. That doesn't happen where we're from.

Nick: there seems to be a lot of good shows happening and a lot of good places to go out to each night. We've also met a lot of good people and have friends here now.

Where are you living now?

Nick: We live in Hackeny in London. There's a lot of artists and musicians, its cheap living and there's a social atmosphere. It's exactly where I want to be at this time in my life. We're all living in a flat together and it's actually strange to have a bed for once instead of living on a floor or a couch. But in saying that we just finished our first record so we're about to start a world tour.

Has living in the UK changed the way you listen to music that comes from that side of the world?

Nick: Getting to Manchester - there's such an amazing amount of musicians coming out of there - Factory Records. You can't help but realize it makes a lot more sense when you're on those roads and in those neighbourhoods rather than an Auckland suburb trying to figure out why Morrisey was so depressed. You can see why New Zealand bands are turning out a lot of reggae and dub because it's so chilled out. That's not where I'm at so I find coming over to places like New York is more concrete like people being thrown together and it feels like home to me. Maybe I tend to identify with that culture.

You released your first LP on your own and worked with Bernard Butler (Suede) on your second LP and your debut album. How has it been working with a producer?

Nick: Blue on Blue (LP) was only a couple of days with Bernard. He was approaching it like a demo. When we went to do this record in March/April it was really quite a different experience. He was a lot more hands on and a lot more opinionated. We were a lot more opinionated and cared more about what was going on because you tend to take an album a lot more seriously. In making this album we put a lot of eggs in his basket. Too many bands can be opinionated for ego sake and we realized we don't have any experience compared to a guy like that. If you're paying someone to work with you, you might as well take his ideas on board.

Did you have all the songs written before going in to record?

Nick: I wrote some while we were recording as well. I was just hanging out waiting for them to finish guitars and I had a spare room in the studio so in that sense it was really the purest way to write because it's just for fun. I didn't intended for it to be on the record - Bernard heard it and said it had to be on the record.

How does it feel now the album is done?

Nick: It's a good feeling to finally have a full length album we feel is really strong and everyone working with us feels is strong. This record we feel is a lot more mature which is brilliant for the records sake. It would be disappointing to settle for second best.

If you are coming to the US to perform, exhibit or promote your creative endeavours please get in touch with her at bitingthebigapple@gmail.com

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