By MICHELLE HERBISON
Montgomery Cooper logged into his band Clubfeet’s Twitter account one morning to find thousands of tweets from fans of a Japanese band apologising for a rip-off music video.
The “scandal” revealed Japanese production company staff working another band, Champagne, apparently loved Clubfeet’s video for single Everything You Wanted so much that they replicated it “shot for shot”, Cooper explained.
“People were doing the exact same things at the exact same time. It was so funny.
“Japanese fans of Champagne were tweeting us saying, ‘We have so much shame for what they’ve done’,” he laughed.
But Clubfeet’s members were unfazed, realising Champang was not to blame while watching views on their own YouTube clip soar by up to 100,000 a day.
“We talked to them on Twitter and ended up forgiving them. The only thing we were really upset about is they have better haircuts than us,” Cooper quipped.
He spoke to the Independent amid a “rehearsal lockdown” before the electro-pop group’s mid-year headline tour, which includes Geelong’s Eureka Hotel on 6 July.
The Cape Town Tour will celebrate Cooper’s favourite single of the same name from the band’s second album, Heirs and Graces.
“I enjoy playing Cape Town live the most with its flaming disco beats. This tour will be a bit more dancy and up-beat,” he said.
“Our February tour was epic with big sold-out shows, so we were on a high for the entire month.”
Clubfeet’s catchy sound has been compared to Hot Chip and Metronomy, with successes so far including a partnership with MTV and being unearthed from the internet by a US dance label.
But the band remains committed to only making music “that makes us smile”, Cooper revealed.
“We made this record and the one before it in our bedrooms. We didn’t really set out to do anything.”
Cooper said the five-piece’s new material on Heirs and Graces performed well live compared with extensively layered tracks from their previous release, Gold on Gold.
“It’s more fun to play as a band.”
The Cape Town Tour would be Clubfeet’s final Australian performances for the year before tours to the US and UK.
