Cut Off Your Hands Break Bones

If there's any lesson to be gleaned from the ascent of New Zealand popsters Cut Off Your Hands, it's that sometimes you have to break bones to get ahead.

The band's shows have culminated in recent years by frontman Nick Johnston catapulting himself off stages and, during one fateful performance, launching from "an 18-foot thing."

He broke his foot, but it was one hell of a show.

"I don't want to break any more bones," Johnston said recently from the road on his way to Chicago. "We try not to repeat that."

Sadly, the performances since then have been a bit toned down, but the sentiment that led him to the hospital has remained.

"I really hate going to see a live band that sits around and looks like it's not enjoying itself," he said. "It was the only way we knew how to perform — going nuts and throwing shit around."

That showmanship has earned the band a rapidly expanding fan base, evidenced in part by the phenomenal 10 shows booked for Austin, Texas' just-completed South By Southwest Music Festival.

"We just kept getting more and more offers [for SXSW], and none of them were worth turning down," Johnston said. "It wasn't like that last year."

Cut Off Your Hands didn't have their You And I full-length debut to prove they're worth the slots a year ago. The record has received warm reviews since its release earlier this year, and critics hint this is an up-and-coming band who haven't quite reached their full potential.

Standout songs include the peppy single "Turn Cold," album opener "Happy As Can Be" (which is packed with jubilant "whoa oh ohs") and the alcoholic anthem, "It Doesn't Matter."

The insane tour to support the release will take the group around the world in the next year. In fact, touring is slated to take up so much of their time that they decided to move out of their London, England flat and remain homeless until they return home to Auckland, New Zealand for a break.

"It does get tiring," Johnston admits. "That's why our guitarist had to leave around Christmas last year.

"It wasn't his kind of lifestyle. You have to really love it to be on the road for three years playing the same songs. There's not much money and sometimes you play for no one. It can be taxing."

But the band know that — much like it was for Canadian groups 10 years ago — Kiwi musicians must seek approval beyond their country's borders to find any level of success.

"It's really unprecedented to be a touring band from New Zealand," Johnston said. "There's a lot of good bands that come from New Zealand, but it's tough... We wanted it so bad. We wanted to tour as much as we could."

You can see Cut Off Your Hands here:

March 24 Bloomington, IN @ John Waldron Art Center w/Ra Ra Riot
March 25 Akron, OH @ Musica w/Ra Ra Riot
March 26 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig w/Ra Ra Riot
March 27 Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall w/Ra Ra Riot
March 28 Syracuse, NY @ Westcott Theatre w/Ra Ra Riot
March 30 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern w/Boys Who Say No
April 1 Montreal, QC @ Club Lambi
April 3 Hamden, CT @ Alumni Hall w/Manchester Orchestra and Bear Hands
April 4 New York, NY @ Webster Hall w/Ra Ra Riot