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Aussie graphic design boffins turned indie-electro heroes Cut Copy may have made the album of the year. How did they do it? Tony Naylor gets them to lift the lids off their laptops...
Cut Copy
Revenge of the nerds ... Cut Copy PR

It is far too early, and too male, to start talking about albums-of-the-year lists. But if In Ghost Colours, the second album by Australian indie-electro trio Cut Copy, isn't hovering at the top of several of them come December, it will be an injustice of Simon-getting-kicked-off-The-Apprentice proportions.

There will be bigger, more relentlessly hyped records this year, but In Ghost Colours is the gift that keeps on giving. Produced by Tim Goldsworthy, one half of DFA Records with James Murphy, at the duo's Plantain studios in New York, these sleek, soulful "cosmic pop" songs come bathed in a warm, late-summer glow and reference everything from the Beach Boys to the Pixies to Tangerine Dream.

It's an endlessly interesting grab bag of influences, a veritable pop pick'n'mix, so let's unpack it with the men themselves. What are the records, bands, people and cult US photographers that shaped In Ghost Colours?

Electric Light Orchestra

Dan Whitford (vocals/guitar/keyboards): "For the harmonies and chords. ELO records do have cringeworthy moments but the highs are so high they're worth waiting for. Plus, their Time album is a classic."

DFA Records' Tim Goldsworthy

Dan: "He had no idea about a lot of new music other than stuff he's connected to, like Soulwax. It's like the music history that DFA fit into - disco, Krautrock, Chicago house - that's their world. New music is a whole different planet from where they are. He had a scary knowledge of My Bloody Valentine's old pedal set-ups like some stalker who'd snuck inside their houses but he'd never heard of the Eagles! We thought he was just bullshitting, like, 'I'm this cool producer, I've never heard of the Eagles.' But, seriously, he hadn't."

Tim Hoey (guitar/bass/vocals): "He was never an imposing force. He was there to serve the record. A muse and a gentleman."

Panda Bear's Person Pitch

Mitchell Scott (drums): "This album is a pop take on Animal Collective's million-ideas-in-one-song approach."

Tim: "It came out while we were in New York and it got us excited."

Dan: "To pull off a record that still counts as pop, when the way that it's written almost works completely against that - they're the best kind of records. Pop records against the odds."

Mitchell: "It's inspirational. The record label would say you do, but I don't see that you compete against other bands."

Richard Prince

Tim: "When we were putting the artwork together, we made it quite organic, re-photographing ready-made images, like [controversial American painter/photographer] Richard Prince does. That organic process says a lot about how we work."

Dan: "Tim studied at art college in Melbourne and I have a graphic design company, Alter. We do work for Modular, the label we're on, MTV and various Australian things. For me, visual art and music are so intertwined."

Tangerine Dream

Dan: "When I first started writing electronic music I listened to Krautrock, stuff like Kraftwerk and Can. From there I discovered Tangerine Dream - which I revisited during this record. As soon as you start accepting what other people tell you is cool, you're uncool. That's the whole point. I like Tangerine Dream's film soundtracks and early stuff like Rubicon, but even their cheesy, New Age meditation period is interesting."

Rave on, down under
With In Ghost Colours debuting at No 1 in Australia ("It feels strange," says Dan) and the Oz electro scene currently fizzing with activity, dance music is in rude health down under. You might have heard of the Presets or the Bumblebeez, but there is a younger generation coming through, predominantly influenced by the gigantic sounds of Justice and Ed Banger. "When those guys came over," says Tim, "they were blown away by the Australian audiences." Here's Cut Copy's choice of the new wave...

Bag Raiders
Dan: "These guys are currently the go-to remixers in Australia. They're part of a younger DJ/producer wave, along with Knightlife."

Dan: "He's an amazingly gifted film school graduate who's only been doing music for 18 months. He gets it straight away, like he's got this innate ability."

Midnight Juggernauts
Dan: "Their background is in heavy metal, but their album Dystopia is crazy Gallic stadium techno."

Tim: "I used to live with Andy, and he was an awesome flat mate!"

Damn Arms
Dan: "A dance edge, but quite punk. They came out of a hardcore scene, but their newer stuff is almost Italo disco."

· In Ghost Colours is out Monday