Beat Magazine article/interview
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Beat Magazine
by Elizabeth Mccarthy
January 2004
Zia McCabe has spent the past few days doing laundry. She says there’s mountains of stinky rock clothes wanting her attention because The Dandy Warhols have just stopped touring for the first time in months. The past few weeks have seen them opening for David Bowie all over Europe, an experience that McCabe says was a highlight of her year. “It was so fun. It was weird too, like we were only playing forty-five minutes and usually we didn’t have a sound check, so it was really just alot of sitting around. David Bowie was amazing. His whole band is so cool. Mike, the keyboard player, gave me piano lessons.”
McCabe says that her band’s latest album, Welcome To The Monkey House, is traveling well, and she’s looking forward to performing their first ever Big Day Out concerts. She sounds rapt that Australian audiences will be hearing tracks off the album that other audiences have not. “You know, we never really had time to learn the record when it came out- we only had ten days actually. Then we started touring and haven’t rehearsed since then.
“We’ve just been so busy. We learnt about three quarters of the songs, went on tour. The ones that we struggled with we just kind of threw out the window and stuck with the like, four or five that we could really nail. And we haven’t really had time to work out the rest of the album to play live. But now we’re home and have a little time we’ll be working out some more songs for the Big Day Out.” That the band haven’t been on the bill of Australia’s most high profile music festival in prior years is a surprise. McCabe says it’s all about politics. “We’ve been dying to play The Big Day Out ever since we first heard about it. But the scheduling just never worked out, and we’d be in the wrong country and there’s all these kind of rules about saying yes to some festivals and no to others. So we’re just super thrilled we’re finally going to play it. “Australian audiences are really friendly and enthusiastic, and have always been great about buying our records and coming to our shows and being pumped about our music. And the other bands on the Big Day Out this year are great. I mean, we love The Flaming Lips and The Strokes and Jet.” McCabe says her favorite tracks from the new album are constantly changing. “I love performing I Am Over It live, because it always works. You Come In Burned is really interesting because my bass is different. As far as old songs go, Good Morning and Godless are our favorite festival songs to play because they’re really big and dramatic. “But probably our most requested song is still Lou Weed from the first album. We’ve never ever done a show where someone doesn’t request that song but we don’t always play it. I started joking about it because it always sounds like the same guy who’s yelling out for it.”
As for what The Dandy Warhols have in store for the rest of 2004, McCabe says there are several projects they wish to bring to fruition. “We’ve got a b-sides album in the works, some stuff to do with Massive Attack, and a live DVD. There’s always stuff to do. Being home right now doesn’t even feel like resting! I’m getting the house clean, doing all that stuff. Plus there’s so many things for a band to do when they’re not on tour - things like photo shoots, videos, and there’s all these other projects we want to release. But you know, it’s fun. I’m into it.” Being lucky enough to take her husband on tour keeps her sane, she says. “We just relax in the hotel room, smoke grass and rent movies. Stuff like that. And I just swim in the hotel pool and have a massage when I can.”
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