Dandy Warhols For BDO
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
by Matt Frilingos
July 30, 2003

THE Dandy Warhols have signed on for the Big Day Out - great news for fans and band.

For a man who has seen a million cramped, seedy nightspots, Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor is unsurprisingly non-plussed at the thought of being squashed in a small crowded club.

"I like outdoor crowds," Taylor-Taylor says. "I enjoy festivals and things like that. I go to clubs and it's really dark and packed in there."

Taylor-Taylor, speaking on the phone from Berlin, is surprisingly honest despite the fact he's not feeling the best.

"I'm so hungover," he groans.

"I've had such a rough day. I mean getting up and getting out of the hotel was pretty hard but I'm laying on a sofa right now."

He's had a big night after a gig - the band are in the midst of a showcase tour to promote their new album, Welcome To The Monkey House.

"They're just small gigs, small free gigs, just radio, people call in or whatever," says Courtney, who was particularly impressed with the audience at the previous night's show.

"It was awesome, I can't believe how attractive everybody was," he laughs. "God, such beautiful people. Good haircuts, good clothes, it was great.

"I think in general we just sort of appeal to people who don't have a defeated look about them, ya know? I think perhaps it's just what we are and/or our music, the whole thing.

"Last night particularly had such a great vibe, sexy vibe. Not that we appeal specifically to supermodels or anything, I don't think we've ever had a supermodel at any of our shows, but we have very nice-looking people with a very informed sense of style."

Say what you want about the Dandys, but they too have a very informed sense of style - it's something they've always exuded, along with an extreme sense of self-confidence.
Who else has the balls to release a single like their 1996 track Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth (which featured the controversial line, "I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passe")?

That same confidence has led the band, best known for rock tracks like Bohemian Like You, to unashamedly embrace the '80s on Monkey House.

They haven't forgotten their rock roots, but band member Zia McCabe's keyboards have been pushed to the fore - not that guitarist Pete Holstrom or drummer Brent DeBoer have contributed any less to the Dandys' sound.

There's still plenty of art-rock moments on the new album but it features more electronic elements than in the past, which makes for a more sophisticated sound.

Does this mean the Dandys, who have long had a reputation for drug- fuelled debauchery, have mellowed?

Maybe a bit: "The chemical intake isn't as frequent and not as varied as it was either," Taylor-Taylor says frankly.

But halfway through the interview, the hungover singer still manages to get pretty worked up about having something stuck in his eye. It turns out to be a mere eyelash but it's enough to force him from the phone for 10 minutes. "I'm having a hell of a time," he moans. "That was frustrating, the last thing you need on a hangover experience."

Hangovers used to be least of the Dandys' worries, if their drug- fuelled reputation was anything to go by.

But things have changed and Taylor-Taylor admits that being in love with a yoga instructor has made it much easier "to be healthy". "There used to be a lot of chemicals involved. But we've never been irresponsible. We show up on time, we get shit done, we don't take any crap, we're not f..k-ups at all."

The band have always been upfront about their drug use, some-thing the press was quick to capitalise on.

"That kind of reputation was created by an English press in desperate need of us or somebody to create it about. And since we don't have drug problems and we're not f..k-ups, we didn't care what they said about us."

But drugs are no longer a focus and songwriter Courtney has instead decided to make it his mission to turn The Dandys into the antithesis of the garage rock revival that's swept the globe in the past year.
"We've always been about filling whatever is missing. Wherever there's a void," says Taylor-Taylor. "This record went through so many phases. There's a bunch of different versions of it. It was very electro-clash for a while. I felt like . it wasn't good enough, then we kept working on it some more, then we got Nick Rhodes."

Courtney's referring of course to the keyboardist who gave '80s giants Duran Duran their distinctive sound.

Duran Duran vocalist Simon Le Bon also contributes to backing vocals. "Monkey House was very hip-hop and urban at one point, then we thought it wasn't that great, we wanted it to be Champagne and caviar, because nobody does that," says Courtney.
"Just that smooth, kind of beautiful velvety thing, which is why you get Rhodes because that's what he does, no one can do what he does any more."

Courtney can't sing Rhodes' praises enough. "This thing he does is just gorgeous, it's Smooth Operator, sort of international and sexy." In fact, Courtney believes his contributions to the Dandys' album goes above and beyond what he provided for Duran Duran over the years.

"The perfect Nick Rhodes moment is actually on our record, it's the keyboard solo thing in the middle of You Were the Last High. That is f..king awesome."

It's the strongest track on the album and that begs the question: why wasn't it released ahead of their current hit, We Used To Be Friends? "Our record label is populated by a some really cool people and then what I think are some crazy people. Crazy. They don't know what they're doing," Taylor-Taylor exclaims.

"Here's some comedy for you: we have 50 states in America, 50. In each state there's probably between one and 10 radio stations which play modern rock. So let's say 200. Three radio stations, three, started playing We Used To Be Friends a while ago.

"The record isn't even out in America yet and we were gonna release The Last High as the first single because we wanted that to be the first single. And they were like, `great, great song'. "Three radio stations started playing We Used To Be Friends, so they decided `We have three radio stations playing it, we have to release Friends as the first single'. Three."

Courtney has no time for record company politics. "I'm just more interested in doing good work. Make good records, play beautiful music. Whatever, they get their heads so far up their butts with marketing and scheming and plotting and building hype.

"Right now we're in probably the best time for music I've seen since we started this band. We started this band when The Breeders were on the radio (1994).

"You've got everyone and their f..king dog making good records. Still, you don't need to plot and scheme. You've got everything from Goldfrapp to The White Stripes, Interpol, there's so much good music out there right now.

"Record labels sit and stew in their juice too much in Hollywood. They don't get out into the real world and see that real people actually just want good music and if you just put it out there, people will find it."

It's funny he should say that, considering Bohemian Like You, the Dandys hit from 1998's Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, didn't properly reach the popular consciousness until two years after its release. It's now featured on an ad for the Holden Astra.

"Everyone was a little slower than we thought they'd be," laughs Courtney.

"I think this record isn't as blatantly ahead of its time as Thirteen Tales. That was sort of made to be ahead of its time. At the time I made that record I knew that this boy band s..t reality was going to go and I wanted to put a nail in its coffin, be the one that was right there with the hammer and nails.

"We kind of figured it would only be a matter of 'by this time next year' kind of thing. Little did we know that it would be three-and-a- half years before the world went rock crazy."

The Dandy Warhols play the Metro in Sydney on July 31. They'll be back in January for The Big Day Out. Welcome To The Monkey House is out now.