Hybrid Magazine Interview
Hybrid Magazine
Would You Let Your Daughter Marry a Dandy Warhol?
By AR Roy

They don't do any more drugs than your average hometown rock and roll band, really. They just have way more fun doing them. 2/4th shirtless (3/5th, if you count the mysterious wildcard member, Troy) the Dandy Warhols hurry onstage in front of a mid-sized, mid-afternoon, super-charged So-Cal crowd at the second Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival - an all-day carnival of rock and roll, electronica, hip-hop, experimental art, and independent cinema. And what better way to introduce themselves to the eclectic crowd than to pass a freshly-lit joint around amongst the band. Frontman Courtney Taylor, with workingman-like jeans sagged below his waistline, takes a drag. A deep, methodical drag. He holds it in for a good bit, then he coughs as he lets the smoke out of his lungs. "I...am...so...fucking...stoned."

I'll take his word for it as far as that's concerned. But the Dandys' soft-spoken guitarist, the European-born Pete Holstrom, had a few more things to say after the band rocked the audience with a 45 minute, festival-sized set. In the interview, Holstrom discusses the band's latest album, 2000's 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia, some of his favorite bands (both old and new), and disses the bands that played at Woodstock '99.

The old theory is that the great bands are the ones whose influences are many. And its clear to hear you guys that you guys like a lot of bands. Aside from the usual like the Stones, the Pixies, and Bowie, what are some of the bands you're influenced by that we might not know about?

I don't know if there's any ones people don't know about. It's always pretty obvious I think. There's the Bob Dylan, George Harrison, the Beatles...

Harrison?

Oh yeah.

I don't hear any "Wah-Wah" in the Dandy Warhols.

No, but take a listen to "My Sweet Lord" and then put on "Godless".

Okay, I can see that.

We were definitely going for that warmth. That acoustic guitar kind of quality.

On this album, 13 Tales, "The Gospel" is the most serious kind of song the Dandys have done.

I guess, yeah. That's actually a riff I've been playing for years and years. And we finally turned it into a song.

Should we expect more of that kind of seriousness from the Dandys?

Yeah, and everything else.

I guess not knowing what to expect is the safest bet.

Yeah, because we want to try everything.

When I first heard the 13 Tales album when it came out, the first thing I thought was that these guys have been checking out the Stones a lot lately. Is that a pretty true assumption?

No, because we've always been checking out the Stones. It just moved around a bit. We actually went for doing the "Brown Sugar" riff, and doing a little bit more country stuff. Which, immideately, people think is more Stones-like, but we were just actually trying to write a country song. I don't know, I think it's always been there.

It's just more obvious now.

I think we're just better at showing our influences (laugh).

What I tell people is that the album sounds like every band you've ever heard, in a new groovy package.

Right, that's kind of what we're trying to do.

You've been working with Massive Attack lately. What's that all about?

We did a song with them last summer, as a sort of trial. We wanted to record the next record with them. And it worked out really well, and that lead to the remix of "Godless". And now we might work with them depending on whether their schedule and ours correspond correctly. It's going to be interesting because they're releasing a record soon and we're wanting to record soon.

So is that definitely going to happen or is that just something you're thinking about?

It's all depending on how long and when they tour. I kind of doubt it because it's looking like they're going to start touring just when we start recording.

Are you into the whole trip-hop scene?

A little bit. I'm into just about every scene just a little bit.

Speaking of trip-hop and Massive Attack, Tricky is out here. Roni Size is out here. Who else is out here that you're wanting to see?

I want to go see Iggy Pop, just 'cause. I want to see Sigur Ros.

You guys do festivals like Glastonbury in Europe all the time, and it's rare to see something like Coachella in America. What do you think about it?

The grass is really neat. It's clean and tidy.

It's a polo field, you know.

Yeah. It's nice. I like it. IT doesn't seem like a festival, because it's not dirty.

Is that a bad thing?

No, it's not a bad thing. It's just not what I'm used to.

Festivals are big business in Europe. They just don't catch on here for some reason. Why do you think that is?

I have no idea.

It seems like a pretty simple concept.

They did catch on for a while. I mean, the whole Lollapalooza thing, the Lilith Fair. There were a couple others of those touring festivals. But that just sort of faded out. Probably this country is so god damn big, you just can't have one. It's like Woodstock - a nightmare.

That's because of the bands that were playing there too.

Right. That being another problem with America.

A couple of the bands you guys have toured with - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Creeper Lagoon - have new albums out. Have you checked those out yet?

Black Rebel? I've had their album for months. It's my favorite record.

Like, currently?

Oh hell yeah. They're the best new band out there. Absolutely.

Any new bands that interest you right now that are out there?

There's a band in Australia called The Evens that are really good. And I don't know, I can't think of anybody else right now. There's a couple of bands in Portland.

Okay, last question - life after rock and roll?

More rock and roll.