All’s Fair In Love And Warhols
Abercrombie & Fitch Back To School Issue
by Sean T. Collins
Fall 2001

Five years after declaring heroin “so passé” with their grunge-killing single “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth,” the Dandy Warhols are still rock’s premier chroniclers of the lifestyles of the poor and gorgeous. But beneath the model-level good looks and the legendary backstage (and onstage) debauchery, singer/guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor, bassist/keyboardist Zia McCabe, guitarist Peter Holstrom and drummer Brent DeBoer are deadly serious about creating killer rock ‘n’ roll. A&F sent Sean T. Collins to see if their words and wisdom equaled that of their infamous namesake.

I noticed certain overused words when I was going through your press packet: Velvet, Underground, postmodern, self-conscious, ironic, meta, swagger, drugs, drinking, pop, hip, Brit, drone, glam-

Zia: You just picked a pile of adjectives – that’s so cool! That’s all you need.

I also noticed that when people write about you, they have to act like they’re down with the Rolling Stones by just calling them “the Stones.”
Courtney: Oh my God, you’re so right. That is sooo funny! No one will ever say “Rolling” – they gotta be kinda cool. But they’ll say the Velvet Underground – they never say VU.
Peter: Or Velvets.
Brent: I think they’re just trying to prove they know who the Velvets are!
Zia: When I got in the band, even I didn’t know the Velvet Underground, but I knew T. Rex, I knew “the Stones,” and I knew some Bowie…
Courtney: The ones with hits.

You’re able to make this music that can be heavy, serious and complex, yet people just choose to talk about you guys in terms of, “Oh, that song reminds me of the Monkees.”
Courtney: Well, the first three songs on our last record, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, were serious and dark and emotional and personal, and putting them at the beginning made it very clear to the world – particularly to the journalism world – exactly what the fuck we are. And it’s about time. In the last year, people quit going “Pop!” “Acid Pop!” “Sixties!” and started taking us more seriously: “Okay, these guys are studioheads.” You don’t just bumble into making a record like this.

What do you make of the industry today?
Pete: When I listen to music, I want to be surprised or shocked or scared. I want something I haven’t heard of, haven’t even thought of doing. But that happens so rarely.
Courtney: It’s a crazy business. But we’ve always pretty much been people who are like, “Well, if that’s popular, why should I do that? There’s plenty of people who do it really well!” We started to realize that we’re the cleanup crew of rock. Whatever people aren’t doing right, or aren’t doing at all, that’s what we like to do. I know we’ll attract people who need it.

In a live show, do you aim for abandon, or pop perfection?
Courtney: What do you think?
Brent: We like sick, slayin’, beer-sluggin’ rock’n’roll. A friend of mine was hangin’ out when we were soundcheckin’, and he asked if it was normal how were just in the zone rockin’ out, and I explained to him, “These four people look exactly the same during the soundcheck as they do in front of thousands of people.” It’s the same thing. I mean, we were totally rockin’, but it’s exactly what we do no matter what. It’s either getting you off, or it’s not. And usually if you’re getting off, the audience is too. It just works out.
Pete: It’s just approaching it completely differently. Live cannot be the studio. We’re obsessed with comfort, so if during mixing something starts grating on us, we’re like, “Take it out, get rid of it!”
Zia: Whereas at a show, there’s this whole faculty of charming flaws, which is why our songs can triple in length live. We’re willing to take it and go with it and ride it to its conclusion.
Courtney: So fuck it, we’ve become an amazing live band. But you’re still focused; you never abandon yourself altogether, which maybe is part of the sexual thrill of it. It’s abandon and control at the same time, and it’s beautiful, beautiful. You know when I was a kid, I remember Rod Stewart saying, “A great gig is better than sex.” Everyone said, “No way,” but dude, it’s not even close. Fuckin’ rock is so much better than sex.

Speaking of which, I have to ask about Zia’s onstage nudity.
Zia: It was an honesty thing, it really was! To me, it was sweaty and hot and passionate and pure and real and I believed in it 100 percent. But we’re a rainbow: We’re read, orange, green, blue – all these colors – and everyone picked yellow to write about for three years! If you’re a masterpiece you’ve spent your whole life developing, and a person just picks out your tits, you’re like, “What a fucking insult, you asshole!”
Courtney: You know, something that I obsess on because of what I do is the idea of archetype – how should my clothes fit and how should my hair look? I just want to represent, at first glance, what I am about. If you’re looking through this catalog and trying to decide on your clothes, don’t look at the pictures and decide what looks great on them - look at the article of clothing alone and decide if it feels like you, if it excites you in a deeper way. You want to attract yourself only to the people that you would like, that would like you. The best way to do that is to look like yourself.
Zia: And for me, I want it to be a reachable goal: kind of a fat ass, kind of a beer gut, but kinda sexy and honest! It’s a turn-on, because you’re okay with yourself. Your shirt is off and your tits are out and the music’s good and people love you and it’s fun and it’s beautiful.
Courtney: Like when you go out looking like shit, and every chick picks up on you. You’re just wearing the right clothes and they like that guy they see. Hey, we’ve had a really full interview.
Pete: Do you have anything left?

Sure, man! You warned me earlier, “Put the mic near Courtney and Zia” You’re down with that?
Pete: Yeah. Sometimes I’m in the right mood to babble away myself, but when Zia’s had a couple of drinks, I don’t even try. I mean, essentially I’m just a guitarist. You can listen to that.