Real Detroit Interview
Real Detroit
Last Junkies On Earth: Who can tame The Dandy Warhols?
By Shannon McCarthy
July 20 - 26, 2000

After first encountering The Dandy Warhols, I was intrigued and somewhat bewildered. I saw them on TV about two years ago in a David LaChapelle video that contained dancing syringes, singing about junkies and saying heroine is passé. But it was completely sexy rock and roll. The Dandy Warhols don’t necessarily fit into today’s music scenes, but somehow their audiences continue to find them. They don’t make a hell of a lot of money at it, but their dreamy and artsy pop songs featuring lyrics about (what else?) sex and drugs are keeping them happy enough. Courtney Taylor (vocals/guitar), Pete Holmstrom (guitar), Zia McCave (keyboards/bass) and Brent DeBoer (drums) are getting their fix permeated through their vintage look and attitude. Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, their second album on Capitol, is due out in early August and takes the kids on the road again. Courtney borrowed his friend’s cell phone to do our interview. He told me that he doesn’t get a lot of women on the road, so he could shave and answer his land line at the same time and feel like a tycoon.

REAL Detroit: Are you tired of doing interviews today?
Courtney Taylor: No, I don’t mind. My friend Bill gave me a cell phone so I could keep movin’ while I’m talkin’. I enjoy conversation, basically it’s true what Capote said, “I enjoy conversation, sex and travel – in that order.” I think that’s what he said.

RD: Which is best: sex, drugs, or rock ‘n’ roll?
CT: Depends on how many of them you’re getting at their best. I like rock ‘n’ roll I’ve certainly said it a number of times. It’s better than either of the others.

RD: Would you say you guys are a rock band?
CT: I guess so, yeah. We feel more like a bunch of painters or poets or sculptors. I don’t know, we seem more like a group of weird artists.
I’ve got to shave.

RD: What? Your legs or your face?
CT: I’m going to shave my back (laughs). That’s why I’ve been single for so long.

RD: Are you gonna cut yourself?
CT: It’s a super safe electric razor – ooh. No worries. It might give me cancer on the brain or something.

RD: Do you ever make out to your own music?
CT: It have. It suits it well. It’s nice. It’s easy on your consciousness. Or The Verve’s Storm and heaven, Spiritualized, maybe Mazzy Star.

RD: You sound like you already had those picked out.
CT: Actually, no because when I end up being fortunate enough to find some lovely woman who is giving the go ahead, I’m like, “Let’s kiss and snuggle and pull each other’s panties down.” I kind of don’t like having sound, music is pretty distracting to me, to begin with.

RD: Are you trying to say you have to concentrate a lot?
CT: Yeah, the whole thing’s very tricky, like staying sensually aroused and in tune, but without getting too self-conscious. And if you are self-conscious, you want to both be at the same time so you can go, “Whoa, I just lost it”, “Yeah, me too.” “OK, let’s sit here for a second.” Music is distracting because it is so controlling, you know? I like it if we’re controlling it and we’re here and that’s it. But you get it where you can, really. I mean babies die without attention.

RD: I love snuggling.
CT: Oh yeah, we need that and it’s been a hell of a long time for me so I’m crazy now. I’ve gone completely crazy because I haven’t had a girlfriend for a year and a half. I had one for a couple months last November and she wasn’t very nice to me. I think she liked the idea of me, but really I was just like a little trophy or something. She actually thought she was smarter than me. Are you kidding me? Sweetheart, don’t doubt that I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m controlling my life and having a good time. It was just weird. Like, are you judging me?

RD: Are you saying you’re just the superior intellectual?
CT: I’m just really, really functional. You don’t have to doubt that I know what I’m doing, that I’m going to fuck up and embarrass you in some situation. I’m really highly functional. Goddamn, it’s ridiculous.

RD: Any parting advice for me?
CT: Ignore any glossy, high-budget advertising. People spend billions of dollars each year (to tell you) you’re not good looking enough, you’re not rich enough, your boyfriend isn’t good looking enough, your girlfriend isn’t hot enough, you’ll have more money if you buy this kind of shit., you’ll get a higher caliber mate in life. You know, I don’t have any glossy magazines and I don’t have a TV and I’m pretty happy all the time. I feel pretty good about myself My friends are all friends that I can understand and just laugh and sit and talk about shit together and drink cheap beer and it’s good. And then I get these magazines and I just start to feel shittier about myself. When I see billboards of super hotties, you know, I just ignore that shit. That’s about as much as I have for advice. It works for me. I gotta go to a hippie fair and maybe do some acid or something.

RD: I love dirty hippies.
CT: I love em.

RD: Have a good time. Bye.
CT: Ciao.