The Dandy Warhols Q&A
Welcome to The Dandy Warhols Q&A, You see that’s the problem. I keep thinking in interview mode. Sorry for that. I hope that the fact that This Machine is another great instalment in The Dandy Warhols story comes to all as no surprise. Only hope my questions will not. The Dandy’s are from the beginning, a class act. Tour kicks off tomorrow, heads up!
Want to get to the Q&A? Please ignore, this mini-biography, and start after The Dandy’s string of UK dates below.
The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994. The band was founded by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström, with keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford later joining. Hedford left in 1998 and was replaced by Taylor-Taylor’s cousin Brent DeBoer. The band’s name is a pun on the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol.
At their first gig in 1994, they were approached by Tim/Kerr Records, who offered to pay for the recording of an album.[5] The result was 1995’s Dandys Rule OK, which combined elements of 1960s garage rock and 1990s shoegaze music. The album impressed Capitol Records, who decided to sign the band, and in 1997 they released their second album and major label debut, …The Dandy Warhols Come Down, which produced the popular single “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth”. The extravagant music video was directed by celebrity fashion photographer David LaChapelle and earned them fame outside the United States. In 2001, the band rose to international attention after their song “Bohemian Like You” was featured in a Vodafone advertisement. After 18 years and 8 studio albums, The Dandy Warhols are set to release their ninth studio album ‘This Machine’ coming this April.
‘This Machine’ was recorded over the course of 2011 at The Dandy Warhols epic rock clubhouse-cum-entertainment megaplex/studio The Odditorium. The band recorded the album with longtime engineer and sometimes producer Jeremy Sherrer. This Machine was mixed Tchad Blake in the UK. Tchad mixed The Dandy Warhols Odditorium or Warlords of Mars and is well known for his recent work with The Black Keys. The Dandy Warhols make their return to the UK with three gigs this April
The Dandy Warhols UK shows
Thursday, April 19, 2012 Glasgow UK Garage
Friday, April 20, 2012 Manchester UK Manchester Academy 2
Saturday, April 21, 2012 London UK Forum
“…Easier because we are wiser, harder because we are older.”
Just come from hearing Sad Vacation, fun and games. Guess with your schedule, any kind of vacation is appealing right now?
“To me tour is the ultimate vacation. Travel around, play shows, hang out with fun people. No worries, don’t have to think about much. A piece of paper is slipped under your door everyday telling what you need to do. The hotels could be better but that’s about my only complaint.”
Got to get the obvious one out of the way, was it a tough choice to allow such a monster of a song to Vodaphone?
“Not at all. We had let other companies use that song. We had no idea that it was going to blow up like that. The song when it came out originally was our first single to not crack the top 40. We had finished touring and started recording the next record. Took us completely by surprise.”
Although I will state that everything has definitely moved on and on, can I ask – Was it hard, having such a ‘tag’ like yeah, The Dandy Warhols, y’know that mobile thing, …and I like you (to repeat – badly sung) – or was that a good thing? To be so easily identified?
“The only time that shit ever came up was in interviews. Didn’t really bug me. And the fact that that was over 10 years ago and we are still around and still making new music speaks for itself.”
The band released in July of 2011 ‘The Capitol Years 1995-2007’ A greatest hits album, pleased to report, that that is not the last of the Dandy Warhols though. Was that healthy process? Or more of drawing a line on the Capitol Records era?
“It was a contractual obligation. And why would it be the last of The Dandy Warhols? Lots of bands do best of records and continue on. Is life easier for the band these days? Yes and no. Easier because we are wiser, harder because we are older. Just as much fun though!”
Were the early song-writing ideas behind the songs that eventually went to make up ‘This Machine’ written during another mammoth tour in Australia? Didgeridoo did not make it into the final mix then.
“Not sure there is such a thing as a mammoth tour of Australia, but no, most of the record was already recorded by the time we did that tour.”
Two songs that spring to mind are ‘Wow Signal ‘and of course ‘Rest Your Head’ I remember reading they were the first two you debuted back in 2011. How did they go down?
“Great. Our fans are very generous and encouraging.”
‘This Machine’ was recorded over the course of 2011 at your “epic rock clubhouse-cum-entertainment megaplex/studio The Odditorium.” Got to ask, after reading about fantastic club / studio earlier this century, the description, keeps getting bigger and better – Please tell us when did the Odditorium first came into being?
“It was an old machine shop that we turned into a studio using video budgets. It’s huge. Way too big for us. It is nice to be able to rehearse on a festival size stage though.
So Has it grown since then?
“ Not bigger, but messier and more disorganized. It could do with a good scrubbing.”
A healthy environment to record ‘This Machine’? Did it take a year, to get the album down?
“Yes and yes.
After the final mix, what songs were you most happy with, and why?
“‘Sad Vacation’ and ‘Well They’re Gone’. They both seem like newer ground for us Sonically challenging and fun to play.”
On a bit of a wing and prayer, but withguitars are hoping to bring you more, than just this taster, something more focused, I promise, what might be harder us catching up with The dandy’s when they are over here in the UK. But that is our aim.