Welcome to the Monkey House:
An Interview With Dandy Warhols' Peter Loew

A_P: What bizarreness can we expect from the Dandy's tour this fall?

PL: Well, the usual stuff but most importantly we're not touring with a support band this time. That's important to know, especially for the fans who might tend to wander in late. It's just us and we play for about three hours.

A_P: That's a pretty cool idea, especially for true Dandy's fans. Has that presented any challenges?

PL: No. Actually it takes a lot of the pressure off. If the beginning of our show isn't solid, we know we have time to make it solid. It'll be solid by the end of a three hour set.

A_P: I'm sure you had a variety of musical influences¾and I'd like to know who those are - but I'm also interested in what artists outside of music influence your work. Do any of you, like, read & stuff?

PL: Oh yeah, definitely. I grew up in a house without a TV, so reading was an escape for me. Frank Hebert, William Gibson, Kurt Vonnegut… Tolkien

A_P: Well, that may explain a few things… Who does the songwriting for the band? How does the process work?

PL: It's mostly Courtney (Taylor-Taylor). He'll come in with some lyrics and some chords. We'll maybe make some chord changes and then add a verse or something. Then we lay it down.

A_P: When I listen to Thirteen Tales, and most certainly when I listen to Come Down, I feel like I'm on drugs. Any comments on that? But seriously, what is the process for putting together tracks like "Orange," or "Green," or "Godless" that are obviously guitar-driven indie-rock tracks, but they have this trippy, dancey feel to them?

PL: Well we definitely try for that effect - certainly on Come Down, if not the other records. We play all our own instruments, so it's not [like a techno] record or something. But yeah, we definitely aim for a trippy sound.

A_P: So who would win in a fight: Zia McCabe or Kim Deal?

PL: Oh, Kim Deal. Zia's pretty tough, but definitely Kim Deal.

A_P: So you guys rock out over seas, but we in-bred American fans haven't really jumped on the bandwagon yet… Bad? Good? Do you care?

PL: I guess I'd like more [recognition here], but really none of the bands I'm into now are big in the U.S.

A_P: Who would those bands be?

PL: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Spiritualized, Primal Scream…

A_P: A few Dandy's songs are so dripping with sarcasm - "Bohemian Like You" for example - yet they rock out so well… Do you ever worry about conflicting messages? I mean in no way do you sound like Weird Al, but the first time I heard that song literally laughed out loud… Then I was like, "Should I really be laughing here? This is one of my favorite bands…"

PL: Well, sometimes it can be a problem. One time we were walking in London and a carload of school kids was driving by. They recognized us and started yelling: "Hey! Dandy Warhols! Hey, we like heroin too!" And we were like, "Uh, noooo… That's not it…" So that one ["Last Junkie on Earth"] maybe we should've done differently.

A_P: What's it like hearing your song in a movie - especially a movie that goes big time like Good Will Hunting?

PL: It's pretty cool and weird. It's especially weird when you didn't know the song was going to be there.

A_P: What are the first five CDs I'd find if I snuck on the Dandy Warhols tour bus?

PL: Well. the bus is pretty clean now¾we really just started the tour. You'd probably see Out Crowd, which is a bunch of our friends from Portland.

Dandy Warhols
Welcome to the Monkey House
Capitol, 2003
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