A Candid Chat with The Dandy Warhols
Interview by Destiny Ross and Photo by: Nick O’Friel
Do you want to introduce yourself and what you do for the band?
This is Peter Holmstrom, Im the guitar player, engineer, producer, whatever, everything, in the Dandys. I mean we kinda all have to wear as many hats as possible these days, you know? But, mainly guitar.
Your sound has evolved over the years, from your breakthrough album to your newest. How would you describe the evolution of your music, and what can fans expect from the sound of "Rockmaker"? Can they expect a change up or something within the same “Dandy Warhols” sound?
To us, we’re maybe doing radical changes every record, and I think that sometimes comes across but I think there's a consistent sort of Dandy’s sound or vibe or something that's present through all the records and I think we don't manage to stray as far as I think we do. That said, Thirteen Tails was definitely a sort of warmer more acoustic-y record, and Monkey House was more synth. And it’s just because we are sort of short attention spans and are always on to the next idea. As far as “Rockmaker” goes it was a return to predominantly guitar music, and the sort of new approach was: I mean, Courtney and Brent wanted to make a metal record and I did not get that and Z was completely opposed to it. And then I sat down and came up with a guitar riff that was really fun and that sort of opened up the floodgates. The approach was we wrote from guitar riffs as opposed to changes of melodies as the initial sparking seed. It’s the same thing, it’s just a sequence of notes, we usually would add a riff on top of the chords this time it started with the riff. It just sparked some creativity and really the idea.
With your music withstanding the changing industry for years, what advice would you give to aspiring artists who are brand new in the industry?
I don't know about everybody in the band, but I went into being in the band just because I wanted to be, I wanted to play music. It certainly wasn't a career move and I think that's important because it's so rare to be able to make a living doing music. I mean as crazy as it is, there are years where we’re scraping by because of the way the industry has gone. But, I would never stop because that's not why I was doing it in the first place I’ve just been incredibly lucky to have had that happen. That’s the advice that I always give, you do it because you love it because any other reason. Or you have to do it, that’s the whole artist thing, you do it because you have to do it. It’s an output for something within you that needs to be there.
Can you share some insights behind the making of “Rockmaker”? Were there any specific influences or experiences that shaped the album's direction, and how did the collaborative dynamic within the band contribute to its creation?
The first song I heard was definitely Black Sabbath-inspired, so kind of a bit sludgy rock. I like Black Sabbath and everything but that's not what inspires me, so I had to find my gothic dance club version of guitar riffs to be able to bring something in. Then that opened up, “Oh, the Damned write really cool guitar riffs, I want to do something Damned inspired”. Besides that, I did do my best Pantera. But, I maybe have heard a Pantera song maybe once or twice in my life so I don't even know if I was close. There's some other songs with riffs going back as far as the sixties that were part of the overall kind of influence. The collaborative effort was an interesting one because it was during the pandemic so, Brent our drummer who lives in Australia, he was unable to join us. Courtney and I were getting together once a week down at our studio so it was mainly me and him in the studio for a year once a week just doing some stuff. I would bring stuff from home and just keep building things in the studio and then when things started opening up we got Brent over and played some drums. He sent us harmonies, because he could sing from his home studio, and sent us those. So there's little bits and pieces, but just strange times. But for Courtney and me it was great, it was very much like back when we started the band except I had more to bring to it.
The title "Rockmaker" suggests a focus on the art of creating music. What does the title mean to you, and how does it encapsulate the themes and messages explored throughout the whole album?
I like that, I hadn't even thought of it as the making music part. That tile came from a metal sign I found in an antique shop ages ago. I paid way too much money for it, but it said “Rockmaker” on it and I was like that’s cool. Somebody had cut it out with a settling torch or something, it’s pretty crude but it was just really cool. It’s been sitting in the studio for 20-odd years. Finally Courtney saw it and he goes “We should call an album that”. It is on the album cover but kind of small. For me, the album title was definitely rock as in harder rock and that was the idea behind it. But I like the making music part better.
The newest single “Danzing with Myself” has a feature from Frank Black of the Pixies, how did this come about? And are there any other features on the rest of the album?
I don't even understand how. Courtney is friends with Frank Black and I had no idea and he just reached out and it happened, had no clue. I never would have guessed that he would guest on a record ever, so I mean it's just great. I had no idea what else to add to that song and I couldn't imagine anything else in it and then he sends back his guitar part and its perfect, its minimal, and its just what was needed and it was nice he listened to it and heard something that we didn’t and its great and it really helps. We have a couple more very cool guests on the record. We have a song with Debbie Harry. There's actually a remix of that song out already, it came out last summer. But the album versions, a potential single, it'd be silly to not to have that as a single. I mean Debbie Harry it doesn't get cooler than that. The next single has Slash on it. Which is another crazy, “Why would he play on our record? I don’t know” but he did, pretty cool.
Collaboration seems to be a significant aspect of your work, John Leckie, Tony Visconti, Jacob Portrait, and tons of legendary and talented individuals. How do these collaborations enhance your creative process and output? And who has stood out to you/ been your favorite collaborator?
To be honest, there's a guy named Cory Gray and he plays piano on one of the songs and trumpets on another. He joined in as an extra musician when we did the thirteenth anniversary of the Thirteen Tails tour, and played the record front to back. I've had him play on my own records a number of times, just because he can play anything but he doesn't play he really listens to the song and adds the perfect thing. i dont know if hes on any other Dandy’s records, but he is on this one, and he's fantastic. He's definitely my favorite collaborator. He really does listen and hears what the song needs. We’ve had much bigger names. They bring something different and that unexpected thing that takes the song somewhere you couldn’t have imagined and I think that’s important and I love that and in my own projects, I do that constantly. I dont like things I do on my own all the way through because there are no surprises, it’s like I barely ever wanna listen to them again it’s like “That’s done, that’s gone”. But with somebody else being a major part of it there’s things that you hear every time you listen to it differently. It just helps, it makes things better.
How would you describe your genre to someone who has never heard one of your songs?
That’s the whole talking about music is dancing about architecture. It’s so hard to put into words what you do when words have nothing to do with it. It’s such an emotional experience. Our music definitely has a psychedelic sort of thing to it, the repetition of different parts helps with that, and probably our note choices and what we were influenced by. Stylistically we’re all over the place, sometimes records are a little bit more cohesive but there's always things that are kind of like “Why is that song on this record?” situation. It’s that short attention span and wanting to try and do everything. A lot of it has to do with, if we hear a lot of something we dont want to do that we want to go in a different direction. When we were making Monkey House the only thing I was really listening to was early punk.
What is your favorite song from “Rockmaker”?
Probably the Debbie Harry song. It probably, musically is more of what I do on my own. It’s a bit slower and it's got some subtleties that I like and some very simple things that I was kind of proud of. There are other songs which are probably going to be way more fun to play live, if we can figure out how to do that, that's the challenge we face starting next week. But there’s a song that kind of started as an attempt at a Yardbirds kind of riff and turned into more of a Slying the Family Stone kind of thing, and failing at both but becoming its own thing which is also really fun. It’s probably my second favorite. It’s the one with the trumpets.
With the album set for release on March 15th, fans are likely excited about the prospect of hearing these new songs live. How do you envision incorporating the tracks from "Rockmaker" into your live performances, and what can fans anticipate from your upcoming tour supporting the album?
We will do our best to learn as many of the new songs as possible. We do this every single time, albums are studio creations and then we have to figure out what’s important to the song, what works live, what can the four of us do to make something work and sometimes it doesn't. And if it's not a single then there's no reason to continue trying. Other times we end up creating different parts to make a song work and are kind of disappointed that we hadn't done that before we recorded because it becomes better. There are some of these riffs, it's not that they are hard to play it's just a different way of playing and might mean expanding the pedal board more than I really want to but it's always tricky when it’s just to create a sound for one song.
