If a long time ago, you used to be friends, it might just be time to rekindle the romance because The Dandy Warhols have just released a new album. It’s 14 tracks, instead of Thirteen Tales and they’re regarding them as some of their most accomplished works to date. Guitarist Peter Holmström, answered the phone to discuss all the highs and the lows, all the tos and the fros of life as a Dandy, and it’s no lie that “it seems like it’s all up.”
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, The Dandy Warhols have been reborn through the virtues of a new album, titled …Earth To The Dandy Warhols… as well as the launch of their very own record label, Beat The World. No longer bound by the shackles of a major label, they’re feeling pretty happy about life, “We are finally in complete control of our own destiny and so far, so good.”
If you’ve seen the documentary DIG! it might appear that The Dandy Warhols have been functioning on their own for quite some time now. However, with …Earth To The Dandy Warhols… they are officially their own boss. “It's a little scary, because if we screw this up, we have no one to blame but ourselves, all along we’ve always had someone to blame.” Holmström explains, “Like when things didn’t go right, when we didn’t sell as many records as what they expected us to sell. You know? It’s like, ‘Well they didn’t do what we wanted so it was their fault.’ And now… we’ll see.”
The idea for Beat The World Records started “as just a way for us to get our record out.” After splitting from Capitol it became pretty important to find someone or something to help with putting out the new record. In the past, they’ve had success with lending songs to advertising campaigns, which in turn has helped them secure them their own recording space back in Portland, amongst other things. “In the case of Bohemian and the Vodaphone ad, people actually heard the song and went and bought the record, so it definitely helped.” They had to get their music out somehow and Holmström insists that “With the advertisements, it started as ‘well this is a good way to pay rent for a couple of months’ to ‘wait a second, this is a good way to pay rent for a couple of months and get our music played to a lot of other people who wouldn’t normally hear it.’”
Having never really been ones to conform, The Dandy Warhols have also “never really set into the radio programmers’ idea of what music is.” …Earth To The Dandy Warhols… is no exception - sounding as much like their usual established tone of subterranean artiness and droning space-rock, all of which is obscured under a layer of psychedelic haze that fans have come to expect. Musically however, the new album is “as solid as it possibly could be.” Holmström spoke of the contrast, “I really liked the last record a lot, but this record is a much more cohesive work.” This time around, they’ve sought to make songs that aren’t purely improvised and don’t require the amount of help in post-production that renders them unplayable to a live audience. Holmström very casually suggests that “this one is definitely musically, the most accomplished thing we’ve done.”
Want to hear it? Well you can, the new album is streaming on the internet right now and is also available to download via a very Dandy subscription service. “We released it kind of this way so that the fans would have an unfiltered first impression of it. Nobody is going to tell them what their opinion is first, they get to make up their own mind… this way we get our album out to fans right away, as opposed to having to wait around.”
In the not-too-distant future other exciting things are happening as well, “We’ve got some friends’ bands that we’re going to be releasing soon, hopefully.” This is the next phase for Beat The World and one of the things that they are particularly proud of. “We won’t have to take any more money than what we need to actually get the record out. So our friends will make a lot more than what they could make off any indie label deal, and definitely more than a major label deal.” In addition to new labels, the Dandies will also be kicking off their 2008 touring extravaganza with a “Pacific Northwest run” in June, followed by European Festival dates in July, and a “fall North American tour.” Get amongst it if you can.