The Dandy Warhols have been going strong since the release of their debut album “Dandys Rule, OK?” For the past five years, they’ve been recording in their own Odditorium studio in Portland. Their unique psychedelic sound has been labeled “drug pop”, and their sound is held together by strong consciousness of and appreciation for classic bands such as The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones.
In July of this year, they released “The Dandy Warhols Are Sound,” the original mix of their 2003 album “Welcome to the Monkey House.” When they stopped by The Beaumont Club in KC, IF’s own Tom Kutilek met up with them for a little pre-show barbeque and a good old honest sitdown with drummer Brent DeBoer.
Inflatable Ferret: Where have you been so far and how has the tour been for you?
Brent Deboer (aka “Fathead”): The tour’s been amazing, we were in Conway, AR where one of you is from?
IF: (Wilson) Yeah, very near Conway.
Fathead: Nice one, yeah Conway’s just amazing, we were at Hendrix college, and it was just a bizarre concert. We actually played right in the center of the school, and I thought like Molly Ringwald or John Cusack or something was going to come walking out of one of the buildings, because it looked like a Hollywood movie set of a college. College USA. It was all students and it was there big bash for the start of the year. They did all these crazy dances and we jammed for the end of their party. That school is so unbelievably clean and gorgeous, and I really liked it – maybe I miss college. Then we cruised to Madison, which is one of the coolest towns there is. They have that bar the Weary Traveler, we know a lot of that gang. When we were on the Tom Petty tour in Madison we hung out with those guys. It’s the cleanest city – it looks like Disneyland. It’s supposed to be one of the safest cities, but one of our barbeque grills was literally stolen off the sidewalk while we were sound checking…Who steals a barbeque? It’s a fourteen dollar, ninety-five cent barbeque, and the guy just legged with it. But, then we were in Indianapolis at the Vogue Theatre, where there were tons of nice people, had a really good time at the Alley Cat Bar afterwards. That was the first show we had Spindrift with us – they’re the band opening for us, the trippiest, wild-west, psychedelic freak out band ever. Check out the movie Legend of God’s Gun by Mike Bruce, cause they did the soundtrack for it. And they act in it too – KP, the singer is the lead actor, and he’s just a brilliant character.
IF: You’re playing at Red Rocks in Colorado soon, do you prefer playing an outside show as compared to inside?
FH: I like both, they’re completely different experiences. We’ve played at some festivals with like 160,000 people. And opening for the Rolling Stones, it’s not any more nerve racking than a small venue spot, it’s just the same. 
You try to play the best and trippiest gig you possibly can. You try to play in your own world, I play with my eyes shut most of the time anyway. When you’re out doors you don’t get that swirling slap-back of the ceiling, which is really fun to listen to when you’re playing. Whether it’s been to 6 people when I was seventeen, or 60,000 last year it’s always the end of the world, trying to put on your best show and give it all you’ve got.
IF: What’s the American music scene like to you? There’s a lot of talk about how much bands such as the Dandy Warhols get aired on the radio in the U.S., and what radio’s decide to play on the air. And also what and how they decide to air music in Europe.
FH: Well first of all the radio in America is failing miserably. And it has been for a long time because nobody cares what the top 40 songs are anymore. Because now with the internet you can hear any song that you want, and people do. They put what they want in their iPods, and they could give a crap if it was ranked number five. It doesn’t matter to anyone, they don’t write about it in the press. Take one of the best groups in the world, Blitzen Trapper, from their album ‘Furr’ the most perfect music there is. It ranks up there with anything Neil Young or The Beatles ever did, and they’ll never get played on the radio in America. They will in all the other places of the world because they don’t have that top 40 system. People who decide what to air are so hell bent on the demographics of music genre that they miss what real true good music is. In other parts of the world they don’t have advertisements like the U.S. does because they’re tax payments cover them. Radio stations in other areas of the world don’t care about fitting a certain particular crowd of listeners, they play what music they feel is good. Commercial music really only exists in America.
IF: Is it more passion based in other areas vs. commercial in the U.S.?
FH: I think every band goes into the studio to make the best record they can make. And if they’re thinking about who will like the music, they think of they’re 10 favorite artists, alive or dead, and how they would take to it. Except for like little kid music, who have their music written for them and wear cute little outfits for fourteen year old girls to buy. It so hard to create a song, especially a good one, so when your in the studio your not worried about how your fans will react or how you’ll fit in. Bands like Blitzen Trapper and Jonestown Massacre aren’t worried about things like that.
IF: To me your music sounds thick and layered sounding, before you create it is it pre-meditated or does it come together once your in the studio?
FH: Our group will rehearse the songs, tighten them up. You have a vague notion of what the song wants. Once the songs written and can be performed live it takes on a different character. Then once you track it in the studio, the sounds you thought you were creating sometimes sound different. Sometimes it takes on a whole new character, and you realize the song is different than you originally thought it was. You mute things, add in harmonies, ya we just layer, and layer, and layer. And experiment with stuff, through on another guitar, through on the harmonica, everybody lets stomp on this crate. And little by little you create more depth. Like psychedelic is so fun because you can have these little swirling guitar textures way in the back of the mix, and at certain times you can definitely hear it like your standing in the same room the day it was recorded. But another day you may not hear those guitars at all, and just hear the bass and the drum beat. And with the right amount of beers you might also hear it differently.
IF: How’s it come out live for you guys?
FH: Live is a whole other animal for us. We don’t even think about playing live when were recording. Sometimes we’ll play a song from the record live and when we come see that they’ve changed a bit. When you get on stage you’ve got your guitars, drums, Zia’s keyboard bass, and if there’s a moment of lost energy we may decide to change things up or just ditch a certain song. There’s like 110 songs we have now which we can choose from so if a particular one isn’t working live we have alternatives.
Some songs we’ve recorded in the studio you wouldn’t even recognize on stage by the way we play it differently.
IF: When did you decide to play music, and what’s your hope for your future music career?
FH: I didn’t decide on music, I think music decided to use me. When I was four years old I would listen to some songs over and over, and my parents decided to give me a drum set because basically I was going to go crazy. And so since the age of 5 I’ve been playing drums, guitar, piano and I can’t help it. I don’t remember learning any instrument, it just kind of came to me.
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