Interview with Peter Holstrom of The Dandy Warhols, 2012
The below is my interview with Peter Holstrom of The Dandy Warhols from 2012. The Interview was for the Australian events site Everguide, which no longer exists.
Hannah Joyner: So you’re coming out for Harvest Festival, have you had a look at the line-up?
Peter Holstrom: Yeah it looks really good.
HJ: You’ve got like Beck there, and Grizzly Bear and The Black Angels and Cake
PH: And Sigur Ros right?
HJ: Yeah! Is there anyone in particular you are excited to play alongside?
PH: I haven’t seen or played with Grizzly Bear, but most of everyone else we’ve met or played with before.
HJ: Harvest publicity sent me your new album so I had a good listen. I like it. I like it a lot. Obviously I’m aware of your past albums. You can still hear the Velvet Underground influence that’s always been there. So obviously Andy Warhol comes up again, what is it about him that he’s still inspiring The Dandy Warhols?
PH: Well initially it was sort of just a play on words. I was at Art School, I always had liked Andy Warhol. Courtney was really into the whole ‘factory’ theme, you know all the weirdoes’ that hung out, people who cause problems and look fabulous. It was a very New York thing. I don’t know, I don’t think we ever really think about it too much. I wouldn’t say he’s a huge influence. Musically and artistically of course, we are aware of what we are doing so I’m sure he still pops up.
HJ: I think it was the track ‘Rest Your Head’ in particular, I could almost hear Nico singing it to me, it was cool. And stop me if I’m sounding like a real idiot, but for me the signature ‘Dandy Warhols’ sound is kind of like you’re in a creepy fun-house, if you get where I am going. There is almost a kind of puppeteer (in a Tom Waits kind of way) kind of voice. It’s unnerving in the best possible way.
PH: Yeah, well we’ve always kind of joked that we were almost gothic, so that sounds about right, ‘creepy fun-house’ yeah, totally (laughs).
HJ: I noticed that most of the band members have side projects. Do you all find it hard to come back and get into the Dandy Warhols sound?
PH: No, it is so easy coming back. That is the amazing thing about The Dandy Warhols; we kind of got it ‘right’ the first try. We were a group of people where everybody wanted to do this, we were going to show up, we all had problems but they stayed outside of the main focus, which was making music. Every other side project I’ve had has been a real struggle to do anything. For some reason The Dandy Warhols is just not. It is so easy and comfortable. There is a range of what I expect from everybody in the band and I know they will meet that. They might do more, or a little less, but they will do it. For me the side projects that I’m involved in can kind of allow me to grow creatively outside of the band but then I can bring that back in. I think everyone else feels the same way; it’s really just to improve the band and lengthen our lifespan.
HJ: Cool, so you aren’t stopping anytime soon? All good for the foreseeable future?
PH: Yeah, well we have a couple of anniversaries coming up in the next few years. We also want to do another few records. None of us even knows what else we would possibly want to do. I don’t know how to do anything else (laughs), so I certainly hope it keeps going.
HJ: Well, also with the new album. I noticed (going by song titles) a lot of it seems to be about travel and lots of talk about the seasons changing. Where do you continue to find inspiration for new songs?
PH: For me it’s not the lyrics or words. It’s the musical influences. It’s diving into record stores or finding music online, trying to find music I haven’t heard before or haven’t paid much attention to. There’s a ton, there will always be more I’m sure. I’m always looking for new artists who freak me out a little and challenge my pace.
HJ: Is there anyone recently who’s done that?
PH: You know, it’s a record that came out a few years ago and by an artist who’s been around for a long time. I didn’t like it much at all initially, it’s a John Spencer side project called Heavy Trash.
HJ: I haven’t heard of that one.
PH: Neither did I, I knew nothing about it. The record was called Midnight Soul Serenade, and it’s great. Just crazy, freak-out, old school rock and roll.
HJ: There should be another resurgence of that, it is getting too ambient. There needs to be some more proper rock and roll coming out.
PH: Yeah, I would like that.
HJ: Do you still go into record stores?
PH: Lately it’s been mostly online. A year ago I got Spotify so I jumped on that and had a poke around. Soon you’re on this trail of ‘oh you might like this’, and ‘if you like that band’ and you keep going. So that’s how I found Heavy Trash. I had no idea what I was doing, all of a sudden it was there.
HJ: Do you like Spotify? (With the ads and all) Do you think it can replace going to a record store?
PH: Oh no, I’m paying. I’m paying the $10 a month. And that amount a month, for music, is really nothing. It’s like less than one record. If I find a band I really like than I go buy it on Vinyl. That way I don’t have to deal with CDs anymore.
HJ: (Laughs) not sad to see them go? I think it was Thurston Moore in the early ’90s who said CDs wont be here forever, he called them a ‘blip.’ Were you on the same line of thinking?
PH: Yeah, he called it, that’s for sure.
HJ: Actually on the same topic, are you aware of what Neil Young has said recently about how he hates Mp3 and how we aren’t getting what we paid for. Do you have any comments on that?
PH: Yeah, well actually there was an engineer who we worked with a couple of records back. He was talking about how we have the technology now to make music that is like the best quality. Better quality than we can hear, but we listen to it on its mp3 form and it’s just a waste. Or on laptop speakers or crappy free headphones. So no one is really taking advantage of the fact that we are making music that is better quality then it has ever, ever been.
