The band has built a reputation for drug taking of Olympic-size proportions. Do you enjoy that notoriety?
I can think of worse reputations. Like if we were all jerks and had horrible tempers and were no fun to be around. I know a lot of bands who have that reputation. I'm pretty fine if people think we party all the time and do tons of drugs.

Please tell me it's true.
Well, if you looked at it with any kind of logical sense - if we did the amount of drugs and partying that was said in the press there is no way we would've been able to release Thirteen Tales let alone Welcome to the Monkey House. So we've got our priorities in pretty good order and we understand there's a time for everything and we understand that everything works best in moderation.

Do you think it might help if you used different metaphors in your song lyrics?
We don't talk about drugs that much.

"Horse Pills," "Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth," "The Dope" and "You Were the Last High"…
I guess there's a few that do and a lot of other ones that can be looked at as drug references. We're all pretty honest about what we do and it's the people with the drug problems that don't talk about drug use. The people that joke about it and can be open about what they do are the people who can handle their shit and still get their stuff done, and eat healthy and exercise and have great relationships with their peers and colleagues. They also know how to kick their shoes off and have a good time. We've always had that approach rather than a lot of the bands that are secretive about what they do and have real guilt issues about it.

So you're tripping on acid as you do the laundry.
(Laughing) No, sorry.

If the Dandy Warhols love almost everyone - who misses out on your affection?
I guess the easiest way to say that is to just say our president and, basically, all of those really big, scary fear-mongering corporations. They're the easiest ones to hate and it seems to be that they're the ones who cause the most problems on the planet over all. If I dug deeper into politics I could find lots and lots of people to hate but I'd rather just not even know they exist.

One of the criticisms that's dogged you from the very beginning of your career is that you take style over substance. How do you feel about that?
Yeah, whatever, that's funny. Style over substance? I don't know, man, we are deep motherfuckers. There is so much substance to each one of these four humans and when we're in the studio dealing with our emotions and our brains and our insecurities and our ideas I think we're pretty heavy with substance and I certainly don't think our music is light in meaning. But as far as going out and having fun - absolutely. I think those are things you can balance.

So you're good looking philosophers - is that what you're telling me?
Exactly. We're extremely photogenic, articulate, head trippers. What is it when study humans? The people and their cultures?

Anthropology?
Yeah, that's the one. We're anthropologists first and foremost. That's why I got into a band.

The synth pop sounds of 'Welcome to the Monkey House' seem to be a very natural progression - was it a revelation to strip away the guitars from your music?
We didn't want to use guitar as a crutch for our whole musical career. We wanted to see what we were made of. And if we could get that same trip to happen without every single spec of space being taken up by guitar. So the keyboard thing was just kind of an effect of that. I got to go hog wild on the keyboards which was so fun. Usually there's not even enough room for me to even squeeze in some of my ideas. So everyone kind of got excited about keyboards and electronic sounds and it was kind of like a natural progression for us.

There's been a lot of emphasis on the fact that Duran Duran are all over this record. Has Nick Rhodes been getting too much credit for his work on 'Welcome to the Monkey House'?
Um, I think there's been a misunderstanding about how much production they actually did because although Nick Rhodes was called a producer it was kind of as an honorary thing. Yeah, he did some production work, he did the most beautiful keyboard part on the record on 'Last High' and he helped re-take some drums and some vocals and he had a really good time adding these little touches here and there. But really the record was done before Nick Rhodes ever touched it. He was icing on the cake and if you could put that in record credits rather than co-producer it would've been a much more fitting title for what he did. Which doesn't mean we don't appreciate his contribution but it was definitely like everyone went 'oh, the Dandy Warhols have worked with Nick Rhodes and now the record sounds like it was from the 80s'? Really the story was our record was leaning that way and we were like 'let's get the best, perfect guy to work on it who can really give it that sense of style and class.' So, it just like a perfect fit. But the whole 'how much credit he's getting for what the record sounds like' is a little off.

Did Simon Le Bon live up to your expectations? Is he as jet-set as we're lead to believe?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I met him at this party - actually before anybody else did. I don't know how we ended up at this party but it was for some princess, royalty people. Supermodels were there all these super rich people in their late 20s, early 30s. But it was just like a house party with a maid in the kitchen. It was crazy. It definitely seemed very jet set.

Are handclaps a secret ingredient for a great pop single?
Yeah, we add them in whenever we can. We try not to miss an opportunity to get some handclaps in there. 'We Used to Be Friends' we definitely do them. And you know 'Boys Better Beware' we're not hand clapping but slapping our hands against our leather pants. That was pretty cool.

What is it about handclaps that really make a track move?
I don't know. I guess cos you're not having to add any instruments. It's a completely human sound with no added wood or metal or anything. It's just your hands clapping against each other and it's one of the most natural ways to celebrate. It's what you do when you're a baby. One of the first things you do to show you're excited is to clap your hands together. So maybe that's it - there's some kind of deep, tribal feeling to it. Just being human and trying to enjoy life.

Your songs have been used for commercials around the world. Were there arguments amongst the band as to whether you should lease your songs to various car and phone companies?
There's ones we say no to. We said no to Tommy Hilfiger, no oil or petroleum companies. No to prescription drug companies. Yes to cars, tampons, cell phones - I mean if you really dig into it it's all corrupt but if you look in any one direction into anything it ends up pretty corrupt and bad. It's how we stay in business and its fun to hear our songs on TV for different, funny things. I mean beer is our favourite one, of course. Yeah, I'm into it - we don't really care. We haven't had any arguments about that actually. We're all pretty much in agreeance about what ones would break our heart to see our song during and the rest is like 'fuck it'.

So none of the age-old indie concerns about selling out?
Well, that's changing pretty fast because radio sucks ass. You can't get your songs on radio unless you're nu-metal, a boy band or hip hop and we make really cinematic music so we get the movies, we get the commercials, our music gets heard, we can keep touring and paying our bills at our studio and we do what we want to do. Those ad agency get a great song for their commercials so they're stoked. Makes them look good. Everybody's happy. The whole selling out thing is like - getting paid for doing what you love isn't so bad.

Are the Dandy Warhols shameless?
(Laughing) Yeah, so shameless. This band is pretty shameless about everything.

¡Tarantula!
the Sand Pebbles' fanzine
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©2003 Christopher Hollow

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