The Dandy Warhols
Thirty Years of Chaos, Covers and Not Giving a Fuck
By Fred Spanner
“Zia wanted to make the dulcet record that we’ve always been talking about. It could be our last one”
Few bands have balanced chaos and longevity quite like The Dandy Warhols. Born out of the murky, competitive underground of Portland in the early 1990s, they rode the strange wave between psych-rock cool and major-label success, becoming unlikely standard-bearers for a scene that was equal parts art experiment, ambition and self-destruction. At the centre of it all is frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor, a sharp-tongued raconteur whose stories tend to wander from the absurd to the unexpectedly profound.
When we speak, Taylor-Taylor is enjoying something the band rarely allowed themselves during decades of touring: time off. With a new covers record, Pin Ups, nodding to David Bowie’s album of the same name, and future tour dates already looming on the horizon, he reflects on Portland’s changing culture, his long and complicated friendship with Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, living with deteriorating eyesight, and the strange satisfaction of doing exactly what you said you would, even when that means finally covering Blackbird decades after joking about it in a lyric.
The conversation drifts easily from haggis in Glasgow to genius-level IQ tests, from the golden glow of Bowie’s approval to the grimy Portland scene where it all began. What emerges is a portrait of a musician who, after thirty years of success, mischief and survival, still seems both amused and slightly bewildered by the ride.
Photo: Sean Ono Lennon
How are things in Portland?
We’ve taken a year off, and it’s so amazing. What a wonderful feeling. I don’t think we’ve ever really taken this much time off before, except for COVID. It’s not like grinding it out on a tour bus for three weeks.
They’re starting to book gigs for us again towards the end of 2027, and it’s starting to put knots in my stomach.
Is Portland the kind of place where everyone knows each other?
Not anymore. It’s a big city. When I grew up, the fringe was the fringe, and it included all kinds of weirdos. All the artists around here- like it or not- had to know each other. There was no other place to go, but it was really cool. It was very competitive, but some of us made it out of the drug cesspool, the depression that comes from ambition, and the awful weather.
Things have really improved since global warming kicked in and the sun’s come out more. The suicide rate has probably fallen.
I’m in Glasgow at the moment, and the weather’s awful.
I’m just checking to see if we’re heading to Scotland next year. Oh, we are! What I love to do in Glasgow is to go to a nice restaurant with a decent French wine and order haggis. It’s just such an amazing combination.
Have you ever tried haggis nachos?
No, never. I’m not wasting haggis on fucking nachos.
Your documentary, Dig!, was fantastic. How are things between you and The Brian Jonestown Massacre these days?
Always the same. We’ve been friends for so long, and we’ve been through so much together. I text with Anton once a month. We always check in with each other. We hang out at gigs, and send each other photos of the cars we’ve got fixed.
It was easy for them to be bitter in the 90s. We were signed to EMI, and we were crushing. We were the band from the garbagey psych-rock scene that made it globally.
Photo: Ray Gordon
How’s your vision these days?
I can’t see in the centre of my vision. I can’t post stuff on socials, I can’t drive because of it, so I walk everywhere. It’s been like this since my mid-20s. I don’t recognise faces either. I didn’t get it tested til ‘98, and they’re like, “Dude, you’re legally blind!” I felt like the guy from A Clockwork Orange. Apparently, my great-grandfather was a Norwegian who was the town drunk, and this is where I get it from. It’s called Stargardts. Now and again, something about it comes on like, and I have my assistant read it to me.
I have a nice life. I wish I’d never driven. I love walking around. I’m hoping they’ll come up with a solution that will give me bionic eyes.
I’ve got really sensitive hearing, which I’m told is very common in people with high IQs. According to Mensa, I have a genius IQ- depending on the day of the week. 140 is genius, and I’ve got 139. It’s not exact, but it’s close enough. It’s a nice thing to fall back on when you need a boost.
Have you considered going on Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
I don’t know. What are the hours? Haha. I’m already a multi-millionaire, anyhow. I mean, I don’t understand the internet, but it turns out I’m really good with the stock market. I did really well in it. The internet is an icky place. It’s like the way we thought of adverts when we were kids. It’s a really dark place…except the funny shit. There are some really clever people making really funny stuff on there. You can watch the whole of Monty Python on there.
I guess Always Look On The Bright Side of Life didn’t make the cut on the new album. PIN UPS?
That got John Cleese in trouble with the church, didn’t it? It didn’t go on the new album. We should probably talk about that, though.
The Pin Ups references David Bowie’s album of the same name. How was Bowie to work with?
We were invited to work with him at Meltdown. We went on last, just before him. He was super-into us for a while. It was amazing to have the Elvis of our generation become so interested in us. It was really flattering. I was asked at the time what it was like, and I said it was like God coming down and saying, “Courtney, Courtney. Sorry, I’ve been so busy, I meant to get to you. I just wanted to tell you, you were right the whole time.”
It was like all the shit I put up with at school was worth it. Like being called a faggot, wearing makeup and my dad’s army boots. It was pretty ugly growing up. Then you get this moment where David Bowie calls you up, and it just cleanses all of that baggage.
There are a lot of songs by British bands on the new album, including two by The Cult.
Everyone says that. “Two Cult Songs?!” The Cult was a religion in the late 80s. There wasn’t a band on the west side of Portland that The Cult wasn’t a beacon for. They were THE band. I spent last weekend with Ian and his partner and toddler-son. I talk about them a lot these days.
We just covered our favourite songs. They’re random songs that we really like. We made work for ourselves during COVID, and some of these were covered. There are bands that don’t get covered much, like the Goo Goo Dolls.
If it came down to it, I would have covered more Clash songs. It’s just that those Cult songs were really important to me.
Photo: Nicole Nodland
You’ve covered Blackbird by The Beatles, too.
Well, we kind of had to do that one. I wrote this lyric at the start of Welcome to the Monkeyhouse. It goes, “Wire is coming back again. Elastica got sued by them. When Michael Jackson dies we're covering Blackbird.”
It’s about all the lawsuits that go on, and all the bullshit that’s involved. Then it goes, “And won't it be absurd then, when no one knows what song they just heard. Unless someone on the radio tells them first.”
It’s one of my favourite lines, but then Michael Jackson went and died! You can imagine the avalanche of emails we got telling us it was time to cover Blackbird. I would never have thought to cover it, but we’re people who do what we say.
The album is a glorious mess of covers. Everything from Sister Goldenhair to Lay Lady Lay. I’m really proud of ourselves for simply not giving a fuck.
What’s the next Dandy Warhols reinvention going to look like?
We’re halfway done with a record that is incredibly mellow and dreamy. It’s hypnotic. This is after making our last album, where each song started with a metal riff. Zia wanted to make the dulcet record that we’ve always been talking about. It could be our last one.
We just like to get together for a few days. I have a really cool wine bar in our studio where we hang out, smoke weed and drink wine. Sometimes we get a chef in.
That’s where we’re at right now. We like to see each other at parties and stuff. Our UK tour is looking like ten days, and it’s well over a year-and-a-half from now. It’s already making me sick to my stomach, but it’s just ten days. I like four days, but I can stomach ten.
Don’t forget to check out the haggis nachos.
I’m not doing it, Haha!
PIN UPS is released 20th March 2026.
Pre-order at Dandywarhols.com
