Warhols exclusive

Taylor-Taylor gives us the lowdown on their new album's collaborations

24 July 2008 - Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor reveals all to 6 Music on collaborating with Tom Petty’s Mike Campbell and Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler.

The Portland quartet have been promoting their eighth record, Earth to the Dandy Warhols, which was released online via the band's own label after they split from Capitol Records - and is expected to be released in CD form in the UK next month.

Before playing London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 24 July, Taylor-Taylor said the band had fun with the album's space theme: “We got the space suits sent up from Hollywood - proper like 1960’s Mercury 1’s, bought a trampoline into the auditorium, and one thing led to another.

“We just thought, ‘let’s stick with it, it’s fun, it’s a good time, it looks cool. We just wanna create things that make you go, ‘Wow’.”

Big time producer Greg Gordon

The album was produced by Greg Gordon, better known for his work with Public Enemy and Run DMC, and Taylor-Taylor said he was a big influence.

“He’s worked on every kind of record from Wolfmother to Hank Williams III, to Public Enemy and Run DMC,” he said. “He can handle anything we can throw at him and we’re a band of pretty much whack jobs when it comes to the studio.”

"I texted Mike Campbell and said, 'Who’s the best banjo player in the world?' He texted back and said, 'Me'."
Courtney Taylor-Taylor

New album's collaborations

Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's band played banjo on the album, and Taylor-Taylor explained how he got involved, saying: “I texted Mike Campbell and said, ‘Who’s the best banjo player in the world?’ He texted back and said, ‘Me’ so I’m like, ‘Cool’ and call him up and he’s like, ‘Well, you know, I kick ass at banjo man”.”

The Dandy Warhols’ singer was also thrilled with their second collaboration with the former Dire Straits guitarist, Mark Knopfler, who’s played on one of the new album’s tracks.

“You hear sultans of swing every day in the world somewhere,” he told 6 Music, “and how about that guitar on the cover of Brothers In Arms, that Dobro with the resonator, national steel or whatever.

Adding, “So I just asked, ‘Can you play that exact guitar on our record?’ and he did.”

The band were thrilled with the results of Knopfler’s guest contribution on the track Love Song, as Taylor-Taylor explained: “He didn’t go for super fast monster picker, he kinda thought that the song needed this warm kinda soul.

“And he was so right, we just lost our knot when it came in and we were like, ‘Woah this really is the glue man, there it is, there’s the whole thing right there.”

Playing with both artists was a special experience for Taylor-Taylor, as he said: “Having my guitar part with those two legends works. I’m not embarrassed of it, I thought they made it sound better even. That was an unforgettable moment in my life, to hear that together for the first time.”

The famous Vodaphone advert

After the huge attention Vodafone's use of Bohemian Like You brought them, Courtney said the band are happy their music is often used in commercials.

“If we can make 14 hours of television better for some dudes, chicks it’s good.

“If they watch TV they’re gonna probably be glad it’s us, or Franz Ferdinand, or Nick Drake, than another imitation pop track who try and sell you some fake juice drink.”

However, he did say that the attention they got after Bohemian Like You made them slightly disillusioned.

He said: “A couple of years later we went back out and we were playing stadiums and I no longer liked my audience or related to them, and I knew that the people we liked were in the back.”

So now, Taylor-Taylor said that being able to release the album themselves has made the band much happier: “I think it just went back to before the dark days of capital.”

He described the period after Bohemian Like You, saying: “We went through five years where if we made anything that sounded like it would be a successful single, they’d take it away from us, and go mix with without us, and have special radio mixers, and take special pictures, and get us re-touched and airbrushed, and it was horrible.”

But Taylor-Taylor feels it’s different now: “This is more like we’ve come down 13 tails and we can do what we want.”

Georgie Rogers