Oregon Music News

A friend of mine just had a baby.  He described the experience as like “being shot out of a cannon.”  I don’t have any children, but I now have a greater sense of that analogy because I just spent forty-three minutes with Courtney Taylor-Taylor, lead singer of Portland alt-rock band The Dandy Warhols.

Before my friend had his new daughter, he thought he had prepared himself. He read the books. He had asked the difficult questions. He spent inconceivable amounts of time imagining what his new world would look like and what it would feel like.

I did the same prior to my interview with Taylor.  I studied the cannon.  I fixed my eyes on the steel for hours on end.  I imagined the cannon’s caliber, the cannon’s range, the rate of its fire, the angle of its fire. I even took on the shape of the tube.  But when the explosion that is Courtney Taylor-Taylor enters the room, it is impossible to predict where you, the artillery, will land.

If you’ve lived in Portland for any fraction of time, you know The Dandy Warhols.  They are the biggest band to have ever come out of Portland, partly because of their music and partly because of the raw and daring documentary Dig!

The film captured the love-hate relationship between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, highlighting the interaction of BJM frontman Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor. It was recorded over the course of seven years by Ondi Timoner, and won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

What is easy to see about Taylor, is what makes him a target for the naysayers and the envious.  He’s a rock star, through and through.  Even when The Dandys enjoyed a mere modicum of success in the mid 1990s, Taylor’s reputation as a drug sniffing, bar brawling, shoe gazing rabble-rouser was widespread.  But it was that, “Don’t you know who the fuck I think I am?” posture that added to the allure of their dark, rich, glossy-punk sound.

What is difficult to see about Taylor is what has made him an enduring and respected figure within the rock community for almost two decades. Hidden underneath the eyeliner and the slow, tripped out drawl is an intellectual whose earnestness is surpassed only by his obsessive need to create.

There is nothing phony about Taylor.  He loves his own music.  He’s not afraid to tell you that he will spend days, even weeks on end, in “ecstasy” listening to his band’s own albums.  He seems to understand exactly how his physical self is shaped by the landscape of the city he loves, and if he’s not oblivious to the whispers and murmurs of both fans and critics, he really doesn’t seem to give a shit about either.

Behind the wisps of hair that cover his face and below the surface of the image is a charming and, relatively, unassuming character from Beaverton: just a dude who wants to have fun, “get off” and take on whatever idea comes into his crazy brain.  You get the sense that even Taylor himself has no idea at what angle or to what distance the cannon will ultimately decide to send you.

The Dandy Warhols are set to release a brand new album in February called The Machine.  Also, Taylor is ready to unveil his project One Model Nation, a graphic novel and music project that started as a film script. Originally envisioned by Taylor-Taylor and Donovan Leitch, who did much of the historical research, the script was written by Taylor and the resulting graphic novel illustrated by Jim Rugg.  After an initial paperback appearance in 2009, a hardback edition is being released with a related album by fictional German band, One Model Nation.

The script is smart.  It’s a well executed piece of art–a work of historical fiction set in Berlin 1977.  The story follows the epic journey of popular art-noise band One Model Nation as they become embroiled in clandestine police activity, youth protests and government paranoia. The vibe is retro, electric cool, replete with skinny ties, synthesizers, gun battles and hidden party clubs.

After some string-pulling and “connection” good-luckery, I was able to get a sit down with Taylor and focus on his One Model Nation project.  What I  soon discovered was that despite my hours of preparation and regardless of my pre-ruminating about my encounter, time spent with Courtney Taylor-Taylor is well… kind of like having a baby.

When I listen to The Dandy Warhols, I’m struck by how many different voices you have inside you.

It’s because I never was a singer.  So, I had to learn how to sing really late in life… like in my late 20s.

Did you have somebody help you do that?

No.  You just record yourself and fake it.  It’s…“Okay, I don’t hate it when I do this” and double it.  I’ve never been concerned with being a good singer.  I’m just concerned about getting the feeling across.

That’s interesting because, as a singer from a very early age, I feel like I’ve had to unlearn a lot of things in order to be able to tolerate the sound of my voice.

Oh yeah… only dumb people trust a good singer.

Well… the stories about Bono are pretty legendary… how he absolutely could not sing when U2 started out.  Do you have a favorite singer?

Peter Murphy.

Really? [I specifically asked that question because I read an article where Courtney had named Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon as his favorite singers.]

Jim Morrison.

John Lennon?

Yeah… for punk rock.

Jimi Hendrix?

Not even close to what Jim Morrison and Peter Murphy do to me though. Those punk rock singers like Lennon and…. those guys are a different thing.  My body doesn’t vibrate like that.  Like I love it… you know.  I mean, Lennon is regarded as the greatest rock and roll singer of all time by real people who think about that shit a lot… and who are good at it themselves and stuff.

Michael Bolton?

Oh yeah… that’s a great… that’s a real singer.  He’s a real award-winning singer.

[Poor Bolton]

What are you best at?

Now that’s a real trip.  What the hell are you good at?  What are you best at?  That’s what everybody needs to ask themselves.  How can you make a difference in other people’s lives because of something you’re really best at?

Maybe we’re not supposed to know.

You mean like… God doesn’t want us to know?

This acting coach of mine said something that really struck me. He said, “The only way to become untalented is to think about your talent.”

Yeah… yeah… that’s a valid statement.

You know, sometimes what we think is the worst thing about us is actually the best thing about us.

Oh… I know. I’ve had a lot of years of only thinking about that kind of stuff.  The minute you’re putting… the stuff you’ve always done for yourself, the minute you’re putting it out in front of other people in hopes that the people who need it will find it… and that it will help them, you’re all of a sudden also exposing your soul and yourself to a lot of people who you don’t want to really notice you… ever.  You want them to just mill around and go about their lives and hopefully have a great time and don’t even think about me or anyone like me or us.

Okay…

The fortunate thing about art is, you can truly make it for yourself and then later go, “Oh yeah that… I’ll put it out in case someone likes it.”  And that’s kind of what One Model Nation is.  It’s all this “side project,” “after thought” thing I want to get off my chest… trying to learn how to write.  I mean, I’ve never even seen a screenplay in my life.

It’s not easy, is it?

And then I got Final Draft and started learning how to write.  And then I’d go back a month later a look at what I’d done, read it wrong, with all the accents on the wrong words… and realize it was embarrassingly ham-fisted and obvious.

But you’ve done some short films right?

Yeah… I did one.

So you wrote, directed it… did you act in it, as well?

Uh huh.

Was that your first acting experience?

Yeah… I think so.  Yeah… except for music videos.

Do you enjoy listening to your own music?

Oh yeah.

Really?

Why else would you make it?  How would you know when it’s done if you didn’t like it?

But there’s a difference between “getting off” on doing it and “getting off” on becoming an audience for it.

Well… yes.  Pete Holmstrom from The Dandy Warhols had to sit in with the Echo & The Bunnymen guys.  They had an incarnation called Electric Fiction that we were on tour with… for our first tour of America… chasing a bus around in a van.

Fun.

It was great… for awhile.  And we were always like, “God, I can’t make it through a whole gig of theirs.  You know… I just can’t do it.”  Then Pete needed to fill in for Will Sergeant when his mother passed.  And Will went home for a week or ten days or something, in the middle of this long tour.  So, Pete was a really fast study and he learned all the songs in like two days and he filled in for a week with Electric Fiction as their guitarist.  And it was after that he told me, “I could play in any band.  I don’t even have to like them.  Once I’m playing it, I like it.”

That makes sense.

And that’s one thing I learned from years of four tracking, for myself.  Like there’s a difference between having someone come in and play it, for them, or just listening by yourself… with all the flaws and… whatever… the high hat’s too loud or whatever.  And it’s like four in the morning and you’re close enough to finished to lay there in total ecstasy… with the headphones on… and just not move… frozen in absolute bliss where this thing is just unfolding and happening that you made.

That’s why I would try to make it like six minutes you know… as long as I can with the few little parts that I’m doing. Right? So, I could just hit rewind, play again… you know… get off the bed, go over hit rewind again.  That’s a big move, at four in the morning, so you wanted to make it as long as you can.  And that’s what led to The Dandy Warhols in the first place.  Pete moved in with me.  And now it was me and Pete wanting to make this stuff… with as few lyrics as possible… but you need to have some vocal part in there.  “I’ll get it so I don’t hate my voice.  I’ll figure out how to do it.”  [Starts making heavy breathing sound.]  You know that T-Rex-y, breathy… great.  Anyone can do that.  I’ll do that.  I feel it.  Hit notes.  Easy.

Right.

And that’s pretty much what we did for One Model Nation.  We just showed up at my other house with a bunch of studio gear.

Was it mainly you who recorded it?

No, it was mainly Elliot and John.  They had a bunch of pieces they were noodling at home.  So they brought it in.  Donovan made a massive vat of coq au vin, right at the beginning.  And I’ve got a lot of really nice, old French wines.  So… basically I just let them…

He made it!? [Clearly, I have no fucking clue what coq au vin is.  I thought he was talking about a body lotion.  Hence, the surprise.]

Yeah.  He made coq au vin.  It’s a chicken dish.  You know… chicken and wine. Red wine sauce.

Oh sure… totally… love that shit.  [Ouchee.]

So, that’s basically what I did… the whole time we were there.  I just ate Donovan’s cocovan and was buzzed on old French wine and went down and banged on old iron chairs and bicycle frames.

It seems fun to me.  The recording of it sounds like it was fun as shit.

Yeah.  It was rad.  Because no one’s ever going to hear it.

You don’t think so?

I invented a German art-noise band that disappeared in 1978.  Right.  Like that’s going to turn the world on its ear.  Wow.  People are dying to know… like… no.  Nobody gives a shit.

The script is good, though.  You definitely have instincts as a writer based on the basic elements you have in this script, you know?  Conflict within the first ten pages, character arc, pathos… all that shit.

Well, I’ve read a lot of plays.  I’ve read a lot of mythology.  I’ve studied the Greeks.  Right?  All you have to do is spend three terms in college studying the Greeks… and now you know how to tell a story.

Or Shakespeare.

Well… yeah.  It’s Act I: call to arms, refusal of the call, meeting of the mentor,  the past going away, taking up of arms… blah blah blah. End Act I.  Act II: only establishing allies and enemies… right?  Tough one.  People bite it.  People trip on their own dick and they just eat dirt on this one.  Movies fall apart, books fall apart, people lose it.  Act II.  That’s the tough one ‘cause it’s only establishing allies and enemies.  Then Act III: journey to the innermost cave, followed by death followed by resurrection. Right?  We can’t enjoy a story if it doesn’t go more or less like this.

The hero’s journey.

Absolutely.  Campbell… right.  Joseph Campbell.  So, that stuff makes it super easy.  And I’ve read a lot of plays.  So, I just tried to make it like a play.  It took me three years to write it.  It took me seven more to just chop out everything that was embarrassing, sucked, ham-fisted, over described.

So, definitely a labor of love.   I mean to stick with this thing for ten years when you have all sorts of other shit going on outside of this is pretty unique.

Uh huh.  It was written on jet lag coming home from Europe and Australia.   Just like, asleep at five at night, awake at two in the morning. Do I want to go out and do thirty minutes of drinking and go to some crack-head, hipster party coke den… no… ‘cause I just woke up at two in the morning.  So, I would just go downstairs and… clickity clackity click… you know?  Just go sit in my den… clickity click.

So, if you don’t mind… I would love to touch on some themes I picked up on in this script. Boredom… being the first.   It’s mentioned several times. One of the best quotes is when the father says, “The two most boring things to listen to in life are when someone is lying and when someone is telling you about their dreams.” 

Right?

But then you go on to write a script that is, essentially, about a dream or even better, the world in your mind.

Well… it’s not dream.  It has continuity.  It has follow through. It has predictable actions and results we can all understand.  We’re not shooting pool balls into marshmallow fluff.

Right.  That’s difficult to do.

It’s just a real, normal story.

The way you set it up is just ironic to me.  Of course it’s going to be linear, because it has to be.

Because it’s supposed to be history.  It’s supposed to be historical.

Also, Karl is telling you to create the world in your mind… and to make it up, right?

Yeah.

And even at the end, when he’s finishing the story, you’re spaced out.  As if you were bored by the “dream” too.

Right.  And I start filling in when he’s talking.

And… a lot of mentions of boredom by characters.

That’s so weird.  I didn’t even notice that.

Yeah.  Stern, the journalist, mentions it on page 44.  Johnny Vulture talks about how bored he is.  Florian’s father, presumably, falls asleep when Florian is describing his dream.

That’s hysterical.  I did not realize that.

So, I’m wondering if this is revealing of you, personally.  Do you get bored easily?

Oh my god. Yeah.  Right now, I have this book, this record, The Dandy Warhol’s new record, a baby bottle invention…

I didn’t expect that to come out of your mouth.

…chairs I’ve designed underway.  I’m an obsessive, obsessive finisher of what I start apparently.

That’s another thing I was going to talk to you about.  You’re not a talker, you’re a doer.

Yeah.  I mean… I love to talk and blab, but I like to be drunk when I do it.   And I like to be around other drunks when I do it so that they don’t really listen.

So they don’t get offended.

Not offended, they just get bored.  Nothing is more boring to a sober person than a drunk person.  Nothing.  I think it was Immanuel Kant who said, “When you engage with another person socially, you become a fraction of your whole.”  I think that was Kant.  That’s why it’s more boring to be around someone under the influence of something.  ’Cause if you’re on a drug or a chemical or whatever you’re more in your own trip.  You’re a greater fraction of your whole than when you’re alert and aware and exposed and you’re paying attention to the other person’s conversation.

It’s classical projection.  Like a child.  If a child gets a doll for Christmas and then parades the doll around as if everyone is going to think that doll is the coolest fucking doll they have ever seen.

That’s why we can put art out.

For sure.

Yeah.  I’ve been tweeting.  People always tell me, “You should tweet… you know… you say funny shit, man.”  And so I’m like, if I think of anything, I’ll do it.   So… I just kinda… blurted it out… it just occurred to me and I just blurted it out and I had someone there to go, “Oh yeah.”  So then I was like, I better tweet that one.  You know… Bob seemed to like it.  And the tweet was, “Art is an extreme example of passive aggressive behavior.”

[Assessing that shit.] Art is an extreme example of passive aggressive behavior.

It’s like the lady with the diaper… the NASA… obsessed enough to put a diaper on to pee in to drive 900 miles to kidnap her boyfriend’s… mistress or whatever.  Think about a painting.  Think about a song.  This shit does not pop out in, like, fifteen minutes of passion.  This is obsessive, compulsive, passive aggressive: “I’m gonna show them” shit, you know?

Right.  Showing them through a symbol of their emotions.

…and sustained… sometimes for months… crazy.  And this story [One Model Nation] is a metaphor for how… absolutely awful the world seems to be to real artists.  And I think of my band, The Dandy Warhols, as the cleanest, most expressive, honest souls of any band I might have ever met in my life.  There’s zero bullshit going on with my band.

Really.

Absolutely not any phony, fucked up… we are, without a doubt all just tuned in to music, to getting it out of us, making this amazing thing and… I think that’s why people have a hard time believing us.

That earnestness cannot be real?

Yeah.  But that’s just what we are.  I didn’t find “badass” musicians for this band.  We all learned how to play our instruments.  I mean, I could probably get session work as a drummer.  That’s what I did my entire life.  This is my first time playing guitar and singing.  Right?  I had never sang through a microphone, heard my voice come out of a monitor.  I had never stood up and played guitar.  I never did any of that.  I didn’t have to.  I was a drummer.  Pete never played in a band but he… had a guitar… and had some lessons when he was thirteen.  And then he bought a guitar and an amp when he was in New York City or he traded for it or something.  And, you know, Zia, I just like Zia.  She was cool.  She wanted to be in a band.  She was a neat person.  She was organized.  She had a car and a job…

Did you all go to school together?

Pete and I knew each other since high school. Pete went to OES. I went to Sunset.  Eric went to Lincoln.

I went to Lakeridge.

Hmmm.  Fat Head [Brent DeBoer], my cousin, L.O.  Zia went to Battleground High.

Really?  That’s kind of… out there.

She grew up in a log cabin.  She’s a… she’s a piece of work.  What a crazy person she is.  She’s somethin’ else, man.

How would you describe her?

I don’t know… a tornado.

And you guys are the trees she has to cling to?

Yeah… probably.  Being in a band for a long time with other dudes… you have to stay sane.  You have to react quickly to your own insanity.

How do you get around the power struggles?  Because it seems like any band I’ve ever been in, whether I wanted it or not, there was always some fucking pissing contest.

You learn to play each other off each other.  You go, “Okay this person better talk to this person because I’m so fucking pissed.”

Watch The Dandy Warhols’ :Bohemian Like You”

There’s a song called “The Song” in  the script.  Every time it comes on everything thing is in sync… in the world.  People are moving about in rhythm to the song, windshield wipers are in rhythm with the song… etc.  Is that some kind of thematic element you were consciously trying to inject into the script?

Yeah.  Well… I believe there’s got to be some kind of ohm… big “ohm” going on with cars with digital noise… of everything we’ve created.  You know, hippies think you have to get out in the middle of nowhere in order to get the ohm.  And it’s like, “No, no. This is all part of nature.”  Actually, concrete is part of nature too.

Right.  It’s natural.  It comes from the human brain.

Yeah and Dinosaur juice… plastic… whatever… it’s all a part of nature.  And of course we are aliens breeding with apes so that we can mine gold for them so they can do inner-spacial travel.

Wow… we’re getting specific here.

Obviously, that’s where we came from.  I mean, everyone knows that.

Of course.  Duh.

Why else would we get on ships that are nailed together pieces of board to sail across the ocean in 1492 to find… gold?  That is useless as a tool or weapon?  C’mon.  Okay.  So anyway, now that we’ve got that straight.  I think I might have to get to work here… my other work here… pretty soon.

Wait.  What!?  No fucking way, man.  Look at this. I spent hours dissecting this fucking script.  I haven’t slept in four days.

Publish it.  You should write the book on One Model Nation.  It’s just called, “On One Model Nation.”

And just write a book about it?  Can I get some money for that?

Maybe.  We’ll see how my baby bottle invention goes.

Do you enjoy this part of the process?   

Which part?

The part where the work is finished and now you have to talk about the work?

Fuck no.  I would like to not do any of these interviews.  I have three, four hours of interviews a day now… on a project I never thought I would have to do any actual work on.

Well, I would think it would be kind of cool to talk about this, specifically, because it’s so different from what you normally do.  Now you’re getting to talk about something that is such an extra piece of you.

Yeah… it makes me uncomfortable to talk about honestly.

Well, it’s tough to talk about yourself.

Yeah it sucks.  It sucks.  It’s no fun.  I prefer to talk about ideas, just straight up ideas.

Yeah but… we want you on that wall.  We need you on that wall.

On what wall?

You know… A Few Good Men.  You’re a charismatic figure.  You’ve done some things people care about.  And people want to know… they want to know why you do things, how you do things…

Yeah… I would just like… to be left alone… to do things that I’m comfortable doing.  And if I’ve learned something about life, I truly think I’ve learned that I might be able to pass on to people who might like to hear it then… great.  But then you don’t want to feel like you’re just… pontificating and being a big mouth.  You know, “Look at me, listen to me.”  And being a younger sibling, I’m not that comfortable with everyone looking at me.  I kind of just want to preach to the converted… really.  That’s all I care about.

Check out a special DJ set by Courtney Taylor-Taylor at Music Millennium this Tuesday, January 31st at 6pm.