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Zia McCabe: From The Dandy Warhols to Immersive Art · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey I'm Zia McCabe from the Dandy Warhols.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Fantastic thank you so much one of my favorite bands
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: going back to when I was a kid absolutely love
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: you guys and you guys are coming back to Australia
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: in November what is it about playing Australia that keeps
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: pulling you guys back here and what are you looking
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: forward to this time.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Around I mean, my question would be, what is it
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: about the dandies that the Aussies keep inviting back?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Because, I mean, we go where we're asked and offered
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to come to, and this is what we do for
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a living. But being big in Australia, of course, feels
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: really special. And I feel like once Aussies decide they
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: love you, they love you forever, right? Is that true?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 100%.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: And it has been since I think you guys first
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: came here in 98 or something. And we've just wanted
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you back like every year.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So we come at least every other year. Sometimes there's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: a reason to come more often. But, you know, outside
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of COVID, we've never gone more than two years without
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: coming to Australia. Of course, I'm here all the time now. Yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: But the crowds are great. You know, I've always... When
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: we first started coming over to Australia, I was like, oh,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Aussies are like, you know, Canadians and Americans have a baby.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: They've got the, you know, like a great sense of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: humor and a little. I mean, you guys can definitely
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: be rough around the edges, but there's a sweetness that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: is just a little more reliable than Americans. And that,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I think, is kind of the Canadian. There's a little
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: better manners, a little bit. better of sweetness and great
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: loyalty towards each other. And so I just like the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: vibe and personality of the Australians. So it's a fun
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: place to visit.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's so lovely.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I think that is the perfect explanation of us.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: It's like a combination between.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Canadians and people from the States and Canadians are really nice, though,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and you're right.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're as nice as them, but we
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: have that in there.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Right, but also it's like kind of when people are
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that nice, it's also a little bit harder to fully
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: respect them.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Because you're like, where's your muscles?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And so you guys are like top Canadians.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. Beautiful.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: And you guys have always had the ability to make
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: rock feel psychedelic, cinematic, and slightly surreal. When you think
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: about the band now, what do you think is the
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: most Danny Warhol's thing about what you create?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Well, it's like, no matter what tangent we're on, we're
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: still pretty much playing the same instruments, you know? And
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: so there's always going to be this common thread and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we are really dedicated to kind of saying the most
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with the least. And so we're, as layered and textured
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and nuanced as a piece of music might be of ours,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: it usually is still written with some pretty simple foundational
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: chord structures. And there's little twists and turns and quirks,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: but we're not trying to get, I think some artists
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: as they get further in their career, more complex is
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the path that they go down. And we more just
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: want to entertain ourselves. We're really committed to what are
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: we not hearing enough of? So we're hungry for it. Like,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: what are we craving or what have we not like
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: delved into? So we're very much, you know, pleasure and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: comfort seekers. And we travel through musical exploration in a
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: really selfish way. And we just happen to have somebody
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that likes, which, and it's not always the same people.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, when I see what, when people are like
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: rock makers, my favorite album that you've ever put out.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, Really? That's my least favorite album. I
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: don't give a fuck about that record. I'm not saying
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: there aren't cool songs. I'm not saying there wasn't cool
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: innovations and cool guests. It's perfectly fine for people to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: love that record, but I'm like, that's, of all of
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: our records, your favorite record.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Better than Come Down. Better than Earth to the Dandy Wars.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, better than Thirteen Tales.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Rockmaker's better than Thirteen Tales.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I'm not buying it.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: But that somebody is buying it, is neat because we
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: have some, you know, ride or dies that love everything
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: we put out and their critical mind has just left
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the building when it comes to the Dandy Warhols. But
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: then you have these other people that dip in and
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: dip out and love certain things. And, you know, I'm
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: sure most people didn't really care about Topple music. I
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: think that's one of the coolest things we've ever released. So,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I have my own opinions about the music too,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: but I love that we've never tried to make anything
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: for everyone.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: No.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: We're making it for ourselves and everyone is invited to
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: enjoy it if they'd like it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I really love that and I feel like you guys
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: are just so creative. Something you said was that your songs,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: there's a simplicity to them and there absolutely is, but
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to pull them off in the way that you guys do,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I think that's the rarity in creating music. You're absolutely right.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Some of the chords are quite simple, but my gosh,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: are they catchy.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: And this is the perfect segue into my next question.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: You're also unveiling See Here Now at Mona in November,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: which is essentially a musical installation that people can physically
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: interact with. It honestly sounds amazing and calming, and I
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: think I may have to book a ticket to Tasmania
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: just to see it.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Where did the idea for turning a room into an
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: instrument come from?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Well, It's more like we have these musical spaces that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: we're in and I don't like when the spaces are
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: ugly and yucky. And so many times venues put zero
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: effort into the environment. And so that means the entire
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: emotional labor has to come from the musician. And I
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: didn't like that. So it started with making the dressing
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: rooms nice so that we weren't like offended by the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: spaces that we, and especially, you know, the smaller the venue,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: usually like the stinkier the dressing room. And so we'd
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: bring tapestries and incense and a boom box and like,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: just try to make it like, I didn't know about
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: autism yet, but I think that this was very much
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: me being like, I can't be in here. This is awful.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I can't smell anything. And so then it became making
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the stages have something going for them so that there
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: were more ways to tell our story than just with
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: our instruments and more and more ways to bring people
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: into our world than just our instruments. And that kept
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: growing until, and with side projects, I would do the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: same thing where I would create these whole environments and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: partially I think imposter syndrome with the side projects is
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are coming and I don't know
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: if the music is really enough. And so I would
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: create these elaborate environments to make myself feel like there
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was more, then it's enough, right? Like the music is
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: part of it. And at one point, a visual artist
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: here in Portland, he's actually done a couple of our videos.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: He was like, Zia, I think you need to update
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: your narrative because- You're not just a musician anymore. These
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: are installations. And I thought, huh, installations through the lens
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: of music. This is going to be fun. And so
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I kept going with it until, you know, I now
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: have a piece that's been accepted by Mona. And I mean,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: what an honor. And again, it's kind of similar to
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: like when I joined the Dandy Warhols. It was this
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: massive leap of like no pedigree. No credentials, just a really,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I did have a very nice pitch deck
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that was able to articulate. It took me a year
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to really, really clearly articulate what it was I was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: trying to do. And I mean, even every week in
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the meetings, we're all sort of still figuring it out
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: together because there's so many components. But this new life
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of making, there will always be an artistic component to
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: my visual art. But this whole new way to immerse
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: people into an experience is like really thrilling.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: It's fantastic.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: And honestly, again, it's one of these things that's like,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: surely this has been done before, but I really don't
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: think it has in this way from a musician.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Like it's incredible. And also your, I believe, is it
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: your mum and your sister are artists? So what's it
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: been like stepping into their kind of realms?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I mean, and my dad is too. So,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, and he came into it later. He came
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: through being an engineer and doing automotive and building and
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: he's turned that into big structural art, like massive. artistic
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: gates that are cut, you know, from metal or big,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: like moving things that go out in your yard that
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the wind changes, like whirligig type things. And in my
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: mom's was like basket weaving and watercolor and gardening. I mean,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: gardening is and can be an art.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: She is. And then my sister is painting and, you know,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: gardening too, to a degree. So yeah, my art was
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: music and it is, it kind of feels nice to
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: be felt like oh I was good at math and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: so I didn't get to be good at art and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I like somehow felt excluded from from art and that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: was what my sister gets to do you know she's
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: left-handed she's the artist in the family and so it
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: took me a long time to really like, I mean,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: until like, you know, like last year to change my
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: definition of myself, how I see myself. And so it's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: really fun. I'm really into it. I mean, I just
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: did the tallest single oscillator synthesizer in the world for
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: a festival.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: What? That's awesome.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it got accepted at the same time. So I
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, I can do all of this at once.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: This is going to be fine. I'm going to go crazy.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully, I mean, I will be making hoogs across
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Australia soon. I'm going to do a bunch of locations
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in the United States next year. So maybe 2028, I
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: will be traveling around Australia building hoogs in different communities.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome. I bloody hope so. Please build one
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: in my community. I'm in a rural area. I'll tell
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: you all about it after. No, that's bloody fantastic. But
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to be honest, I feel like watching you and the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: band as a whole, you guys have always been artistic
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: and creative. So, you know, to say that you've just
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: realized this, I understand that, but I feel like you
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: guys have always kind of been.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, imposter syndrome is real and can be
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: very difficult to shake.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, Courtney's in the middle of making this movie
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that from his, um, graphic novel that he made about Kraftwerk. And,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: you know, he's doing that. And Peter is producing music
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and playing in other bands. And Brent's got two other bands.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it's, you know, I think it was really
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: interesting in like COVID when you couldn't do anything. Creative
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: people found a way to still be creative. Like I
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: had a variety show that we you know, aired on Twitch.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Like you, that's when I first realized I was an
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: artist because you can't help it. If you're an artist,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you will just, you'll be doing paper origami. If you've
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: only got paper, like you'll find a way to express
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: yourself creatively.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I totally agree.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: And I love the idea that every visitor can create
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: a different version of the piece simply by moving around
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: and touching things. Was the unpredictability of that important to
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: you when you were designing it?
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Well, what I wanted was I didn't want the interactions
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: to mess up the music. I wanted people to feel
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: connected through touch and feeling, you know, the vibration under
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: their feet when they take off their shoes. You can
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: ride a bicycle, a stationary bike that powers a fan
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that blows a wind chime that's tuned to the music.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You know, so there's, because that, you can't mess that
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: up because you can't clang on it. It's just the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: fan is the fan. It's going to blow. It's going
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to blow. When you pedal enough, it triggers it. When
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you stop, it stops. So you're, you're, you're interacting, but
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: you're not really having a whole lot of say on
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: how it goes down.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: But the sections of music around the room that are
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in the credenzas under each visual piece are, The way,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: when each piece, so if you ran around the room
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and triggered them all, they would all be, you know,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a few seconds apart. Everything's layered in these soft ins
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and outs. So there's no hard stops or ends. Yeah,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: so it's all these flowing layers that have an infinite
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: combination based on when each piece of art is activated.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Wonderful. Beautiful. Exactly what I was thinking. I'm like, how
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: is it going to work? If one thing's going off
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: at a time, you know, it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Might sound a bit disjointed, but now you've perfectly explained.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: And in the center will be a drone, excuse me.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: There'll be a drone centerpiece that everything else builds around.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So there'll always be this humming movement for, it'll never
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: be silent in there.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. That is so awesome.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And Mona is obviously quite an unconventional museum and this
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: isn't exactly a conventional music installation. Did the space itself
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: influence what you created or did you have the musical
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: idea first and then build the environment around it?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: A little bit of both. I mean, I had the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: general understanding that I wanted the visual art to trigger
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the music, right? The person triggers the art, the art
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: triggers the music. I knew I wanted that. I think
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: it's funny that in the deck it says a surrealist
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: living room and it's just a basic rectangular space. And
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: you get into Mona, which nothing is like a normal rectangle.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm in this like pizza slice shaped room, which
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: absolutely informed way more surreal, right? That changed like, oh,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: we can't have two bikes. They don't fit. We'll have
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: one bike and instead we'll do this other thing that I'll,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you know, let you guys be surprised when you go.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So I added a whole other musical component instead of
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the bike and wind chime. And so the room did
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: inform me of a lot of little adjustments and different
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: ways to go about it.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It'll be really interesting when this exhibition ends how this
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: then gets recreated in a different museum.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: In a different place. Elsewhere. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. And
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: I like that too that you did. build some elements
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: around the room.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: And then maybe it just means that with other spaces,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: you can do the same thing, swap things out, change.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Putting new things. Well, it'll, it's definitely going to prevent
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: me from ever going back to like, I won't be
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: accused of being too normal by accident. So that's.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Definitely, definitely not.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: And if someone walks into see here now knowing absolutely
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: nothing about it, what do you hope they experienced in
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: those first few minutes?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Well, the way that the room is designed is when
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: our nervous system, when we can predict movement, our nervous
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: system feels calm. When we can't predict movement, our nervous
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: system feels dysregulated and not calm. So I reverse engineered
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: some of it through the lens of the nervous system
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: and to make sure that nothing moves quickly. And so
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: when you first come in the room, you're, you're going
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to be clocking, your brain is going to be clocking
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: these different aspects of the room. And pretty quickly, your
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: body is going to realize that there's no jump scares
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: in here. This is in a threatening space. And so
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: then the body gets to calm down and open up
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to the experience a little. So hopefully pretty quickly, they
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: just get this kind of washing over them of This
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: is an interesting space that does have quite a bit
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to interact and experience, but overall it's, it's harmonic and safe.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I'm visualizing it and like getting goosebumps and feeling calm.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: So excited.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: And after decades of making music with the Dandy Warhols,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: what still makes you curious creatively? Is it the technology
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: experimentation or possibility of doing something you've never done?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always the experimentation and doing things that we
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: haven't done. So, you know, like I was just dissing Rockmaker.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Not really. It's a reasonably good album. I just thought, like, really,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: do we need to be making another record full of guitars, like,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: by a bunch of middle-aged men? Like, I just kept
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: calling it their middle-aged record.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: The crisis for you.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean, my participation in the creating of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that album was lower than probably any record we've ever made.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And you know what? There was no hard feelings either.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Courtney was like, that's not a Zia record. I get it.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Totally.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And after you've made this many records with the same
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: four people, if you all are truly going to be.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You know, exploring and experimenting, not everybody's going to be
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: on that same page.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I remember when we started Welcome to the Monkey House,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Pete's like, cool, well, I guess I'll see you guys
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: when the record's done. It's all keyboards.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: But that made him figure out really cool ways to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: find his way into that album.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Into it, that's right.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: And which I did with Rockmaker. I played gong. I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: played all kinds of crazy percussion stuff. All the different, yeah.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But the next record, I was like, okay, cool. We
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: made Rockmaker. It totally fits with the apocalyptic type world
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that we were in with COVID and George Floyd and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the fires. And, you know, it did feel like that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: kind of a record needed to be made. But I
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: want to have this like hopeful, like, oh, look, we're
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: going to recover. And, you know, like the green vines
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that grow over a bombed out building within a few
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: months or a forest fire, you see the little green sprouts.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I wanted a record that felt like that. And so
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I've been really pushing for non-lyrical songs or, you know,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: long meandering textural ambient pieces. So I made a few
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that the boys just heard a couple of days ago.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And that was very like scary and fun. And so
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that's what keeps it fun is like, we really do
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: just keep venturing into whatever kind of uncharted territory that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: we can come up with.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I love that.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: And you guys have gone through so many different eras
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: and musical landscapes. When you look back, is there a
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: particular period of the band that you feel especially nostalgic for?
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Or are you more interested in whatever comes next?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, typically whatever comes next. But, you know, we
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have de-centered the band from our lives. And that doesn't
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: mean that it's not important to us, that we don't
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: love it, that we don't want to be a band.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: It means... that we can say, I can't do this
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to her because, you know, I mean, I moved my wedding,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: my honeymoon, the, my first child. Oh my gosh. Witnessed
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: his dad's funeral. Like we, we, it was the band.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And that's what it takes to be a band. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: people are like, why didn't we make it? I'm like, well,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: if you chose going camping over that tour, that's why
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: you didn't make it.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Make that, exactly.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we made those decisions. But at some
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: point I was like, that's not really what this is anymore.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: We've got kids, we've got side projects, we have other interests.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: We have been and ever shall be the Dandy Warhols,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: but we don't get to all be in the studio
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: together as much. Brent moved to Australia like 20 years ago.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: And so the thing that I would be nostalgia for
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: is those times where life was simpler because it was
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the Dandy Warhols and nothing else. And I loved that
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: really intense... commitment and I loved that our priorities were
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: so obviously the order where you know this is what
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: it is and I loved just that immense accelerated growth
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: from like Welcome to the Monkey House through those next
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: three records for me was just like I was in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and learning and expanding and creating all the time. And,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you know, we just sort of do a little bit
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: here and a little bit there. And I have realized
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that I do need like intense sections. I can't just
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: come in once a week and work on a record.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: So now I know I go in, I take the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: couch out of the control room. I fill it with
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: percussion instruments and we do like four, six hour days
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and they can go longer if we're inspired, but you know, four,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: six hour days. then my head's in the game and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: it feels kind of like those, those older albums. So that's,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: that's the part that I kind of get nostalgic for
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: is when it was just ride or die dandies.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Wow. Interesting. Because you think people would say the opposite.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I like it nowadays that I get to just, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: do a bit here and do a bit there.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: That's really, really cool.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, of course I love that for now, but
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it doesn't make me nostalgic for the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: simpler times.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: And I can definitely relate to being in the zone and,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Having to just set aside that time and really go
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: all in or nothing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I'm exactly the same.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: What's the coolest thing a fan has ever given you?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: I'm so sad it's gone. I just saw it in
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a photo. A fan got into silversmithing and made me
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a necklace that said my name. So it was like
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the Zed. And then the I was just in the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: middle of it. And then the A, so like the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Z and the A kind of took up the same space.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: And there was a big like diamond type, like a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: white clear gem as the dot for the I. I
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: think it was, maybe it was a ruby. Anyway, I
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: loved that. I would have tan lines of the necklace.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I never took it off. It fell off in my
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: mom's yard somewhere. I rented a metal detector.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, really? It's gone.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: It's gone. That was the sweetest thing. Oh, also, wait,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: hold on. Okay, that was really cool. But this other fan,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: RIP Gorgeous George, he died this last year. He made
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: me an electric assist cargo bike with a big speaker
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: on it with a boat battery and inverter that I
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: could ride in the World Naked Bike Ride and DJ
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the bike ride.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: What?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: He built it in Colorado and put it in a
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: trailer and drove it out to Portland and gave it
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to me. That, I mean, okay, the necklace was cool,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: but that bike.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: That's pretty.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Gee. That's an incredible gift. And I rode it this
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: year in honor of George at the Naked Bike Ride. And, yeah,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: he was a very, very generous person.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: That's incredible, isn't it? Gee. And you obviously still got
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: the bike.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I still have the bike. Yeah, he did cranks.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: He rebuilt all of my Line 6 delay pedals for
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: me because I had this Line 6 graveyard. He goes, oh,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I can fix all of that. And he rebuilt them
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: better than they are new.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: He was so cool. I'm sad that he's gone. He
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: was a really special guy.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. Sounds like it. Oh, my gosh. That's incredible.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: And finally, after everything that Danny Warhols have done, what
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: is something you still really want to make, experience, or
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: pull off that you haven't had the chance to do yet?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: We've never played Japan. Yeah, it's a long story. There's
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a whole curse thing that happened early on in our career.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: But I would really like to pull off and break
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the curse and play Japan. I'm very much looking forward
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to traveling the world and making, you know, hoogs in
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the art communities everywhere. This is a whole new endeavor
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that I'm very excited about. So those are the two
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: kind of big ones that I'm pushing for.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Well, Japan, I had no idea. It's not weird, I know.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: We would do so well there. It's bizarre. Absolutely.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Anyway, Zia, thank you so very much. We are so
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: excited to see you and the installation. And yeah, thanks
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: so much.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: You are so welcome. Well, anybody that is coming out
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to the symphony show, it is getting close to sold out.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: We will have a special event that we can't quite
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: announce the details for the next night that will be ticketed,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: but probably only like a hundred. It'll be quite small.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: And then the following night after that, the 26th, is
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: when my exhibition opens to the public.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Also, we should mention that this tour is a symphonic one, correct?
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: So it is going to be a bit different to your.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Only Tasmania.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, only Tasmania.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Just the one show with the symphony, and then I
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: would love to be back the next year, do maybe
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: a couple of more Melbourne, Sydney, maybe, and then do
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a few shows in Asia, right?
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: That would be awesome.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Wicked.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: I'm working on it.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: We hope so. Thanks again, Sia.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you.