“We now have a much better understanding of what major labels do,” he acknowledges. “They can get your music out to all the people that need to hear it without really batting an eyelid. It never felt like they were doing much for us, but they definitely got our music out there… and when we tried to do it on our own, it became clear that… there is some stuff going on,” he chuckles. “So now we are definitely lookin’ for some help putting out our next record. We should just make music; we shouldn’t be involved in putting records out. We don’t know what we’re doing,” the guitarist grins.
Holmström is a delight to chat to, sharing his honest and open views about the trajectory of the band, which is all the more refreshing, given that he and the band have every reason to remain guarded around the media. The Dandy Warhols were the subject of the 2004 documentary DiG! And, having allowed themselves to be followed for close to a decade, they were portrayed almost as bloody-minded careerists, up against the stark difference of the shadow of the disorganised, drug-addled fools in constant, jealous, bickering fights who made up The Brian Jonestown Massacre. “Those cameras, we got used to it and ultimately we kind of forgot that we were being filmed,” Holmström explains of the candid exposure the band provided.
“Usually you are very careful about what you say to cameras as it will come back and bit you in the ass, and it did. But, you know, it was like seven years of cameras; it was weird.”
It wasn’t the content that affected Holmström so deeply so much as having his life subjected to the process of documentation. “The thing about DIG! that was the weirdest was, well, I have always thought that your memories are one thing and then if you have photographs, then the photographs kinda become the memory,” he muses in true Charlie Kaufman style confusion.
“When that memory is on film, it happens even more. So I really felt that my memories were completely co-opted. All of a sudden I can’t really distinguish between what I remember happening… and the how the film portrays it. That film should not be labeled a ‘documentary’ because it’s very skewed in what it’s portraying, and the way the footage is put together,” he adds. “It’s not even that chronological in the way that footage is use to tell that story. So it’s odd. Ultimately she (Ondi Timoner, the film’s director) had to finish the film and she chose to tell a story, one that the rest of us don’t particularly agree with, but it is still a good film.”
At the time of having this chat, the Dandy’s were about three quarters of the way through recording a new album (which they hopefully won’t be releasing themselves, and more of us will be able to find it in stores), with all tracks, song names and art work deadlined for the end of April just past, and to be released this coming September or October. “It is back to a fairly original-sounding Dandy Warhols,” Holmström figures of the new record.
“It’s got a fair amount of, let’s say, basic rock ‘n’ roll feel,” he grins. “A little glam rock, a little ’50s rock ‘n’ roll somewhere in there; it’s hard to say how it will turn out before it’s mixed though.”
It is that original sound that got The Dandy Warhols where they are now, so a return to old school form would seemingly be greatly welcomed. “Initially I really wanted to sound like Spiritualised, My Bloody Valentine, Ride,” Holmström reminisces. “Pretty much all those English shoegaze bands that I was listening to when we put the band together.
“It took me a number of years to figure out that no, we didn’t sound like that, I was just so excited about playing in a band that was going somewhere. I kinda didn’t notice what we were sounding like… until we realised we did have our own sound.
“I guess,” he adds, “our sound came about out of necessity, because none of us had the skills to play our instruments beyond a certain level,” he laughs. “Instead of taking gigantic risks and playing crazy solos and stuff, we just simplified everything and as a result came up with something that was very effective and that worked.”
Though the liner notes mostly credit the Dandy’s charismatic, excessively-named lead singer, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, with songwriting duties, Holmström and his bandmates are able to pitch in, even though their contributions still have to go through Courtney for approval. “When I write a song it’s gotta be something that sticks in my head long enough to be played again and if I still like it, then I start developing it,” Holmström explains.
“If it sounds to me like a Dandys song, then I bring it in and play it for Courtney. If he likes it, then it turns into a song… if he doesn’t, then I either forget it or save it for my own records,” he laughs. “Generally Courtney will bring in songs, either like a verse and a chorus and we all come up with our parts for it, or sometimes they come in a lot more complete and we just make it sound like the Dandys,” he continues to confide. “It comes down to whomever is singing the song, I mean I’m not singing it, so it’s fine by me.”
Still an honest man in the music world’s ego shitstorm, Peter Holmström simply loves playing guitar in a band. “I just wanna keep doing this,” he says of his life. “I always wanted to do this as a kid and I feel incredibly luck to have had a career in music that’s lasted as long as it has and I don’t see any reason that it should go away. But that will require some more luck and a lotta hard work.”
