Tim Hughes talks to Zia McCabe of cult US band the Dandy Warhols whose cool brand of indie-rock is still as popular as ever

Can it really be two decades since we first pricked up our ears to the Dandy Warhols?

The sassy indie-rockers from Portland, Oregon, have ploughed their own furrow ever since, calmly, and with effortless cool, taking on the coveted mantle of cult band.

Along the way there has been a smattering of hits and some towering live performances, but all that seems secondary to the band’s real agenda of just, you know, doing things their own way.

After nine albums they are now releasing their first live one, which, says the band’s keys player Zia McCabe, gives them a precious chance to look back on a remarkable career. And they are using the opportunity to once again hit the road, with a tour which, on Wednesday, reaches Oxford.

“It’s our 20th anniversary,” she says, talking to me on a diabolically bad phone line from a friend’s place in Kansas; so bad, in fact, I am forced to joke about her being caught in a Wizard of Oz-style twister. She laughs, her no-doubt witty riposte lost to the cackling ether.

Zia was working in a café when she was headhunted by frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor, who invited her to try out for the band, with guitarist Peter Holmström and drummer Eric Hedford (replaced four years later, by Taylor-Taylor’s cousin Brent DeBoer).

“I didn’t have any instrument, just attitude,” she says.

“But if you have an interest in something there’s nothing wrong with turning up, no matter how under-qualified you feel. What’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen? I would’ve just gone back to living my life.

“Fear of rejection is hard, but you’ve got to get over that to live your life to the fullest. Life is full of unexpected outcomes.”

It was the impossibly catchy Bohemian Like You, from 2000’s power-pop-flavoured third album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, which assured the Dandys’ upwards trajectory, the tune finding its way onto TV soundtracks and a phone advert.

Further hits came with We Used to Be Friends, Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth, Horny as a Dandy, and You Were the Last High – the latter featuring in the controversially racy Michael Winterbottom film 9 Songs.

The band have gone on to play with David Bowie (who became a fan after watching them play at Glastonbury) and were the subject of 2002’s award-winning biopic Dig!, about Taylor-Taylor’s tricky relationship with Anton Newcombe, frontman of San Francisco psychedelic-rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The new live album, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia Live At The Wonder was recorded in Portland’s Wonder Ballroom during the band’s 13th anniversary tour of their breakthrough album.

So how does Zia feel she has changed over the decades?

“I was a kid when I joined the band,” she says, “so I have changed in every way. I certainly didn’t expect it to be the career it has been – and I get to communicate that on this tour.

“It’s been a whirlwind, but we have grown up together and are a family, not just rock stars.

“We are well-adjusted rock stars; at least I think I’m doing a pretty good job.”

And they remain grounded, continuing to occupy the converted industrial warehouse, dubbed the Odditorium, in a once-scruffy part of their hipster hometown in America’s Pacific North West. They still use it for rehearsing, recording, mixing and partying, though, due to gentrification it now sits in a desirable neighbourhood.

“We are still really happy that Portland was receptive to us,” she says. “The city has grown up around us.”

With their love of nudity and controversy, Zia admits the Dandys have always dangled a challenge to the mainstream.

“If you set out to try and do something it’s contrived,” she says. “If you really want to be yourself, run into a taboo.”

“Nudity is a lifelong belief,” she goes on. “It’s naturally empowering. What I have learned is we are so hard on ourselves when we look at our bodies. I don’t have the perfect body, but when I get together with other naked people, you realise, in context, how beautiful we are.

“It’s really touching; there’s a sense of humanity. It’s a great way to feel vulnerable and strong at the same time. It’s a true sense of expression.”

And what has been the best moment? “The turning point was when our music began to be played on radio, that’s when we realised we had a legitimate career.

“When we came together we collectively agreed what we wanted to be doing and buried our own differences for one common goal. And that common goal was music.

“We know each other very well; there’s no one we know better. The band is the most comfortable place in the world – and it’s been really fun.”

CHECK IT OUT
Dandy Warhols play the O2 Academy Oxford on Wednesday.
Tickets are £15 from ticketweb.co.uk