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Plenty of music fans enjoyed the 2004 music documentary DiG!, as filmmaker Ondi Timoner followed the parallel careers of rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Too bad movie critics were distracted by the onscreen meltdown of TBJM frontman Anton Newcombe. They missed out on praising the Dandy Warhols' Zia McCabe as the year's sexiest new screen presence (Picture: - - ).
Mr. Skin got his theater seat rocking once the documentary revealed the keyboardist's tendency to regularly strip off her shirt. This big babe stole the film, even as Zia remained the most calm and collected of the tortured would-be rock stars. The exhibitionism and daring didn't stop onstage, either. Zia couldn't settle for just being the first established recording artist to grace the Suicide Girls website. She was also the first pregnant Suicide Girl to show off her bod in all its pre-natal naughtiness.
Zia gave birth earlier this year to her first child and was soon back at work on the Dandy's latest attempt at worldwide stardom. The clumsily titled Odditorium or Warlords of Mars is named for The Odditorium, built as the Dandy Warhols' headquarters in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. The combination home/rehearsal space/studio is a typically grandiose gesture from the Dandys.
That same ambition can also be heard in the new songs, which take catchy pop melodies and pad them out into gorgeous lengthy soundscapes. It's a big brassy move that serves as a reminder of how well a gal like Zia sums up the Dandy vision. She sounds right at home at The Odditorium, too, as she talks to Mr. Skin about her film, her flashing, and her band's continuing bid for fame.
What's it like to be releasing the first Dandys album since the success of DiG!?
Oh, that thing is so separate from our lives now. It's a great film, and we're still friends with [director] Ondi Timoner and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, of course. They're getting a lot of album sales out of that. I didn't realize it was a high-profile event at the time. I thought I came across as kind of stupid. I see what I'm saying, and I know what I really meant to say, and all I can think of is what I should have said instead. But then everybody kept telling me that I seemed so grounded and intelligent, and I'm--well, that's great if that's what it came across as.
You really do come across as sane and sexy and normal--and you do it without trying nearly as hard as other crazy rock gals who really work their wild-girl schtick.
I bet that I rock a lot harder than those chicks, too. That's awesome to hear. Thank you. I feel pretty levelheaded after hearing that.
But how do you handle this new reputation as the rock gal most likely to be flashing her breasts?
It's so funny to me how that's still an expectation. It was such a fun thing to do for a while, and the British press really put an end to all that. It was, like, "Zia gets naked at every show!" Then everybody's asking me to get naked, and it took all the fun out of it. It wasn't anything like my maturing as a musician. If people had taken it in stride, I would still be doing it and people could see how much fun I'm having.
How's life in The Odditorium? Is it really like The Monkees all sharing that beach house?
Yeah, it's like a big clubhouse. You get some friend of a friend skating through the house, or doing graffiti on your nice, newly painted sand dunes you've put on a wall. Now it's a little more restricted about who comes in. We still have a lot of friends hanging out and checking their e-mail. Our lighting guy will be in one room getting his gels together, and we'll be in the main room that holds about seven hundred people, rehearsing onstage for the upcoming tour. We can do photo shoots here, and we've shot two videos here.
Our dining room seats twenty, and we've had lots of fun, famous people invited over for dinner. Duran Duran, Jet, David Bowie, The Strokes--all kinds of people. There might be someone's girlfriend or friend hanging out or making something in the kitchen. That's where I am right now. I'm trying to find mayonnaise to make some tuna fish. Somebody's used up all the mayonnaise.
Isn't it dangerous for members of a band to risk living together?
There are always personality differences, but the band is just now settling into what it is that we're all doing here together. We get along great. You're so in each other's face, but you share a lot more.
At least you guys are investing your money into some property.
That's part of it, too. From the beginning, we wanted to be careful with our money. Once in a while, we'd buy a bottle of wine, but all the money went into our savings account. We wouldn't rent some station wagon that would keep breaking down. We'd buy a van, and then turn that over for a new van at the end of a tour. We're very frugal. That's not always a good thing.
You actually joined the Dandys without knowing how to play an instrument. Now you're the keyboardist for a band that's playing all these epic pop songs that go on for over six minutes.
Well, I'd taken an introductory guitar class in college and got, like, a C. I've learned a lot in the past eleven years. The new record sounds like what we do live. It's really the easiest record we've ever made. We'd start to play and capture these live moments like we used to get when we'd be on tour. We knew we had some hot pop songs. We just rehearsed every day and recorded our rehearsals, and then our engineer would dump anything that wasn't special. It didn't feel ambitious. It felt natural.
You're all rock stars overseas, and the band spent the summer playing big European rock festivals. Now you're back trying to conquer America by touring smaller clubs. How do you handle going from one extreme to the other?
I'd like to kick it up just one notch. Over here it still costs us money to go on the road. It's not intolerable to be playing these smaller markets, but it's a matter of how long we've been touring and how long we've had to put up with certain things. We just want to stay in clean motels. Then we'll be happy to go over to Europe and be rock stars.
Header photos courtesy of DandyWarhols.com
Mr. Skin got his theater seat rocking once the documentary revealed the keyboardist's tendency to regularly strip off her shirt. This big babe stole the film, even as Zia remained the most calm and collected of the tortured would-be rock stars. The exhibitionism and daring didn't stop onstage, either. Zia couldn't settle for just being the first established recording artist to grace the Suicide Girls website. She was also the first pregnant Suicide Girl to show off her bod in all its pre-natal naughtiness.
Zia gave birth earlier this year to her first child and was soon back at work on the Dandy's latest attempt at worldwide stardom. The clumsily titled Odditorium or Warlords of Mars is named for The Odditorium, built as the Dandy Warhols' headquarters in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. The combination home/rehearsal space/studio is a typically grandiose gesture from the Dandys.
That same ambition can also be heard in the new songs, which take catchy pop melodies and pad them out into gorgeous lengthy soundscapes. It's a big brassy move that serves as a reminder of how well a gal like Zia sums up the Dandy vision. She sounds right at home at The Odditorium, too, as she talks to Mr. Skin about her film, her flashing, and her band's continuing bid for fame.
What's it like to be releasing the first Dandys album since the success of DiG!?
Oh, that thing is so separate from our lives now. It's a great film, and we're still friends with [director] Ondi Timoner and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, of course. They're getting a lot of album sales out of that. I didn't realize it was a high-profile event at the time. I thought I came across as kind of stupid. I see what I'm saying, and I know what I really meant to say, and all I can think of is what I should have said instead. But then everybody kept telling me that I seemed so grounded and intelligent, and I'm--well, that's great if that's what it came across as.
You really do come across as sane and sexy and normal--and you do it without trying nearly as hard as other crazy rock gals who really work their wild-girl schtick.
I bet that I rock a lot harder than those chicks, too. That's awesome to hear. Thank you. I feel pretty levelheaded after hearing that.
But how do you handle this new reputation as the rock gal most likely to be flashing her breasts?
It's so funny to me how that's still an expectation. It was such a fun thing to do for a while, and the British press really put an end to all that. It was, like, "Zia gets naked at every show!" Then everybody's asking me to get naked, and it took all the fun out of it. It wasn't anything like my maturing as a musician. If people had taken it in stride, I would still be doing it and people could see how much fun I'm having.
How's life in The Odditorium? Is it really like The Monkees all sharing that beach house?
Yeah, it's like a big clubhouse. You get some friend of a friend skating through the house, or doing graffiti on your nice, newly painted sand dunes you've put on a wall. Now it's a little more restricted about who comes in. We still have a lot of friends hanging out and checking their e-mail. Our lighting guy will be in one room getting his gels together, and we'll be in the main room that holds about seven hundred people, rehearsing onstage for the upcoming tour. We can do photo shoots here, and we've shot two videos here.
Our dining room seats twenty, and we've had lots of fun, famous people invited over for dinner. Duran Duran, Jet, David Bowie, The Strokes--all kinds of people. There might be someone's girlfriend or friend hanging out or making something in the kitchen. That's where I am right now. I'm trying to find mayonnaise to make some tuna fish. Somebody's used up all the mayonnaise.
Isn't it dangerous for members of a band to risk living together?
There are always personality differences, but the band is just now settling into what it is that we're all doing here together. We get along great. You're so in each other's face, but you share a lot more.
At least you guys are investing your money into some property.
That's part of it, too. From the beginning, we wanted to be careful with our money. Once in a while, we'd buy a bottle of wine, but all the money went into our savings account. We wouldn't rent some station wagon that would keep breaking down. We'd buy a van, and then turn that over for a new van at the end of a tour. We're very frugal. That's not always a good thing.
You actually joined the Dandys without knowing how to play an instrument. Now you're the keyboardist for a band that's playing all these epic pop songs that go on for over six minutes.
Well, I'd taken an introductory guitar class in college and got, like, a C. I've learned a lot in the past eleven years. The new record sounds like what we do live. It's really the easiest record we've ever made. We'd start to play and capture these live moments like we used to get when we'd be on tour. We knew we had some hot pop songs. We just rehearsed every day and recorded our rehearsals, and then our engineer would dump anything that wasn't special. It didn't feel ambitious. It felt natural.
You're all rock stars overseas, and the band spent the summer playing big European rock festivals. Now you're back trying to conquer America by touring smaller clubs. How do you handle going from one extreme to the other?
I'd like to kick it up just one notch. Over here it still costs us money to go on the road. It's not intolerable to be playing these smaller markets, but it's a matter of how long we've been touring and how long we've had to put up with certain things. We just want to stay in clean motels. Then we'll be happy to go over to Europe and be rock stars.
Header photos courtesy of DandyWarhols.com
