DJ: Peter Holmström and his family moved from Portland to the UK during his school years. After that, he attended college in New York. While living there, another native Portland guitarist, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, along with his band, crashed at Pete’s apartment after a gig. Upon returning to Portland, Pete learned that Courtney was no longer in that band. The two guitarists formed The Dandy Warhols, very popular in their hometown, soon after gained praise and recognition nationwide and before long, internationally. Peter, a great guitarist, bassist and keyboard player, has remained with The Dandy Warhols while venturing into various projects including his band Pete International Airport. It was great to catch up with Peter and hear his story and get a preview into the new Dandy Warhols album Pin Ups, a collection of cover songs by some of their favorite bands and artists including The Cure, Gang of Four, The Clash, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles.

DJ: [00:00:00] Peter Holmström, thanks for taking the time to talk today.

Peter: Yeah, you’re welcome. Nice to meet you.

DJ: Are you at home or in your home studio at the moment? 

Peter: I’m at home. I was in the home studio, ’cause most of these are Zoom calls, so I was all prepared for that.

DJ: Oh, sorry.

Peter: Clicked on the link and it took me to the website instead. And I’m like, oh yeah. Okay. Yeah, phone call. All good.

DJ: But you are surrounded by guitars.

Peter: Uh, yeah. Most of the time, guitars, basses, keyboards,

DJ: All the gear.

Peter: Percussion instruments.

DJ: Yeah. Well, I do wanna discuss the upcoming Dandy Warhol’s album at some point, but if it’s cool, I’d like to go back and talk about your life before the band came to be and what music you were into in the, in your early days.

Peter: Okay.

DJ: Well, I know, I think some of your education was in the UK and then you went off to college in New York returning to Portland.

But before all that, uh, like what music do you remember hearing, like growing up in the Portland area?

Peter: Well actually even [00:01:00] before I moved to, um, before my family moved to Portland, I remember my dad, um, playing. Pink Floyd’s, Dark Side of the Moon.

DJ: Nice.

Peter: And just kind of being fascinated by the sounds more, more the room full of clocks than. anything else in particular at, at, at that age, but still it was like, it was just cool sounds and, my parents always had the radio going.

So there was always like, a lot of classical music, folk music, a little bit of reggae, it’s kind of all over the place. Just stuff they liked.

DJ: And that would’ve probably been in the ’70s, I guess, that time period. Yeah.

Peter: Yeah. ’70s. for sure. And then, uh, when we did move to Portland, they, they always listened to NPR, and then I remember there was a show called Word Jazz.

DJ: Yeah.

Peter: Yeah, you can, I think you can look up, I think there’s, they’ve got episodes, on YouTube and probably elsewhere, but it’s such a weird, cool thing.

But yeah, I just, I don’t know, [00:02:00] always been fascinated by kind of that sort of experimental sort of play with words and effects and sounds and, I don’t know. 

DJ: Well, I always ask, was guitar the first instrument you learned?

Peter: No, probably not. there was, my parents kind of, put me in different music lessons, like growing up. There was some. I think it was a Suzuki learning music class where you kind of played around on keyboard instruments and probably some percussion stuff with a, a group of also untalented kids. Um, and just made a racket.

So it was that, uh, my dad did bring home an acoustic guitar, classical guitar, when I was probably about six or seven. And those would’ve been the first. He taught me like a little classical piece and a, a scale. And those would’ve been the first things I learned on guitar. but I also played some saxophone and some recorder and I don’t know other random things, but guitar was the one that I came back to and stuck with.

DJ: Was anyone else in the family musical or did they play instruments [00:03:00] too?

Peter: No.

DJ: Okay.

Peter: My, my sister tried to play the, or played the flute for a bit, but, that didn’t really stick. and that was pretty much the extent of it.

DJ: It sounds like it was encouraged, like if your dad brought the acoustical and 

Peter: Yeah. Yeah, it was always, it was definitely encouraged. I don’t think they quite knew what was gonna happen, but they were always incredibly supportive, so,

DJ: That’s great.

Peter: Yeah

DJ: Well, am I right that you attended grammar school over in the UK?

Peter: Yeah, it was, uh, When I was 10, we picked up and moved to the UK to Bristol, for three years. And so yeah, had one year of primary school and two years of secondary at a grammar school. I forget exactly how their system works, but yeah, it was interesting.

DJ: I will bet. Now, was that because maybe your parents or one of your parents was transferred over there or,

Peter: My dad got a, a job opportunity over there and my mom, she was born in South Africa, of [00:04:00] like English descent and so had relatives there and wanted to, wanted to live there. So my dad found this opportunity and we just picked up for a few years. Moved over there.

DJ: That’s very cool.

Peter: Yeah.

DJ: And then at some point you attended college in New York,

Peter: Yeah. I went to NYU for a couple years

DJ: But you ended back in Portland, so…

Peter: Yeah, I was a bit lost when I, after I spent a year in New York after I graduated and just kind of didn’t feel like I was doing anything. Besides going to a bar and working, you know. Um, so I had, the band that Courtney was playing in at the time came and did one of those, like CMJ festivals, whatever.

DJ: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Peter: And they, uh, a couple of them stayed at my apartment and they had brought their girlfriends and it all just seemed like they had their shit way more together. And things were happening for them. And so I was, at that point I was just like, you know, I don’t wanna be here anymore. I’m [00:05:00] moving back. I didn’t know what I was gonna do.

I certainly had no plans to be in a band at that point. and within a month of me get moving back, Courtney had been kicked out of its band and we started the Dandys.

DJ: Okay.

Peter: So yeah, it was, uh, ended up. Being the right, right move.

DJ: Yeah. Well, while you were over there in the UK, uh, obviously you must have been exposed to some different music during your period there too.

Peter: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. the, it was, you know, full on post-punk.

DJ: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Peter: Uh, I mean, I, I don’t know that they called it that then, but, you know, the whole, two-tone movement was going on the whole like Madness and Specials. , I remember kids like just decked, just looking so damn cool. And I was just, I was so awkward back then.

I, I, I admired that, but there was no way in hell that I was gonna be that cool. but yeah, it was all, I mean. It’s all so damn cool.

DJ: That would’ve been the right [00:06:00] period for that . my first time, in London, I think I was 19 and my dad went over there on an assignment. It was only for like Almost three week, two and a half weeks or something like that. But yeah, I remember while I was there, I, it was my first exposure to seeing, you know, guys with safety pins in their cheeks and all that. I was like, okay,

Peter: Oh yeah. Yeah. All the times we went to London, there would always, always see the, the big old mohawks and bondage trousers and stuff. , I had no idea what any of that meant or anything. It was just sort of cool and frightening.

DJ: Well, it’s interesting that that’s the way you and Courtney met. Uh, I was wondering about that too. And then, I don’t know if this was back, you know, when you’re back in Portland, I’m assuming it was, but. Well, it had to be because I know there was a different drummer originally, but Brent DeBoer, he was Courtney’s or is Courtney’s cousin.

Peter: Uh huh. Yeah.

DJ: So, but when you guys finally got, you were back in the States and talking about, uh, you said, uh, Courtney was not in his previous band anymore [00:07:00] and you guys started, you and, and Courtney formed the Dandy Warhols, . It all came together. And then Zia, was she part of when, when did she come in the picture?

Peter: Um, so she was, I guess technically the second. keyboard bass player. Courtney’s girlfriend Gretchen was the first. but that did not last long. I think maybe three shows and then they split up. And then I think we played two shows without a bass player, one of those without a drummer. Just, I don’t know, weird, weird little things.

And then a friend of ours knew somebody had worked, had worked at a Starbucks with Zia, and knew that she wanted to be in a band. And that was the extent of her music, knowledge too. It’s like she, she just wanted to be in a band. She didn’t know how to play anything. And uh, so we ended up meeting her and it. I don’t know. Seemed like a good idea.

DJ: , So once the band came together, I, it didn’t seem like it was real long. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but you guys [00:08:00] built up quite a following and then ultimately. A following that wasn’t just in the States, but internationally.

I mean, do you feel like it was a while or does it all seem like it was just, wow, this is really happening? Like, we’re, we’re a band now we’re recording, we’re putting out albums and then.

Peter: Um, it definitely went quick. but not in a, nothing was kind of s o overwhelming that it, that it freaked us out. It always, everything came along like right when we were ready for the next step to happen. So, you know, it’s like, we started recording a demo probably like after three or four shows and you know, by, after the, probably about six months after our first show, we had signed to an, our local , indie label. And, you know, a year later we had, uh, our first record done out, even, I think, and then like that summer, it’s like we were being courted by major labels and. Yeah, it, I mean, it did happen very quickly.

DJ: Capitol game knocking.[00:09:00]

Peter: Yeah, I mean, honestly, they all came knocking. Capitol was maybe, uh, it’s, it’s hard to say whether it was the best move or the right move. but it was the one label that kind of talked to us all as opposed to just Courtney.

DJ: Oh, okay. Okay.

Peter: And I don’t know if that was even part of the decision, but that’s why the rest of us liked Capitol more than, uh, say Elektra or uh, Sony or whatever, whoever else was there.

DJ: Interesting.

Peter: Yeah.

DJ: Well, throughout the course of the band, you know, when you were, now you’re putting out albums, you’re recording, You had written a lot of songs, of course, for the band, but you had written a lot of songs and you know, when did the idea for you to do like Pete International Airport, like to do a, you know, a side project?

It was not like you’re bailing out, you were just like, Hey, I wanna do this other project.

Peter: So, initially, like anytime I came up with a chord change that Courtney thought was interesting, he would, you know, write [00:10:00] lyrics to it and we would turn it into a song. and it was kind of, kind of one per album sort of thing

DJ: Hmm.

Peter: for a bit. and when we were doing Monkey House. he stopped being interested in what I was doing or maybe what I was doing was just not in line with what he was interested in.

So I started, ended up with a sort of more of a stockpile of these ideas. so at a certain point, I, you know, I, I felt like I needed to complete them. So that’s, that’s kind of how it started. It is just, I have this stockpile of songs, or not even songs, ideas. and since then it’s, it’s just become a way for me to , you know, really obsess on the, I don’t know, little details and things that I wanna do that don’t fit with The Dandys necessarily. I really like all the different alternate tunings and kinda lots of droney droney stuff. And, maybe I’m now maybe slightly more complex chord structure [00:11:00] to a song I, I don’t know, whatever it is.

DJ: Right. Well, I’m so glad you did because I, I love when musicians decide to branch out into other projects and, and your stuff was. Very experimental in a great way, and you get some amazing sound out of your guitars.

Peter: Oh, thank you. Yeah. lots of people making fun toys to play.

DJ: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I wish I had more. I’m still, I have three electric guitars and an acoustic and, uh, I’m, you know, for what I do, which isn’t a lot with it, I just play for my own enjoyment. But I, uh, yeah, I do fantasize about having just this, you know, big room full of like guitars. Someday. Well, the Dandy Warhols have released at least a dozen albums, including a recent, really great one in 2024, Rockmaker. it’s a great record. Uh, really liked it.

Peter: I’m quite, yeah, very proud of that one.

DJ: And Rockmaker featured appearances by Slash uh, Debbie Harry, black Francis. Uh, that was [00:12:00] very cool. but I was kinda looking back over. The catalog, and I think I had learned about this a long time ago, but I just sort of escaped my memory. But I mean, it obviously Rockmaker wasn’t the first time that you guys, uh, had guest appearances or, you know, personnel that were invited to play in an album, but at one point, didn’t Parker Posey play like mandolin?

Peter: Uh, yep.

DJ: On Welcome to the Monkey House, I think right.

Peter: Yeah. And the other one that gets com, like the other people in on that record that get sort of completely ignored is Nile Rodgers.

DJ: That’s right. I did see that.

Peter: And, and Simon Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes. Obviously, you know, it’s like the, but the Nile Rodgers ones like that. People don’t, nobody. Any, you know, made any fuss about that back then at all.

It’s really weird.

DJ: And you would think, I mean, he was huge and uh, loved all the stuff he did.

Peter: yeah.

DJ: Well, I remember,

Peter: And then, and then of course there’s Mark Knopfler and Mike Campbell on, [00:13:00] on a song too later.

DJ: Huh. Well, the Nile Rogers thing is making me think of, we mentioned, you know, Debbie Harry sang vocals on one, but I always really liked, I don’t know, I think I got mixed reviews, but when Debbie Harry put out Kookoo and she I mean, that was very, I mean, there was a lot of Nile Rodgers guitar and you know,

Peter: Mm-hmm.

DJ: Devo saying backing vocals, but, uh, yeah.

Nile. Yeah. Which is. Pretty, pretty amazing. Um, but Nile Rodgers, yeah, I did notice that he played on that album. That’s pretty amazing.. And on Rockmaker, am I right that it was primarily you and Courtney in the studio and maybe Zia, but, but Brent at that point had moved to Australia? I guess he maybe moved a while

Peter: Right. He, he moved a long time ago. Um, it was just during the pandemic, so there was no getting him over. and Zia, Zia was not into the idea of. That record at all. And so it was just, she would show up every once in a while and just kind of. I don’t know, just, [00:14:00] just it’s, I mean, it’s hard to come up with stuff when you’re not interested in it.

So yeah, she’s come around to liking the record, but she did not get it at first. I didn’t get it at first. It wasn’t until I actually wrote one of the riffs, for a song, um, for “The Cross”. And then it was like, oh, this is cool. This is fun. Uh, it’s a new, new approach. And then, yeah, ended up writing over half the, half the record with Courtney.

DJ: So at that point, you, you, you were into it.

Peter: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It, it all, like the songs were coming like, you know, like I sometimes one, uh, probably two or three a week, so it was, it was pretty quick. yeah, it was fun. It was very, very productive time for me.

DJ: And then, Rock Remaker. Was that just, was that stuff that just didn’t make it onto the original album or…

Peter: No, those are all remixes.

DJ: All remixes. Okay. Okay.

Peter: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, um, I’ve always, I love hearing, you know, other [00:15:00]interpretations of songs and, um, that was, that was a project I was. championing and I really wanted to do, to be a full record, but I couldn’t, just couldn’t get anybody else really interested in it at first.

But, you know, getting Andy Bell to do a remix and, and, and Oliver from A Place to Bury Strangers I would love those guys’ work. And then Anders from Trentemøller, I love his stuff. So it’s like, I just knew they were gonna be like cool, cool things. 

DJ: Well, yeah, I do need to listen to that whole thing. I listened to a, a track or two. 

Well, I first saw Dig at a film festival in St. Louis way back when it first hit the theaters, and I had not seen that in years until recently when I decided to watch it again. It’s tough to watch, but it’s fascinating. I mean, I would guess it maybe, is it painful to think about some of that period or no?

Or is it just, you know, a lot of good came out of that period for you guys,

Peter: It’s not painful for me to think [00:16:00] about that time. ’cause what we experienced wasn’t really that bad. Seeing kind of what Anton was going through and what Jonestown went through at certain points is, I mean, it’s rough, but I don’t know what their experience was, so it’s, you know, not, I don’t, I Really think about that part. the film itself is, I don’t know, I, I can’t watch it. 

DJ: I wondered about that,

Peter: I, I’ve seen it a few times obviously, but, um, I won’t watch it again. it’s not how I remember things. And I know, I know for a fact a lot of this footage is out, like it’s used to tell a story. It’s a good story. I wouldn’t call it a documentary.

It is, I don’t know. It’s not, it’s not necessarily fiction either. So it’s, it’s a weird, a weird thing. But, it did end up doing great things for Anton and Jonestown. the attention, they were brought to the world’s attention, [00:17:00] essentially through it. But they, Anton had to go through like hell for years with people just turning up, wanting to see him, you know, kind of melt down on stage. and I, that’s horrible. the best thing about Jonestown is their songs. They’re phenomenal songwriters. So, and if, and if he’s not, they’re not playing songs, you know, it’s just a Jerry Springer show or something. It’s just, that’s not fun.

DJ: Right.

Peter: But that is kind of our culture. Um,

DJ: Yeah.

Peter: But yeah, I don’t know. It’s, it’s a weird, weird movie.

I still don’t know if it was necessarily good or bad for us. We were doing just fine without it. And then it came out and that’s kind of when our career started going the other direction.

DJ: Yeah.

Peter: and not necessarily because of the movie, but the press definitely turned on us at that point. And, but they tend to do that eventually anyway.

Um.

DJ: Yeah. I do appreciate talking about it a bit ’cause I was just very curious what your, you know, what your thoughts were and I, I completely understand. I think, I think you, [00:18:00] the way you summed it up was like, yeah, I could, I could totally see that. So anyway, well thanks for indulging me on that.

Peter: Hey, this is Peter from The Dandy Warhols, and you’re listening to Frets with DJ Fey.

DJ: Well, I’m excited about and I want to hear about the upcoming Dandy Warhols album of cover songs, Pin Ups, um, you guys do your own versions of songs by The Cure Gang of Four, The Clash, The Cramps, The Runaways, even Dylan.

A lot of, a lot of great stuff there, but how did the idea come about?

Peter: Well we’ve, you know, over the years we’ve, been asked to do like covers for different compilations and, um, and then have done some covers for B sides and just other random ones here and there. and a lot of those are not available, and none of them. none of ’em, but most of them were never a avail or weren’t available on vinyl.

So, it was just something that, we wanted to compile and, and release. and Mike Nesbitt at Little Cloud Records has been bugging me about this for years, so kind of finally got it together [00:19:00] and it’s a, it’s such a cool collection of songs and, There’s a few that have never been released, and a few that were like, I don’t know, exclusives for whatever streaming service.

back when after, after like B-sides for seven inches and stuff became obsolete. and then there’s some from B-sides back when B-sides on seven inches. came back.

DJ: Yeah. Huh.

Peter: So it was fun sequencing. It. It’s like they’re kind of all over the place. Some aren’t properly mixed. Some some are terribly mixed, some are really nicely mixed.

They’re all very weird.

DJ: Well, I’ve been building up my vinyl collection again and I’m a sucker for colored vinyl. So it looks like you can get the, it looks like you can get the album on, what is it? Translucent Yellow with Baby Blue Blob.

Peter: Uh, yeah,

DJ: Blue blob. Okay.

Peter: I know. That’s fun to say that.

DJ: I just get a bang outta color descriptions of vinyl these days.

They’re pretty creative. Pete, you’ve had an [00:20:00] amazing music career and I admire your guitar playing and songwriting so much. We really didn’t get into gear much, and I don’t always anyway, but I am intrigued. I’m intrigued by those DAO guitars you have.

I assume it’s pronounced “dow”, like the Eastern philosophy.

Peter: Huh.

DJ: There was a Tao, I don’t know.

Peter: I think it, I think it’s ta um.

DJ: Oh, okay. I was assuming a lot.

Peter: yeah, that’s a, a Belgian company. Um, I only have one of theirs actually. Um, yeah, I, the guitars I’ve been playing lately are, um, built by a guy named Saul Koll, K-O-L-L. Um, and he’s, he’s here in Portland.

DJ: I read that. I don’t know anything about him, but I read that. Yeah.

Peter: He’s, he is, he makes fantastic guitars.

He made me the black one first as sort of. it was kind of be a replacement for my SG that I played for 20 years. I loved it so much that I kind of, I ordered two more and then, then another one. Now that’s kind of all I play live, except for the basics for a few songs. yeah.

DJ: Like I [00:21:00] said, I just assume my mind went to like the Tao of whatever, so it’s “dow”. Okay, that makes sense.

Peter: But, and those guys, they’re out of Brussels and they make stunning guitars. Their shit’s are, it’s just a, it’s all just a work of art and Want them. But I also like don’t want things that just sit around and look pretty. Um, I want to pick them on stage and beat the hell out of them, and it just doesn’t seem right with some of those guitars.

DJ: Yeah,

Peter: Just so beautiful.

DJ: I like their tagline. It’s uh, I saw it on their site, says, “We don’t make guitars, we make statements”.

Peter: Yeah, for sure.

DJ: that.

Peter: Yeah.

DJ: Well, Peter Holmström, thanks man. So cool of you to take the time to be a guest on Frets. I really appreciate it.

Peter: You’re welcome. Thank you.

DJ: All right, man. Well, best of luck on the release of Pin Ups. I’m sure people are gonna love it.

Peter: Yeah, can’t wait for people to hear it.

DJ: All right,

Peter: Cool.

DJ: Thanks man.

Peter: Yeah. [00:22:00] Thank you.

DJ: See you. Bye.