I Am Free

Album: This Machine (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor says this song is about the anguish the band went through regarding the 2004 documentary Dig!. The film is about The Dandys' relationship with the band The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and specifically with that band's frontman Anton Newcomb. In 2012, Taylor-Taylor told us that the film was "a major bulls--t dupe" and that they felt like they had been "lied to and dragged through the s--t" just so that director Ondi Timoner could have a brief career.

    After Dig!, it was very hard for the members of The Dandy Warhols to trust anyone around them. Taylor-Taylor says it took him about five years after the film was released for him to realize that the band was back to being surrounded by only people they liked. This song is about that feeling of realization, which Taylor-Taylor says was "amazing." (Here's the full Dandy Warhols interview.)
  • Courtney Taylor-Taylor says that the line "My darkest past is fading fast" in this song is about surrounding yourself with people like you. He told us that he found it "extremely cleansing" to know that he was back to meeting interesting people on tour again. He also said that he felt like a false persona had been created for him for the 2004 film Dig!, and that "when someone invents a false persona for you and puts it into the world, you will be surrounded by f--kheads until that false persona is forgotten."

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