How did you get involved with the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols?
Ondi Timoner: I was originally making a film about art colliding with commerce and how that affects the art, the music. I was going to focus on 10 bands on the verge of getting signed. I’d heard the Brian Jonestown Massacre and thought they were some band I’d never heard of from the ‘60s, but a friend told me “No, they’re alive and well and up in San Francisco. You should go talk to them.” I happened to be going to the Bay Area anyway, so I arranged to meet them, thinking at the time they’d be part of this film I was working on, called “The Cut.” The first scene in “DIG!” is with Anton. It was his birthday and he’d shown up late for a show. The club told him, “Sorry, you can’t play” and he was so disappointed because he was excited to play for me. Anton is a larger-than-life character and I liked his music. He was trying to take on the music industry, telling me “I’m the letter writer and they’re the postmen.” I realized he had such an antagonistic approach to this business and it look
