Zia McCabe whipped her dress off on her first trip to Brighton and had a shock when she realised she had picked the wrong spot to get naked.

Still, she reveals to The Guide, “I’ve got good memories of that first trip to Europe.”

She’d read about the continent’s liberal attitude to bathing, but obviously not the British approach.

“I thought it would be a topless beach like I’d read about as a kid. I whipped my dress off and I was hanging around in my panties and nobody was topless and it wasn’t even that warm out.

“That was my introduction to Brighton and England. But the copper was really nice and told me it was the wrong beach.”

The British tabloid press was not so kind to McCabe after her regular de-robing on stage with her band The Dandy Warhols.

The papers’ writers couldn’t decide if her actions were feminism or exhibitionism. She says it was neither.

“It was a moment of freedom. It was not premeditated.”

She believes it got sensationalised and lost interest when critics called it a stunt.

“That was the end of that for me. It cheapened the whole thing. It made me feel really embarrassed. Is that what people were really thinking?

“Were people really coming to see me take my shirt off?

The band also made the mistake of being open with the press about their partying.

“We did not know what the deal was. None of us had drug problems. We had nothing to hide, but it cast shadow over our actual art.”

We’re chatting the day after Portland’s Naked Bike Ride. McCabe posted pictures of her in action on The Dandy Warhols’ website.

She finally got the chance to join her home city’s protest against car culture after years missing out on the world’s largest naked bike ride.

Ever since the indie band scored a whirlwide smash with Bohemian Like You – after Vodaphone picked it to soundtrack an advert in 2001 – life has been constant touring or recording.

Dates in England have been rare, though, despite the band releasing seven albums since 2000. It’s the arrival of a new booking agent which has got them back in front of UK audiences.

They’ve also got their first live album, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia Live At The Wonder, to promote. 2013 marked the 13th anniversary of the release of the hugely successful record – and a celebratory tour produced the album.

“There are no overdubs and it’s not perfect because it is live. The sacrifices we made in songs to get the mix interesting makes it a fun live album. It feels like you are there.”

The album’s initial release, which followed the dreamy haze of ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down, flopped.

Only when Vodaphone got on board did the DJs start to spin what McCabe says was the band’s attempt to “make the last classic rock album ever”.

At the time, The Dandies felt like there were no guitar records being made, never mind worth listening to.

“With each record what we’ve always done - and even the reason the band exists - is we’ve always tried to make music we are not hearing.

“By time Thirteen Tales came around nobody was using guitars on albums anymore.

“We made a joke we were making the last classic rock album ever. The song-writing is straightforward. Four chord songs with clever tricks.

“It’s about the production and instrumentation and vintage gear,” thinks McCabe.

2013 also commemorated 20 years of The Dandy Warhols. And now McCabe has her eyes on another birthday. Dig!, the rockumentary by Ondi Timoner which won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, is ten years old this year.

It pitted The Dandies in a feud with fellow Portlandian rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre.

McCabe was disappointed with the end result after allowing the director unlimited access.

“We were so naive,” she says, before revealing they’d love to get hold of the hundreds of hours of unused footage to share with fans.

“The story is in the eyes of the beholder and she is the one holding camera. It is her story.”