Detroit Social Club

Interview: Detroit Social Club

Published on April 29th, 2010 | Jonny Abrams

Rocksucker caught up with David Burn, lead singer of hotly-tipped north eastern rockers Detroit Social Club, to discuss, amongst other things, Bobby Gillespie playing drums on a table…

What does Noel Gallagher’s approval of your band mean to you? Didn’t you support Oasis?

Yeah we supported them on their last ever UK gig. He knew all about our music when he came up and talked to us! I was never an avid fan of Oasis but their music changed our lives.

What was it like supporting Primal Scream?

Amazing. The best three days of my life. It was in Ireland too, where I’d never been. They were amazing people. I remember the first thing they came up and said: “That’s your dressing room, that’s ours, but the door’s always open and you’re welcome in and out.” Which is amazing for a band like that. It’s how it should be done. Getting to watch them every night as well wasn’t too bad either!

What’s Bobby Gillespie like?

How can I put this? He’s affected by the lifestyle he’s led, if that makes any sense! You can tell he’s had a very good time for the past 20 years. But it would be disappointing to find him any other way. He was an amazing bloke and he sat and talked to us – he’s one of the most passionate and knowledgeable about music people I’ve probably ever met. The way he reels off band names and knows individual names of band members that he shouldn’t even know.

He carries a pair of drumsticks around with him everywhere – it’s easy to forget he started out as a drummer [for The Jesus & Mary Chain] – and he just sits and plays drums on the table when he’s pissed and everyone else is talking. He puts on The Rolling Stones as loud as he can in their dressing room and sits and drums along to it on the wall. He’s everything you want him to be, basically.

What are your main musical influences personally?

The Rolling Stones. A lot of sixties stuff, like early Motown stuff. Brian Jonestown Massacre. Obviously Primal Scream. There’s definitely an element of the Britpop era because that’s when I fell in love with music. The Stooges and MC5. The Small Faces. The Beatles. And then I love later stuff like Bjork. It’s a million different things and hopefully that wide range of influences comes out in our music.

Could you name the single best album of all time?

Urban Hymns by The Verve. No…Revolver!

Good shout. Finally, what does the immediate future hold for Detroit Social Club? Oh, and why the name?

When I first started the project and it was just me, it was quite an Americana kind of sound. I was doing American history at university. So I wanted something that gave a nod to America but also had a sort of northern English heritage, which is obviously the Social Club. So I put the two together and it sounded quite cool.

To answer your other question, we’ve got an album out end of May and a single out just before then. Then we’re doing loads of festivals. We’re doing Glastonbury a couple of times on the Friday, we’re going over to Japan and we’ve just done Amsterdam this weekend which I’m still a little bit tender from! So it’s an exciting summer ahead.

Artists:

About the Author

Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *