“I’mliving my , everyday” AN AUDIENCE WITH GREG DULLI

“I’m not sitting around waiting for something bad to happen so I can write a song”

GREG Dulli recalls the first time he came to London with The Afghan Whigs, circa 1989. “We played this place called The Venue and it was one of those after-the-gig disco things. It was like, ‘Whoa, ecstasy! Cool!’ People zonkers and loopy, or passed out on the floor. But I was so excited because I loved so many English bands. I was blown away.”

These days, Dulli’s scene is more cold-brew coffee and margaritas, but he’s lost none of his enthusiasm for seeing the world. Last September he came to the UK just for fun. “I fucking loved it! I went up to Oxfordshire to hang out with Ed Harcourt, I took trains, I walked like crazy.” And today he’s back in London, unveiling his first ever solo album.

He’s keen to stress that The Afghan Whigs, reactivated in 2012, are still a going concern. “But Patrick Keeler is in The Raconteurs. John Curley wentis an introspective, lonely affair; in fact it’s as gloriously sweeping and grandiose as any Afghan Whigs or Twilight Singers album. “I want to make a stripped-down record, I fully intend to, and they start out that way. But I’m always like, ‘Ooh, maybe a harp, maybe some horns, maybe a string section…’”