Greg Dulli has experienced indie hero worship before -- most famously when the Afghan Whigs' brilliant 1993 release 'Gentlemen' garnered the band both remarkable reviews and a major cult audience. But now 15 years older, Dulli is savoring the success of his current project, the Gutter Twins. A partnership with fellow indie stalwart Mark Lanegan, the album brought Dulli back to play on 'David Letterman' for the first time in a dozen years and earned the pair a spot at this summer's Lollapalooza.
The always outspoken and entertaining Dulli spoke with Spinner about working with Lanegan, returning to Sub Pop (his first home), upcoming projects, celebrity in the Internet age, and why classic-rock icons Lindsey Buckingham and Don Henley are lucky they didn't earn fame today. How has working with another person accustomed to being a frontman affected you?
It's not as hard as you might think. Mark toured with the Twilight Singers, he did a hundred shows with us, so it wasn't like I didn't know how to do that. And, actually, we both discussed how it's a little easier when you're sharing the singing. You can breathe better, you don't get worn out as fast; all in all, it's a pretty positive experience. I'm sure that we'll both go back to doing our own thing and then we'll both come back to doing this again. In the best possible world, it's something we can do at a whim and probably for the rest of our lives.
Does the success of the project change your approach at all?Our plan was to do this and then go back and do our own thing, and that is what we'll do. But will we come back and do another Gutter Twins record? Sure. I don't know when that will be. It may be 2012 or 2015 or 2020, but I know that we both want to do our own records next. And he's doing another Soul Savers record. Mark's much more busy than I am as far as with bands. He has, like, five; I only have two.