Hi Kurt, Starving Winter Report released in the UK and Europe 3rd October - when is it due to for release in the US?
The last week of February.

Why release it first in the UK?
Because we had this tour that we wanted to do in the fall. We’ve been trying to make it so that we come back every six or eight months to the UK for the last year and a half, when actually this is our fifth tour, so we’re coming back regularly. And we told the label that we’re signed to in the states, Bloodshot, that we just recently signed with, that what we wanted to do was have this record available for the fall of ’05, because we had a record out the spring of ’04 here and we didn’t want to wait two years to have the second follow up, so they helped us out, they got hold of Evangeline, here in the UK, and Evangeline agreed to license it from Bloodshot. And they said that they could meet that deadline, so it was kind of all rushed, and everything thrown together because of wanting to get it out this fall. Also we didn’t want to try and do touring on both continents because we can’t do it simultaneously, we were hoping for a staggered release, and they helped us out with that.

Over the last few weeks, here in the UK, have there been any particular highlights?
It’s been pretty consistent y’know, it’s been alright.

Any particularly good crowds you’ve had?
Y’know our crowds are pretty consistent here. Our first show was at Brighton, with Richmond Fontaine, and that was a really well attended show. They’re quite popular here at the moment, so that was a really great show, and it was put on by Sean and Dave at The Gilded Palace of Sin, some of the best promoters that we’ve worked with over here so… they’re great.

Did you find that the Richmond Fontaine audience took to you?
Sure. I think they identified pretty strongly with what we’re doing, sure.

Do you measure these things by the number of CD’s you sell on the night?
If we did that, yeah we’d have to say yeah, definitely, they identified with what we were doing, because we moved a lot of merch that night and the crowd seemed receptive. I think that readers of all the stuff that’s available… you guys have a lot of stuff available here in the UK, in regards to magazines and websites that are geared towards American music, so audiences that like some American music, I think, would understand what we’re doing, because of how rooted in American music we are. I think that everyone that understands the history of American music, country and blues and rock and stuff would kinda understand what we’re doing on some level.

Do you find that people doing that, because they have that knowledge, keep quoting people like The Band, and Gram Parsons; do you get sick of those sort of comparisons?
I don’t get sick of them at all. That’s…I mean there’s a lot of other stuff in there, but they’re still getting the stuff that’s not out of my spectrum whatsoever, it’s very much in the spectrum. There’s a lot of other stuff in there, but maybe it’s just not all coming through yet, on records and live.

What were you listening to when you were growing up?
Gram Parsons and The Band and Dylan and The Stones and Willy Nelson, the list of country legends in America and everything in between. I mean I turned over every stone that I had available to me when I was young, and growing up listening to the music y’know.

You’re from Detroit; we’re told that Detroit is this decade’s Seattle. Do you think that’s true?
I don’t know. There’s a lot of talent there. I think the garage thing certainly had enough bands where you could say, “Yeah, there’s definitely a scene there.” And they all… a lot of them have been able to get out and do good business, but I just think… that scene’s been there for so long, and it pre-dates that Seattle scene, that doesn’t mean anything against the Seattle scene, all I’m saying is that Detroit scene’s been cultivated for so long, and it was a local music scene, and a local music community, for so long that once the thing popped, it all started being able to do business all over the world. I just think it’s a good thing; it’s wonderful they can bring it out and they can all make a living doing it, it’s a wonderful thing y’know.

People talk about a scene, but the people I’ve seen from Detroit, like the White Stripes and Blanche and Brendan Benson and yourselves, all seem vastly different really, it is a different scene?
Well, yeah the bands that you just mentioned are definitely different but there was more of a that ’60’s rock inspired garage thing that… nobody called it garage in Detroit, we never have, and never do, that was a term that the media put on it which, for whatever purpose, is fine. All I’m saying is that all those bands were there, The White Stripes and a lot of bands that play more of that style of rock, Brendan and Blanche and stuff, yeah they’re not that style, so I guess it is quite varied.

What do you make of Liverpool, I believe you’ve been here before?
Yeah, we really like the town. Actually it’s a little bit more like Detroit than a lot of other cities in England y’know? More of a working class thing, girls wear short skirts, we feel pretty at home in Liverpool personally, we like it.

What’s next for you?
Just more of the same, y’know, with regards to… I don’t want to make the same record every time, but making records and touring is basically what we have planned, and I don’t really have any other plans other than doing that.

The band personnel has changed over the last couple of years. Obviously it’s a core based around yourself, would you see yourself recording on your own?
Sure, yeah, I do that quite a bit, but we… the band really hasn’t changed in the last couple of years. The band that we started with, and recorded the first record with, wasn’t really a band. And it was when we started touring that we became a band. That’s when Travis (Harrett) the drummer, and Phil (Skarich) has been with me since the beginning, and Masha (Marjieh) has been as well. And we have a kind of revolving door with the piano and the steel. Ross Westerbur plays with us on the new record, and he’s been playing with us for years. He just didn’t play on the first record, but I’ve been playing with him for a really long, long time. He will probably continue to be on the records as well as Charles Hughes who we’re touring with now, on piano, will probably continue to be on the records as well on some level y’know, but yeah I don’t know so much about the personnel… I feel really comfortable about touring with this line up for a while, and Nick Zala on steel guitar, he’s actually from London he’s an Englishman. And this is his second, third tour with us, so he’s kind getting comfortable with the band, and we’re getting comfortable with him too. He’s a great player.

What have you been listening to?
Gosh, I’ve been listening to the same music I’ve been listening to my whole life. I usually try to find new music by, y’know, people like Willy Nelson, undiscovered older tracks, and there’s a Band box set, which just came out, that I think there’s some stuff on that that I don’t have, and just digging up old American music, there’s so much of it that’s still is unheard y’know. And you go to the Library of Congress and the Lomax tapes and you go through all this amazing stuff, and there’s a wealth of music there that you can dig through, and dig through, without… I don’t listen to a lot of new records, I listen to a lot of older music y’know, and I’m always searching it out.

Well thank you very much Kurt, thanks for your time.
Thank you.