Bondie ambition

If you think Ireland is in economic free-fall, spare a thought for Detroit – blighted heart of the American rust-belt and, according to Von Bondie’s Jason Stollsteimer, a city on the brink of the apocalypse.

“I guarantee, if you walked two blocks in Detroit you would be mugged,” says the singer. “The people there, they can smell the ‘outsiderness’ off you. They know you have money. Man, they would just sniff you out.”
So why remain the resident of a town that, if we are to believe Stollsteimer, isn’t so much a poverty black-spot as an open wound of deprivation and despair ? “I’m not staying! In ten years I won’t be there,” says Stollsteimer. “You know, that’s why bands in Detroit tour so much – to get the hell out of Detroit. In Ireland, you have bands like Ham Sandwich who don’t need to tour. In Detroit everyone has to the tour – ‘cos the alternative is staying at home! I’ve lost count of the number of bands who’ve had equipment stolen. I don’t plan to live here a long time. I’ll be in Ireland.”
He isn’t being cute, Stollsteimer, presently shilling for Von Bondie’s bluesy new record, Love Hate, And Then There’s You, their first since 2004’s gutbucket break-out, Pawnshoppe Heart, has a long-running love affair with this country (hence the Ham Sandwich name-drop). He’s actually in a long-term relationship with Donna McCabe, of recently demised rockabilly outfit The Dagger Lees. “Those guys were a fantastic band,” says Stollsteimer. “They were so successful in their regular careers that they simply didn’t have the time to carry on.”
So when he says he loves Ireland, you know it isn’t the usual condescending misty-eyed bullcrap. He doesn’t even wax sentimental about ‘the craic’. “Do you know, I don’t think I have a favourite pub,” he says. “I only get to spend about three months of the year in Ireland so I want to make the most of it. Me and my girlfriend do a lot of ‘quality’ things. We’ve toured all over. The last time, I went to the Burren in Clare. I call it the ‘The Barren’ ‘cos of how it looks.”
Von Bondies scored a mid-size hit with Pawn Shoppe standout ‘C’mon C’mon’. but chances are the Strollseimer first materialised on your radar after brawling with fellow Motor City native Jack White in a Detroit bar in 2005, as a result of which White pleaded guilty to assault and had to attend anger management classes.
Behind the dust-up simmered long running differences over White’s production work – or last thereof – on the 2001 Von Bondie’s album Lack Of Communication. The crux of the dispute was whether White had been entitled to claim exclusive credit for the production or whether another associate of the band, Jim Diamond, was entitled to some of the glory. Neither party, we’re told, has exchanged Christmas cards since.
But such controversy seems a long way from Stollsteimer mind this morning as his tour bus cruises through the sun-dappled fields of Ohio. “I love Detroit,” he says. “But I don’t think it’s a place where you can live long term. It’s been abandoned by the Government. I’m sure it will get better some day. But first it’s got to hit rock bottom. That’s what is happening at the moment.”

Love Hate, And Then There’s You is out now. Von Bondies play the Academy 2, Dublin (May 6); Roisin Dubh, Galway (7); Academy, Dublin (8 – DJ set); Nerve Centre, Derry (9); Limelight, Belfast (10); Cyprus Avenue, Cork (11); and Dolan’s, Limerick (12).