The specter of Mark Lanegan lingers over the new Afghan Whigs album "How Do You Burn?" — and not just because the former Screaming Trees frontman lent his baritone growl to two of its songs and posed the question that gave the record its name.
In February, hours after the Whigs released "I'll Make You See God," the album's concussive opening track and first single, word of Lanegan's death shook the music world.
The 57-year-old singer and author, who had been open about his past struggles with both alcoholism and heroin addiction, as well as surviving a near-fatal COVID-19 infection last year, died of still-unspecified causes at his home in Ireland.
Now bandleader Greg Dulli finds himself — not for the first time — honoring a dear friend and collaborator while promoting a new record, this time the Afghan Whigs' third post-reunion album and its accompanying tour, which comes to Englewood's Gothic Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 1.
"It's never easy to lose someone you care about," Dulli said, talking to The Denver Post late last month while driving out to the California desert from Los Angeles. "I don't have to tell any sentient being that. When you love someone, be it man or beast, that is the greatest connection you have on this planet. It is that one and only possession that you can't possess."
Dulli first enlisted Lanegan as a guest vocalist on record and in concert with the Twilight Singers, his 2000s-era project that was bookended by the two incarnations of the Whigs. They also teamed up as the Gutter Twins, releasing an album and EP together in 2008.
But, Dulli said, his friend long had wanted to sing on an Afghan Whigs record.
"It was a goal of his," Dulli said. "He kept busting my balls about not being on one, so I was like, 'All right, I got you, man.' But then, unfortunately for him, I also gave both songs to (R&B singer and Whigs collaborator) Van Hunt, and Van Hunt kind of took over.
"If Mark was around today, I guarantee you the only thing he'd say is, 'I can't even hear myself on there.' And he'd not be incorrect, but I'll tell you this: If you took Mark off of those songs ('Jyja' and 'Take Me There'), you would notice it, because Mark has that gravitas that few earthlings ever had. You take him out, and you lose a lot in the (subwoofers)."
Dulli resurrected the Afghan Whigs with bassist John Curley and guitarist Rick McCollum, both original members, in 2011 after a decade apart — though by the time the group got down to recording new music, in the form of 2014's "Do to the Beast," McCollum was out.
Through that album and 2017 follow-up "In Spades," the Whigs' second incarnation found Dulli, as songwriter and musician, not strictly picking up where the band left off in the '90s — grunge-adjacent rockers steeped in soul and R&B — but incorporating some of the Twilight Singers' sonic flourishes, along with some of that band's lineup as well.
For Dulli, it's been a single musical continuum.
"I wasn't going to revert back to something that I had already done," he said. "I'm in a creative flow and I am honoring that creative flow and it continues to take me to new places, and I'm grateful for that."
The Whigs' new album, a standout collection of swaggering rock noir, is the band's ninth since 1988, and further cements its reunion era as a rare success not just on stage but on record. That's all the more impressive considering "How Do You Burn?" is a product of the pandemic, assembled remotely via Pro Tools and FaceTime across multiple states.
The sessions came about after Dulli was forced to cancel all touring in support of his solo album "Random Desire," released in February 2020, just weeks before the country began shutting down.
The Afghan Whigs circa 2022, from left: Patrick Keeler, Rick Nelson, Christopher Thorn, Greg Dulli and John Curley. (Photo via Big Feat PR)
Instead, Dulli hunkered down with drummer Patrick Keeler and co-producer — and new Whigs guitarist — Christopher Thorn, a former member of '90s MTV staple Blind Melon, at Thorn's studio in Joshua Tree, California, off and on from September 2020 to December 2021. From there, they sent in-progress songs to Curley in Cincinnati, guitarist John Skibic in New Jersey and multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson in New Orleans, seeking their individual musical input.
"When the Twilight Singers made 'Powder Burns,' I was in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina, so it was very much a remote recording (situation) down there," he said. 'So 'Powder Burns,' that was my practice run on all of this. I knew exactly what to do."
That included reaching out to some of the familiar voices who've helped accentuate Dulli's lyrics in the past, not just Lanegan and Van Hunt, but Susan Marshall, Ed Harcourt and — most dramatically — Marcy Mays. The Scrawl frontwoman stole the Whigs' landmark 1993 record "Gentlemen" with her anguished lead vocal on "My Curse," the female counterpoint to Dulli's album-length exploration of a toxic relationship.
Dulli revisits those characters on the new piano ballad "Domino and Jimmy," this time as a duet: "Like a living ghost," Mays sings to Dulli, "You get lost inside my head."
"I wrote it for her," Dulli said. "We had been talking on the phone and I was like, 'We should do another song some day,' and she was like, 'Yes, we should.' And when I hung up the phone I was like, 'Don't be the guy who asks somebody to lunch and never goes to lunch. Don't be that guy.' So I wrote her verse and the chorus first and then once I heard her sing it, I wrote my verse and sang it with her. … I love her voice and it was really fun to sing with her this time."
Now that the record's out, Dulli's thrilled to be getting back in front of crowds. An early U.S. run this past spring was a bit tenuous, he said, as the Afghan Whigs and the band's crew adjusted to the new world of pandemic-era touring. But summer dates in Europe "felt very normal," he said.
Musically, Dulli continues to look forward — at the time of this interview he was headed to Joshua Tree to record with Thorn — but with an eye on the somewhat recent past, as he puts the finishing touches on a long-promised Twilight Singers box set. The collection will be anchored by remastered editions of the five albums the band released between 2000 and 2011, each "with reimagined artwork."
"It'll be all the records, the EPs, all the covers, all the outtakes, and then some unfinished songs," Dulli said. "I found a bunch of stuff. There's one whole record of covers, outtakes and unreleased music. I'm psyched about it."
Not only that, Dulli said he's open to mounting one final tour with the Twilight Singers to spotlight that band's material in conjunction with the box set's expected 2023 release.
"I would consider doing another last hurrah with those boys," Dulli said. "I remain a devout Twilight Singers fan. Anything to get people back listening to that stuff, I'm all for it. … I don't know about making new music under that name again, but I learned about 10 years ago to never say never, so there you go."
What: The Afghan WhigsWhen: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1Where: Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, EnglewoodTickets: $39.75-$45Info: gothictheatre.com
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