From the Dublin Event Guide (17 November, 2004):

Hubble Bubble

Not content with having cult status from being frontman with Screaming Trees and vocalist with Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan has now released a 15-track monster of an album, 'Bubblegum', full of dark and brooding sentiment and a few serious rock outs thrown in for good measure. In the deepest drawl imaginable, he spoke to The Event Guide about life as it is at the moment.

Can you tell us a little about the making of Bubblegum? Was it an easy process ?
>It was one of the easier ones that I've done, mainly because I was surrounded by a lot of good people. I've always been blessed that I have had people who were prepared to give themselves to these projects and who have put themselves out for me. All the guys from the Queens were great, as was Chris Goss, who I had worked with sporadically over the years.

The diversity of the moods on the record is quite extreme - from the utter beauty of 'Strange Religion' to the head-wrecking 'Sideways In Reverse'and 'Driving Death Valley Blues'. There is also a huge energy coming from yourself.
>Those songs that you mention I like a lot, and they all came out very easily. It kind of made itself because of the things that were going on with me at the time.

Is there any sense that you can kick back for a while and just tout this till it's done or are you working on songs all the time ?
>I wish I could kick back, but if I wasn't writing while touring I'd never get anything done. I don't have the luxury of kicking back. I'm usually already far into the next project and I'm already halfway though a couple of records. One is with Isobel Campbell, of Belle and Sebastian. She and I are making an album of duets together.

Of your own work or of covers ?
>Both, but predominantly originals. She is a great talent, and it's a lot of fun. I was a fan of her band and one day, when I was in Portugal, ot of the blue I got a letter from her. She said she had all my records and that she had a song that she had the music for and wondered if I would like to try and write some lyrics for it. I did, sent them back to her, and our friendship grew from there.

Who else are you working with ?
>I have a band with Greg Dulli, from Afghan Whigs and the Twilight Singers. It's called The Gutter Twins and we're halfway through a record there.

When we spoke to Greg Dulli earlier this year he mentioned that, and spoke about how excited he was at the prospect of recording it.
>This is something we have been talking about for a very long time. He's one of my best friends, and we've been messing around with songs for ever. I sing on the Twilight Singers stuff occasionally and of course he sings on 'Bubblegum'. This will be the first straight collaboration and it's turning out to be very different to anything we've done before. It's really exciting.

Greg Dulli was also singing your praises as he related how one night you saved his life.
>I don't want to sound corny or anything but he has done that for me many times. I know that both of us might not have the greatest public reputations but he has the biggest heart of anyone I know. I would gladly step in front of a train for him.

How is the current tour going ?
>It's great. I have a very good band, the shows have been great and we're having a lot of fun. We're just rolling from town to town.

What are the Dublin audience likely to hear in the set ?
>We've been taking material from a lot of different sources and recently it has been getting even weirder. You're likely to hear anything from any of the various projects that I've been involved with.