David Knopfler knows it's only a matter of time before the question comes up.
In every interview with every journalist, he gets asked about his falling out with his brother, Mark, with whom he founded one of the biggest bands in the world, Dire Straits.
"Most families have problems," he says. "If you have a public family, more people see them."
The brothers Knopfler started Dire Straits in 1977 and after playing some tracks to get feedback from radio DJ Charlie Gillett, he played the song that became their first hit, "Sultans of Swing," on the air right away.
Success led to problems, as anyone who has watched VH1's Behind the Music knows. While recording their their third album, the elder Knopfler laid off his brother, in the name of "creative differences." They both wanted to write songs, but there was only room for one writer.
"I don't have a problem with it," he says decades later. "It was a long, long, long time ago. You've got to move on and you can't look back. I was married 25 years and divorced. You move on."
In a phone interview from the Black Oak Casino, he says the rift complicated their family life (Also here in an Australian interview). But he wouldn't say no to playing together again.
"He's off on his own path," he says of Mark, who went on to sell more than 120 million discs. "If he wants to come back and talk, I would love to. There's not much evidence he's going to."
On his own, David has recorded more than a dozen albums, some of which, because of the similarities of his voice and their melancholy Scottish roots, sound not unlike his brother's work. In fact, if you didn't know better, you'd think you were hearing great, unreleased Dire Straits songs.
No surprise. David co-wrote many of the band's early songs and the whole band arranged them.
He's been touring as an acoustic duo with longtime friend and writing mate Harry Bogdanovs, but Bogdanovs needed emergency surgery in England, so Knopfler's been playing solo.
He loves California, where he'd live if he wasn't raising an 11-year-old in New York. "I've always thought it should be an honorary member of the European Union," he says. "It's not like the rest of the country."
His most recent two releases are live acoustic duos Made in Germany and Acoustic with Bogdanovs and they are breathtaking. Knopfler alternates between guitar and piano and creates elegaic songs that focus on his new found land.
He's lived in the upstate New York town of Geneseo, a place some former residents say is so cold and grey it makes Scotland seem like Hawaii. It's lent a feeling of dire straits to his writing.
His favorite recent composition is "Hard Times (In Idaho)", which he says was drawn from the cold of upstate New York, a song of blizzards and undertow.
The songwriting is strong and the playing clear and true. It's surprising that the younger Knopfler isn't more well known, but it's safe to say that any fans of early pre-MTV Dire Straits will find a welcome home here.
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Knopfler plays Saturday, May 18, 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $23/Advance $28/Door
Tickets available: www.ticketfly.com and Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. Doors: 7:30 PM More info: 877-435-9849 (tickets) or 650-298-3434
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