After a four-year hiatus, Jason Stollsteimer’s Von Bondies return to the Detroit stage this weekend as part of the Detour Rock City three-day festival at the Majestic Theater center and the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID).

Having built their name across the globe with some serious mainstream success in the early part of the decade, the band all but disappeared to concentrate on marriage, kids and all that grown up stuff. Never one to stop working though, Stollsteimer kept himself busy in the studio writing and recording songs for the forthcoming “Love, Hate and Then There’s You” album.

Now they’re back though, albeit with a new line-up, and Friday’s bill at the Majestic sees them joining the Terrible Twos, Childbite and the Displays on what should be a fantastic evening of Motor City rock ‘n’ roll.

The ever-amiable Stollsteimer spoke to MMX about what he’s been up to, what he has planned for the future, and how that new album is sounding.

Where the hell have you been?
I toured for four years and played every venue I ever wanted to play. We got to the biggest size we ever got to, and I was satisfied. I was tired. We did what every band should do. In America, we were doing 800-1,000 [capacity] theatres. So we got to the biggest point, and then we stopped playing live. I’ve constantly been in the studio for the last four years, but I just couldn’t see it getting any bigger and I was happy. I got married in that time, and just recently got divorced. If you were really happy at home, why would you want to go on tour? But I wasn’t happy at home. The drummer and I have constantly been writing songs though.

There have been line-up changes. What can you tell us about the current band?
It’s still two boys and two girls, which it has to be because the songs are based on having two female vocalists. It’s not a shtick, that’s the way we write. Basically what happened was, in the time that we took four years off, some people wanted to go to school, some people wanted to move, some people wanted to have families. That’s what happens when you’re not 19.

There were no grudges or anything like that, but the band right now is probably at its musical peak because we have the best musicians that we’ve ever had. The first record, “Lack of Communication,” was entirely written by me, and I played guitar and bass on some of it. The second record I played some guitar on again. So the same exact musicians are on the albums, it’s just a matter of who the touring line-up is. You’re always going to get the Von Bondies on the album.

The new album’s done…
Yes, the new album’s been done for a year and a half, but I’m going to go in and record five more songs in July. I’ll probably end up giving some of the songs away, and some of them will end up as B-sides. The album didn’t take four years to write, but after that amount of time you have a plethora of songs and you get to pick what you want. There’s no filler on this record.

Do you have any news on a release date?
In America, it will come out in January at the latest and October at the earliest. There will be a single, although it’s not like the UK here. Bands get one “single” chance, unless you’re the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day. It’s just not worth the label’s money.

Has the sound progressed since the last record?
Live, it’s identical. It’s still raw, pure rock ‘n’ roll. On the record, you can’t go backwards, so yes it has progressed. But just like the last record, the more upbeat the record is the darker the lyrics are. “C’mon C’mon” was a straightforward pop song just like “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” If you played it acoustically, it’s just a pop song. On the new record, the tone is darker.

Do you still enjoy playing in Detroit?
I haven’t played here in five years or so. The fans here are really great. Around 2002, there was so much music that was getting known internationally that people got spoiled, and now barely anybody goes to local shows compared to what used to happen. We haven’t seen that – we play once every four years in Detroit and we make it more of an event, rather than the same local band you saw last week.

With this Detour show, I got to handpick the bands. That was part of the deal. For example, The Displays are these really young kids. They went to middle school with my ex-wife’s sister. I saw them there. They were 8^th graders when she was in 6^th grade. They won battle of the bands and stuff. It’s all about helping the young bands.

Do you still see the Von Bondies as part of the Detroit rock ‘n’ roll scene, or are you outside of that now?
When we toured, even at the beginning, nobody knew we were from Michigan. We never advertised it. We actually kept some fliers that had us down as “the Von Bondies from Boston” and “the Von Bondies from Germany.” When people knew we were from Michigan, they’d assume we were big fans of the Stooges and the MC5.

I grew up listening to Motown but I am not a soul singer so I play rock ‘n’ roll. Now, of course, I really like the Stooges and the MC5, but I didn’t grow up listening to them. I listened to the same things those guys did, and I assume they were doing the same thing. They weren’t soul singers, so they’d add distortion and turn it up.

Do you have anything special planned for the weekend?
We’re just gonna do two new songs because – honestly -- we haven’t played in four or five years and there are a lot of angry people out there, which is both flattering and threatening. Also, I believe our show is being filmed for a movie, but I can’t say which one. But people in attendance might end up in a movie. At one point I have to tell the audience to cheer when I say a line, specifically for the movie. It’ll be weird, especially in front of a Detroit crowd, because the line has nothing to do with Detroit. That’ll be interesting.

This will be a great event though. At the Majestic / Magic Stick, there are three venues in the same complex so it makes sense that they do this.You get to see 90 bands over the weekend for $30. There are bands coming in from all over the country. It’s gonna be really good.