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When Alistair Burns graduated from Â鶹ƵµÀ Leicester (DMU) in 2011, his burning ambition was to make a noise in the world of music.

Now as drummer with the band The Cult of Dom Keller, Al is signed to one of the UK’s coolest record labels, Fuzz Club, is touring Europe and with the three other members, is enjoying critical acclaim for their latest album Goodbye to the Light.

At the same time, Al is drawing on his skills as a DMU graduate in Music Technology and Innovation and Audio Recording and Technology to run his own rehearsal studios here in Leicester called which is supporting a burgeoning music scene in the city.

Al has no doubt that his courses at DMU were second to none, and said he would recommend to others “in a heartbeat”.

Although he has warned anyone wanting to join a band that touring the world is not as glamorous as it seems as most of the time you see the inside of service stations!

He said: “It’s a tough road to travel in the music industry so make sure that you want it. There’s only a few cracks in the whip so use them wisely.”

Talking of his time at DMU, Al Said: “It’s strange that the bits of a degree that seemed to have no relevance to me at the time turned out to be the most useful.

“I remember thinking that room design and acoustics, whilst massively interesting, were such specific skills that I would never get to use them in the real world.

“The stuff I learned on that course has been invaluable to the successful execution of Still Ill. DMU was great from start to finish, the courses were one thing but the lecturers were amazing. Having one on one time with people who have had such an impact on music in their own fields was something I hadn’t expected.

“It’s also really good to see the campus continually evolving and not allowing stagnation to creep into its psyche. The lasting impression I have of DMU is just that, always looking to the future.”


Al Joined the Cult of Dom Keller in 2014 after meeting up with bassist Jason, who was performing with Spectrum (led by former Spacemen 3 member Sonic Boom) who Al had booked to perform at Leicester’s Music Café venue.

Al said: “I was having a bit of a crisis of confidence at the time and was thinking about giving up on music and getting a job my parents would be proud of, when out of the blue Jason called me and asked if I wanted to go on a European tour … I could have played it a bit cooler when he asked me!
“The rest, as they say, is history.”

The album Goodbye to the Light has been a huge hit with fans and critics. A special edition of the album sold out before it officially went on sale and highly respected music sites such as Louder than Bombs, The Quietus and Echoes and Dust have given it high praise. The Cult of Dom Keller have also become a must see on the live scene.

Al said: “It’s definitely more of a journey than the previous two albums, and it gets pretty dark in places. From the get-go we wanted it to flow as a single piece instead of a collection of songs and I think we pulled it off. It’s been pitched as ‘goth-tinged psych’ but that’s a bit lazy for my tastes. At the time there was a lot of messed-up stuff going on for us personally and politically, so we wrote a soundtrack to the end of days!”

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Al is also enjoying running his rehearsal studios which offer student discounts for DMU musicians, and has grand plans for them going forward.

He said: “I was looking for a way to be able to tour while making sure I have a home to come back to afterwards, so I needed to find a job which guaranteed payments while I was on the road.

“A mix of that and being fed up of people saying a creative degree had no viability in the modern job market pushed me towards starting my own business.

“The main aim of Still Ill is getting people together. There can be too much bitchiness in local music scenes, a load of people out for themselves and not willing to back fellow musicians so I made sure there was plenty of … dare I say it… ‘chill out areas’ for bands to integrate more with each other instead of getting in and out quickly.

“Although I’ve been rattling around the Leicester music scene for a few years it’s great to see the amount of talent and musical diversity that comes through our doors. Every day you meet new, interesting people. The long term plan is to turn Still Ill into a full in-house experience, with studio, record press and all that gubbins but let’s see where we are in three years.”

So Al has his own rehearsal studios and plays in a band which is getting wider and wider recognition across Europe. So what ambitions does he have for the future?

“A guitar-shaped swimming pool,” he says.

For more about the Cult of Dom Keller, click . To look at rooms, pricings and discounts at Still Ill visit their website .