“I can play a riff you've probably never heard. If there's a mistake in there, I can work on it. Sometimes the mistakes are the riffs that stick”: Brian Setzer on how he’s kept his writing skills sharp – and the records that define his career

Brian Setzer poses with a Gretsch electric guitar.

Since the earliest days of the Stray Cats, and later with his namesake, Orchestra, Brian Setzer has blazed a trail of his own creation, accompanied by imagery steeped in fast cars, flashy guitars and flaming licks.

It took a certain level of fearlessness to play rockabilly in the early ’80s, let alone have worldwide success, and it took an even greater level of courage to pivot to swing and jive in the ’90s, when grunge and Britpop, propped up by MTV, reigned supreme.