Kiefer Sutherland: 'I want to keep juggling music with acting after finding UK fanbase'

He's better known for saving countries than playing country music but Kiefer Sutherland can’t wait to tour the UK again after winning a fanbase this summer.

The star of 24 and Designated Survivor performed tracks from his debut album in London and across Britain in June.

He told the Standard: “This year was the first time I was able to tour Europe and the UK and they loved it — it was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get back.

“Mostly people probably don’t even know that I do music. I know that the people who showed up originally to see the show were the people who knew me as an actor and I’m grateful for the fact that anyone showed up.

“It’s our job as a band to present the music in a way that will make you want to listen to it. And we seem to be doing that alright I think.”

Sutherland, 50, released his debut album of Americana and country music, Down A Hole, last year. He said that performing music is similar to his work on screen.

“The songs I perform are stories, there’s a beginning, middle and end to the songs,” he said.

“It’s another way for me to tell a story in a very different fashion. I love the band that I play with — some people like going on the road and some people don’t, but I love it.

"I find it really exciting. I love the idea of being in a different town every night.”

Sutherland has also shot a new series of Netflix’s Designated Survivor, co-starring Natascha McElhone, in which he plays a low-level US politician who becomes president when the rest of the cabinet is wiped out in a bombing at the Capitol.

“The big changes that we made were that we really wanted to add additional characters and really fill out the White House staff so that’s something I’m quite excited about with season two,” he said.

After starting out in cinema in the Eighties with films such as Stand By Me and The Lost Boys, Sutherland had a resurgence on TV as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer in 24.

He said: “I’m not saying that there aren’t interesting roles in film, they just weren’t available to me [at the time] and so 24 was just an incredible opportunity that happened to go very well for me and for everybody involved.”

Of changes in the entertainment industry, he said: “A lot of the really great writers have moved into television and that’s changed the landscape.

"A lot of the films that are being made are big action movies, so if someone wants to do an intimate drama or something more character-based, television has opened its arms to these people.”

Season two of Designated Survivor starts on Netflix on Thursday. The first season is out now on DVD.