The Arts:The dreadlocked multi-tasker's latest project is a documentary about Belfast band Stiff Little Fingers, writes Tony Clayton-Lea.

You'll never fail to recognise Don Letts - think dreadlocks and ropes of them. You'd never think it, but Letts is in his early 50s. In a cultural context, he has been around in some shape or form since the mid-1970s - a constant on the London music scene, a culture-clash amalgam of dread meets punk. He's beyond being a renaissance type of guy; in this day and age, he's simply a multi-tasking freelancer with more fingers than there are pies.

Letts was the geezer who formed the cultural and social bridge between black and white in London's punk rock halcyon days, the guy who formed Big Audio Dynamite with former Clash guitarist Mick Jones and the man who has been documenting London's punk rock scene in films that bristle with intelligence.

He spends his time between work and work, spending a day here and a day there, Dublin one week - when he DJed during the Heineken Green Synergy event - followed by Prague, where he'll be plugging his autobiography, Culture Clash - Dread meets Punk Rocker, next week.

He's such a cool guy (he signs off his e-mails with "The Don"), you wonder how he has managed to maintain the balance between his own levels of cultural diversity and the push and pull of making ends meet, but clearly he is more than just an ideas man.

"The key for survival for people such as myself, who operate slightly left of centre, is diversity," he admits.

"I hustle, to be honest. Anyone that knows anything about the media world knows it isn't all about glamour, or something that young people aspire to in order to become famous. I spend a lot of time engaged in high-class hustle, but it's hustle nonetheless - I'm not into the idea of suffering for your art. There are big gaps where I don't do things, so I'm always looking around."

Over the years, despite whatever areas he has worked in, Letts has drawn on his time as one of the movers of British - notably London-based - punk rock. Does he feel that he has been typecast or even trapped as commentator/documenter of that era?

"It's undeniably part of my history, yet it's something that I'm eternally grateful for and proud of. It was through my association with the punk rock/DIY thing that I reinvented myself as a film-maker, so I'm not bothered that I'm constantly attached to that movement - it's a pretty cool thing to be attached to."

With the hindisght of 30 years, what does he make of it? In the same month that the Sex Pistols' debut album, Never Mind the Bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols, is being commemorated as the touchstone for a musical and social movement, the life story of Joy Division's troubled lead singer, Ian Curtis, has opened in the cinemas.

Does Letts get the feeling, like quite a few people in their mid to late-40s, perhaps, that his past is coming back to haunt him? A hand goes up to the dreadlocks to shake a few loose, his head moves one way, then the other. The Don is pondering.

"Back in the day, we were just doing something that not only occupied our time, but was also a way of expressing the way we felt. We had no idea that it would have any kind of legacy 30 years later, and it's quite a sad indictment of the past 25 to 30 years of subculture that nothing else that has happened since then stands up, or has had as much depth as the punk movement.

"There have been many movements since of course, and lots of musical genres, but none of them have been complete subcultures. Hip-hop, perhaps. The thing about punk, though, was that it wasn't just about music, there were film-makers; photographers; fashion designers; writers; poets and graphic artists - it was very much a complete culture, and I think that's what has given it its depth and legacy."

Letts's most recent music documentary (he has previously directed documentaries on George Clinton, Sun Ra, Gil-Scott Heron, The Jam's All Mod Consalbum and Punk Attitude, a personal overview of London's punk years) is Still Burning, a history of Belfast band Stiff Little Fingers.

The band's debut album, Inflammable Material, he says, should be afforded the same classic status as the debuts by the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Damned. Letts's passion remains undimmed, even after 30 years-plus of sound and vision, although it's interesting that all of his works are rooted in the past. This, he freely admits, is problematic.

"It's difficult for me to attach myself to contemporary things that have any kind of depth. Most, I think, are more about ego, make-up and taking money from people. The truth is that the subjects of my films have been or are touchstones in my life and that's the reason why I can throw myself into them. Subjects such as Sun Ra, The Jam and punk rock have actively empowered me and made me who I am today, so I can see the equation and work out how it operates."

He says that he comes from a generation when music had the potential to make people better people. Indeed, he still believes that it has this potential, but with a reasonably obvious proviso: not with much of the stuff that you get to see on MTV or in the Top 40 charts.

"I'm not so sure people understand that in many of the cultures around the world, music isn't just something that kids are into. In fact, music is integral to people my age. There are lots of interesting things going on, despite the fact that many people are reading the same books and listening to the same music."

He is a firm believer that the more interesting ideas these days come from the naive and the amateur, which symmetrically connects to Letts's beloved DIY punk aesthetic.

"Western culture has become so incredibly conservative," he opines. "Back in the punk days, we'd say never trust anyone over 30. Now, I sometimes think never trust anyone under that age! Some weeks back, I was talking to some schoolkids and they pointed out that I came across like an angry old man. I turned around and said that young people just aren't angry enough."

Being a freelance kinda guy, Letts is driven by ideas for as many projects as he can come up with and subsequently get off the ground. "Although I believe that the idea will carry you through, I know from experience that having just the idea is only a portion of the battle. Getting out there is so important.

"Ultimately I get to work on projects I'm passionate about and am proud of. Maybe I'm not a rich man, but I watch the news each day and I look at the cards that many people on this planet are dealt on a day to day basis, and I realise that, relatively speaking, I am a millionaire. I've got a roof over my head, I eat food every day and I wake up with an idea that might become more than just an idea. People have become virtually emotionally detached from the misery of many people's lives on Earth. So many people on the planet are screwed, but I'm able to put my life in perspective and stay grounded."

He doesn't have a clue what the future is going to hold for him. His life is fairly fragmented, he admits with a smile. "I'm okay with that once the 'I don't know what's happening next' period isn't too long."

The Don Letts of 30 years ago and the Don Letts of today - how do they compare? Another gentle shake of the head. Another swing of the hair ropes. "Same meat, different gravy."

• The DVD Still Burning, the Story of Stiff Little Fingers, is out now through Fremantle Media. Don Letts's autobiography, Culture Clash - Dread meets Punk Rockers, is published by SAF Publishing.