[3] Burns is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and contributes (among other things) keyboards, guitar, vocals (mainly through a Vocoder), and flute.
Burns contributed piano and organ to the Arab Strap albums Elephant Shoe, The Red Thread, Monday at the Hug and Pint and The Last Romance.
He contributed piano, organ, rhodes and vocals to Malcolm Middleton's albums 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine, Into The Woods, A Brighter Beat and Sleight of Heart.
He often plays DJ sets, occasionally alongside fellow band member Stuart Braithwaite.
Along with wife Rachel, Burns owned the bar Das Gift in the Neukölln district of Berlin between 2009 and 2021.