Heavens Had A Big Hand In It
Newcastle Herald
Thursday January 8, 2009
DAN Auerbach and Patrick Carney had grown up in the same neighbourhood and attended the same schools, but "the stars aligned" when they discovered their mutual love of music and began jamming together.
Although other musicians had been involved, one by one each slipped away to leave Auerbach and Carney to become The Black Keys."I just think the stars aligned when the two of us got together," Auerbach told LIVE from the US."It's an unexplainable thing, because we're very different people."We have very different personalities and different interests, but when we get together to play music it just works. "It's natural. There's nothing forced."The US blues-rockers are headlining a show at Newcastle Panthers tonight, with support from Gomez and Dr Dog.They are touring off the back of their latest LP, Attack and Release, which was produced by Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton one half of neo-soul outfit Gnarls Barkley.Auerbach and Carney had worked with Burton on an Ike Turner project, so when it came time to record a new album, inviting him to come on board was a no-brainer."Just having him there made us want to try harder, to try our best and give it our all," Auerbach said."I think that he's a very competitive person, and I think Pat and I are, too. "When we get in the studio we just want to work and come up with the idea that's really going to make a song stand out."There was just a lot of enthusiasm to make it as good as possible, and Brian definitely has that same bug that Pat and I have always had."This was one of the few occasions the band had headed into a studio under the guidance of an outside party.In the past the band had preferred to produce its own records."We had some bad experiences with people in the studio, and it had really turned us off the idea of working with anybody else."But after having done this with Brian, it worked out so great that it isn't a concern any more."Since they had decided to return to the studio, they thought they might as well invite musicians they admired and respected to play on the album.Those people were guitarist Marc Ribot, multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney and vocalist Jessica Lea Mayfield."I guess the goal for this record was to try some things we hadn't done before, and collaborate with people we respected."I had a great time."I found myself learning a lot, but I also found myself being pushed more to create and that was really helpful."Auerbach learned much from Paul Hamann, who owns the studio in which Attack and Release was recorded."It's an amazing place, it's really classic and has a really intimate style of recording from that era of music of the '50s and '60s and early '70s when everything seemed to sound so god-damn amazing. "Paul still lives that whole process and it was great to be able to witness that first-hand."Auerbach was initially drawn to music from a yearning to be included in family jams."My mum's family all played instruments and I always wanted to play with them. "I just always wanted to be part of the festivities when we had family reunions, and they played bluegrass songs and blues music."There was always something really appealing about it."Pretty soon music became an obsession.To actually be living the life of a "rock star" was a dream come true."I get to make music for a living, that's crazy," Auerbach laughed."I get to do what I love for my living I don't think there's anything better than that."The Black Keys measure their success by the amount of free meals they receive."Sometimes you get free meals when you go some place and the owners or the managers recognise you."I think if you get 10 or more free meals in a year, you're pretty famous."How are they doing?"We're right about there," he laughed.The Black Keys perform an over-18s show at Newcastle Panthers tonight with support from Gomez and Dr Dog. Doors open 8pm, and tickets are available for $60 on the door (also available through Ticketek, Moshtix, and Oztix).
© 2009 Newcastle Herald
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