The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach Says New Album Was Spontaneous

2012-04-10

Story by Cat Badra

The Black Keys open up about the recording process for ‘El Camino’

When Akron, Ohio-based blues rock duo the Black Keys make a new album, they don’t believe in planning things out in advance. So, last December, when the Black Keys released their much-anticipated seventh studio disc, “El Camino,” frontman Dan Auerbach says he and fellow rocker Pat Carney didn’t write anything — not even one lick — for the new release before entering the studio.

“We just put our heads down and we plow through it,” Auerbach said of the duo’s recording process, speaking with the Huffington Post. “We don’t really know what we have until we’re done. We don’t talk about it ahead of time, we don’t do rehearsals or demos or anything. We get into the studio and we start…making it up….We let it go that way naturally and we don’t have a feel for a record ahead of time.”

Auerbach added that he and Carney love the process of experimenting with new sounds and song ideas, and they’d love to have more time to test out new ideas in the studio. “Making albums is really fun,” he said. “Getting into the studio and just making up songs is fun, I don’t know. We could make a different kind of record every week. This week I may be listening to one thing or get inspired by something else. So week-to-week, our tastes can change.”

Right now, the Black Keys are focusing on a big stint on the horizon: headlining Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The Keys will perform on two straight days of the California music festival: Friday, April 13, and Friday, 20. Other big performers on the bill include Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, the Shins, Jimmy Cliff, Bon Iver, Feist, Grouplove and more. (Photo: Danny Clinch, Warner Bros. Records/Nonesuch Records.)