Crackingly bearded Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach is a musical purist; so much so he's built his own studio from the ground up to capture the traditional blues sounds he is so fond of. In between Black Keys tours he set about recording an album of songs that would become his solo debut, Keep it Hid.
yourGigs (YG): Is Australia place you look forward to touring? Why do you think Australian crowds react well to your music?
Dan Auerbach (DA): Yeah, it's great, I really enjoy it here, y'all have a great country. I found it strange at first, but then I found it strange at first anywhere, even my home town. I'm very spoiled here ... It's a whole new thing playing with six people on stage, it's been amazing.
yG: When you sat and wrote these songs that became Keep it Hid did you even think about how you would have to perform them live?
DA: No never, I just thought that I was having fun recording these tunes and eventually I had enough so I thought I could put together a record, and then I had a record out and I'm thinking maybe I should play some shows, and all of a sudden I'm in Australia, but I'm happy about that.
yG: Did you expect all the acclaim and press attention for the record? How did the response compare to your initial aims for it?
DA: It completely exceeded any idea I had about it; some of the reviews have been amazing. Press-wise it accomplished things that we have never got with The Black Keys - it's been amazing.
yG: Did you build your own studio out of necessity to find the exactly right conditions for you to record in?
DA: Yeah, I just put it together because I love the sound of old recordings, not just because they're old, but because they sound superior. Old as in late '50s, late '60s; it sounds huge, and I wanted to be able to do that. There's a real science to it and to do that you have to have all the right ingredients, you can't fake it. You can't do it on Protools and you can't do it in a basement and I wanted to do it, so I just went for it, so I just built it from the ground up - it's been fun. The way that they recorded in the '60s and '50s was based around recording real musicians in a room playing together and feeding off each other - you can't replicate that sound by stacking tracks and whatever, it's not even as much about the gear as it is about building a room that caters to a real band playing in it ... I just picked a style of recording that I liked and that's what I'm doing, and that's my goal.
yG: When you are writing these songs were you thinking which would become solo songs and Black Keys songs?
DA: I just write songs, I don't place any ownership on them until I record it. A lot of the songs on Attack & Release [the most recent release from The Black Keys] just started out as songs that I recorded on the side, just like my solo album, and when I got into the studio with Pat [Carney, drummer] I started recording and I started pulling out these songs, and then they became Black Keys songs - it's just how it works.
yG: With your solo album songs did you take them in directions that The Black Keys songs wouldn't normally go and did you notice the difference in how they turned out due to Patrick not being involved in them?
DA: Sure, pretty much all of it is different in a way - it's a different sound, different styles of drumming that you can't do with Black Keys songs. Even a song that seemed Black Keys-ish wasn't possible as Bob [Cesare] would play in tempo with the tremolo on guitar - which is extremely difficult to do, and he pulled it off, which is really cool. Then you get a sound like 'Whispered Words' where everything was recorded with the band playing live in the room and it was recorded in mono onto a one-track - you can't do that with The Black Keys, that was a whole new experience and it turned out amazing.
yG: You also produce other bands at your studio - has your experience as a musician helped you be on the other side of the desk?
DA: It's all part of the whole learning experience. The last Black Keys record there were things I've done on there that I would have never have done had it not been for experiences I had recording other bands. For example the spooky harmonies that we did on Attack & Release I learned how to do those from recording Hacienda, and the guys from Dr Dog were in the studios all doing harmonies and creating them ... I'd never seen that done before, so I learned how to do that, so I was able to take that and use it with my own music. I've done that with all kinds of things.
yG: Has this inspired you to make more solo albums?
DA: Definitely. We've already started planning another record and these guys are dedicated and they really feel like my band and want to keep doing it.
Andy Ryan
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