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The Black Keys :: Interview

By Daiana Feuer   Photography by Daiana Feuer

04/08/08 :: URB web

The Black Keys have come a long way from their lawn-mowing days of the not so distant past. On their latest album, Attack and Release, they’ve applied brass to their bare knuckles aesthetic, with producer Brian Burton, aka Dangermouse, sinking his tiger claws into this fine compendium of romantic gut-busters. Soft, then splintered, well composed and flirtatious, daggonit this album paints the lily! Over a little phone conversation with vocalist-guitarist Dan Auerbach, we/I got to gush about it.


URB: What is behind Attack & Release? It’s like there’s a narrative to it. Just looking at the titles, it goes almost like a story from one end to the other.
Dan Auerbach: It wasn’t intentional, I don’t think. It just happened to be the placement that we put the songs in. I think it may have been subconscious when we were trying to figure out the sequence.

What goes into these songs? Are they based on facts, or on ideas that you like?
Some of them are based on facts. You know, a little bit of truth, a little bit lies.

Did you say lies?
Rhymes—ing.

Oh, rhyming. Right, right, right….
No, yeah, truth, lies and rhyming. That’s sort of what it’s all about, I think. There’s really no rules. You’re a writer, you certainly know how it goes. You can spin things whatever way you want to. That’s what makes it fun. But, yeah, I mean lots of the songs I think came out of personal experiences, stuff like that, over the last few years.

So you’ve been writing these songs over the last few years?
Some of them are old. Some of them are even older. “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be” is old, a couple years old. I recorded that on my own with Jessica, yeah, my girl. And Brian heard it. He really dug it so he wanted us to record it for this new record. What other songs? “All you ever wanted,” the lyrics are definitely older.

Do you write most of the lyrics?
I write all the lyrics. Uh huh.

And then you write the music together?
Well, sometimes. Sometimes, usually, I’ll pretty much complete. Like “Things Ain’t How They Used To Be” is complete. “Oceans and Streams” is pretty much complete. “So He Wont Break” is complete. But then there’s other songs we come up with the music first and I add lyrics.

A bit of lying and rhyming and truthing?
Yeah. I add the lying and rhyming.

Have you been playing the new album on tour?
A little bit. We’re still working out the kinks.

Are there any of the new songs that you really like to perform?
Usually when we play “I Got Mine.” That’s really fun. “Oceans and Streams.” …They’re all kind of cool to do every time we play the song.

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