When it comes down to it, very few things in life are constant. Jobs, partners, friends and even cities all come and go as the journey of existence unfolds. However, for the tumultuous life of one of the world’s biggest bands, you can multiply that theory by a hundred and more so. With non-stop travelling, playing shows, media runs and a steady stream of releases, the stranded existence of a musician (God bless ’em, someone has to do it) is only rivalled by those that are in the trenches with them. For Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, life inside The Black Keys’ bubble has cemented the band’s identity: an island of reliability surrounded by the ever-changing world on all sides. It is the one permanent in a body of work that has seen a meteoric rise since ‘The Big Come Up’ in 2002.
“It’s really all you have,” explains Carney. “For us, the only people who have been involved - on either a business or creative level - since the beginning, are me, Dan and my brother Mike. And that’s been such an important element to our music, and to the new album. It’s about where we started and where we are now.”
The new record, ‘El Camino’, is the Ohio duo’s seventh studio album - excluding side and solo projects - and is, as Carney describes, a testament to the ten-year journey that The Black Keys have undergone since they formed in 2001, when, like so many other bands, they were driving thousands of miles across America playing virtually empty shows, in a Plymouth Grand Voyager. A photo of the original car adorns the new album cover - a starting point on decade that has seen them pick up multiple Grammys, release an experimental hip-hop album with Damon Dash and become multi-million dollar recording artists.
To take that theory into the album itself, the sound is also a continuation of the journey: bearing all the hallmarks of the bluesy rock that The Black Keys have become renowned for, there is a sharp injection of ’70s attitude, influenced by bands like T-Rex, The Cramps and to an extent The Clash; with an energy that was taken from listening to ’50s rock ‘n’ roll outfits like the Johnny Burnette Trio. It gives a pace to tracks like ‘Lonely Boy’ and ‘Money Maker’ which takes them a step on from their most financially successful album to date (2010’s ‘Brothers’) and is by far the fastest the band has ever played on record.
“Every time we make a record we try and do something different,” Carney says. “It seems like the more records we make the more drastic the change. When we first started out, we made three records in pretty quick succession and there are changes on those albums, each one is very different, but as you get older and more experienced, those changes become more and more pronounced. ‘Brothers’ was made right after the Blackroc project. Focusing on subtle grooves and bass, melody was more of an afterthought. For this album, it was the opposite and melody played a far bigger role.“
Words by Sam Ballard
Photography by Nick Dorey
‘El Camino’ is released December 5th on Nonesuch.
Read Clash's review of the album HERE.
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This is an excerpt from an interview in the latest issue of Clash magazine. Read more about the issue HERE.
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