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THE BLACK KEYS’ BLUE PERIOD

A Tale of Two Musicians, Two Labels and the Bold Follow-up to Two Platinum-Plus Albums
By Bud Scoppa


With Turn Blue, The Black Keys’ eighth full-length, Dan Auerbach, Pat Carney and Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton have made a sharp left turn, choosing not to try to make an El Camino sequel—which Warner Bros. and Nonesuch presumably would have been delighted to receive—but going for something completely different, just as they did with El Camino (1.41m)following their 2010 breakthrough Brothers (1.35m). The new album is largely midtempo, moody, lush in places and deeply soulful, with a ’60s Motown vibe and keyboards featured as much as guitars.

Though Turn Blue is musically ambitious, the band’s shift from in-your-face, one listen rockers to something more challenging would appear to be commercially hazardous as a follow-up to El Camino. The new album’snuanced soundscapes are certain to confuse many of the newbies who became aware of the band via "Lonely Boy," and it’s the kind of album that reveals itself over time—not an obvious winning strategy in an era when so many people have the attention span of a gnat. On the other hand, Auerbach and Carney’s instincts, their refusal to paint by numbers, have yet to let them down.

"We didn’t really think or talk about anything ahead of time; we just went in and did it and that’s what happened," Auerbach recently told me. "We never do demos, we never plan ahead, we never talk about a direction. That’s just how we do it as a band, so anything you hear on our records is really a snapshot from that moment in time, where we were in the studio improvising. And that’s what happened with this album… There are absolutely no rules. We go in and we just go at it and try to come up with something that we all really love. That’s it. Those are the only parameters."
When I asked Auerbach if he and his cohorts felt the pressure, he replied, "We think about it as inspiration and a challenge, and it’s fun to be challenged, to try to outdo yourself. But at the same time, it’s weird because it’s not like we go into a record trying to duplicate the hit. Bands have a hit, then they go in the studio and try to do the exact same thing. We’ve never done that. We had a hit on Brothers with ‘Tighten Up,’ and then we went in the studio and we recorded a completely different album. I don’t know if that’s smart or not, but I think in the long run it’ll probably be smart, although it would keep most record labels scratching their heads as to why we would do that. Same with this record: We didn’t go in and make another El Camino. Our attention span is too short. I mean, we’re into so many things, and there’s too much to enjoy about music to get stuck on one thing."

With its dominant Auerbach-played Farfisa riff and absence of foreground guitars, lead single "Fever" seems to have bewildered a lot people, though it rocketed to #1 at Alternative. Auerbach and Carney cut it early in the process, working on their own, without Burton. "The single was recorded in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and it was drums and bass to start," Auerbach recalled. "We spent two weeks in Benton Harbor recording; that was before Sunset Sound [the iconic Hollywood rock studio where the bulk on the album was cut]. ‘Fever’, ‘Gotta Get Away’ and ‘It’s Up to You Now’ were all recorded in Benton Harbor at a studio called Keyclub Recording Co., which is a really amazing place. They’ve got Sly Stone’s old Flickinger console, and it’s filled with weird and fun instruments."
Did they think about the need to deliver a radio single or singles during the sessions? "If we hear something like ‘Fever’ and we think it’s catchy, we might say, ‘That sounds like it could be a single.’ But at the same time, we don’t really listen to the radio, so we aren’t really qualified to pick a single. We let the labels pick our singles, and if it happens, great. We love that, because that means more people will hear our music and more people will come to our shows, which is ultimately our goal. But I’m not going to try to do that, because that would just feel wrong. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t seem appealing."

The Keys are in a fortunate position in having the support of a pair of complementary labels. Working with Nonesuch provides them with an artistic haven, while the Warner Bros. marketing and promotion departments handle the heavy lifting.
"We have a close relationship with Warner Bros., and it’s an amazing position that we’re in," Auerbach enthused. "We’ve never once ever been told what to do by our record label, ever. We’re in charge of anything artistic, whether it’s musically or visually, it’s always been our say. Eight albums in, that’s pretty much unheard of. Thankfully, we’ve been successful; otherwise it wouldn’t be that way, I assume. So far we’ve had a great relationship. They work really hard for us.

"We really love Nonesuch," he continued. "I like them as a label; that’s why we signed with them. That’s the kind of place where we wanted to be, a place that has history, and appreciates history, because that’s who Pat and I are. We’re just musicians who love music, who buy records. And that’s all Nonesuch is; it’s not bullshit major label A&R guys who are messing up albums, stereotypical guys. We’ve never dealt with any of those kinds of people, and that’s beautiful."


4/30 BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe session

5/2 Later…With Jools Holland performance

4/28 Premiered video for "Fever" on The Colbert Report

5/6 Turn Blue streaming on iTunes during the week leading up to release

5/7 Shazam listening-screen logo takeover rolled out in 120+ countries

5/8 Tour announcement video

5/10 Saturday Night Live

5/12 U.K. and international release

5/12 Letterman, followed by a special invite-only show for Live on Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater

5/13 U.S. release

5/13 The Colbert Report

5/14 Carney to conduct a Reddit AMA at 3pm ET

5/16 Headlining first night of the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Ala.

5/27 Private concert for SiriusXM on 5/27 at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge, airing live on Alt Nation, XMU and The Spectrum

6/20-7/22 Turn Blue World Tour, with multiple dates on the European festival circuit

9/5-12/21 Turn Blue North American Tour of arenas, presented by Live Nation, begins in Columbus and finishes up in Kansas City. The Keys play Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on 9/24. There’s no L.A. date on the initial itinerary, but it’ll probably be dropped in between Seattle’s Key Arena on 11/1 and San Diego’s Viejas Arena on 11/9. Could it wind up at the Forum? Opening acts on various legs of the tour will be Cage the Elephant, Jake Bugg (West Coast dates) and St. Vincent.

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