THE BLACK KEYS : Keys To The Kingdom

Pacing in his kitchen on a weeknight, leading up to another Australian Tour, Patrick Carney talks to Sarah Shields about his thoughts on Black Flag, living on McDonalds and why the Black Keys aren’t blues.

Since the Black Keys first rumbled onto Australian radio in 2003, following the release of their distinctive debut album, Thickfreakness, it’s seems that audiences can’t get enough of their soul-soaked rock and roll.

The Black Keys have come a long way from their modest beginnings of independent record labels and home-recordings, as drummer Patrick Carney recalls, “I ate McDonalds every single day. I ate off the dollar menu because it was all I could afford. I had two dollars a day for sandwiches, two dollars a day for beer, two dollars a day for cigarettes and two dollars for coffee – I lived off 10 dollars a day for a long time”.

“I refused to live off college loans, I just worked shitty jobs; I washed dishes, I flipped burgers, I mowed lawns, I delivered newspapers, I was a telemarketer – I had a whole gamete of shitty jobs,” Pat said. Today, the Black Keys have paid off their debts and are enjoying their taste of success, but their hometown of Akron keeps them grounded, as Pat says, “I was broke, but most of my friends are still broke”.

When asked about the Black Keys sound of 2008 Pat said, “I definitely wouldn’t say it’s blues. But maybe that’s because I grew up generally hating any stuff that I thought was blues, but it was fourth generation lawyer blues. We play rock and roll”. “My dad introduced me to Led Zeppelin when I was really young and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and countless other bands. I think by the time I was 12 years old I think I pretty much knew most bands from the late 50s, who were top 40 I guess. If it weren’t for that I probably would have ended up falling in with the kids who were listening to bands like Black Flag. Those kids were my friends, but I’ve just never respected Black Flag and their ethics. I’ve never really gotten into that kind of music and I was never really inspired by those bands,” Pat said.

“When I turned 21, I noticed a lot of my friends who were listening to crust-punk, started listening to Led Zeppelin. And it to them it was almost like a novelty, but for me – I loved these bands,” “As you get older, it’s funny how people’s music taste changes. And it’s funny to watch some people and see how their taste doesn’t change and how they are kind of stuck in one time period. I have a couple of friends who are stuck in 1995, still listening to Pavement and Sonic Youth – I like these bands, but they are kind of depressing. It’s like watching the same 20 movies over and over again.”

Acknowledging the shift in approach Pat says, “I think our sound is changing and we’re changing, but it’s gradual. It’s one thing when a band flips the switch and goes from making a rock record to trying to make another kind of record”. “I’m 28, so if by the time I’m 35 – I’m stuck associating with something I made when I was 21, that would be kind of depressing. I think we’re both really tired of what we were doing and we both think we can make better music. As long as you have the opinion that you think you can be better, rather than just maintain, I think you will be satisfied as a human.” Pat said.

“Dan and I have been playing music together as a two-piece since we were in high school in the late 90s and I think we have a lot of similar tastes and we also have a lot for things that aren’t in common musically, so it never gets tiresome,” he said.

When questioned on their approach to songwriting, Pat explains “Dan writes all the lyrics – usually what happens is we will get together and just jam and come up with a couple of ideas and Dan will see if he has any lyrics that will fit that and if he does than we will structure it into the song.” So when I asked Pat about the motif of strange and alluring women in their music, such as ‘Psychotic Girl’ from their latest offering, Pat reminded me that he is married and said with a laugh, “Dan has had his share of weird times”.

The Black Keys gained a lot of public attention in early 2008 for their surprising collaboration with Grammy Award-nominated producer and musician Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton on their album more experimental album, Attack and Release.

Pat emphasised that Danger Mouse was introduced as an equal collaborator, as he explained, “I think a lot of the reviews were probably like, ‘Okay, there’s synthesizers in this song, and there’s a flute here, this is all Danger Mouse’, but it was Dan who wanted to incorporate more stuff and the flutes were played by my uncle, who I asked to come out and lay down a track”.

Pat explained that they wanted to make a record that was different from their previous record, saying, “The role that Danger Mouse played was more, overseeing that process and he would let us know if we were going too far or if we were going in the wrong direction he would come up with an idea”.

“In the days leading up to the sessions, we were both nervous about what would happen and we weren’t even sure if we would end up with a record from it. He came out for two weeks and that was the only two weeks he had to work on it and we weren’t sure if it was going to take us three days to do a song, if it was going to be take after take, or if he would let us do it like we normally would with plenty of time,” Pat said. “When we go into the studio – we go to make a record and write and stuff, but there really aren’t any preconceived ideas of what the final thing should be. We just take it song by song and if we see a pattern developing we might like do something with that,” he said. “I was nervous that he was going to be harping on my drumming too, because I don’t really keep what most of people would consider ‘perfect time’. But he didn’t really give a shit,” he said with a laugh.

“All our other records were pretty much recorded either in our practice space or in my basement, with microphones that cost like 200 dollars. If we wanted to make record that sounded like our old record all we would have to do is use shittier equipment. This time we wanted to get a more full sound. I’m happy with it,” he said.

“We’re just two dudes from Ohio, and I think our self-confidence kind of reflects that at times. It still feels weird to me – I feel weird. I don’t expect people to give a shit that we’re in a band.”