Issue 511

The Black Keys "Right now, we're in San Jose," begins Patrick Carney, percussive half of The Black Keys and the beneficiary of some sore knees following the group's recent endeavours. "We've been on the road since April and it's been pretty exhausting," Carney mutters. He and vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach have almost wrapped up their third U.S. tour over a very short timeframe; each one covering separate sections of the States. "This is our last leg, from Seattle to San Diego, and then we'll have a decent two week break before flying to Australia." "When we're on tour I end up being in the best shape just because we're playing through 90 minute sets each night," he says. "My knees are fucking killing me now though." Playing drums each day wouldn't be such a mean feat if it weren't for the fact Carney is part of Akron's celebrated blues-rock duo. The delivery and energy of their sixth album 'Brothers' suggests that the workload assumed by Carney's is far more than most drummers might shoulder. "When we do the songs live I guess they're a little bit more amped-up than on the record, you know? It's a bit more unhinged," he explains. "But to be honest it all boils down to the audience. If the crowd is good we'll put on a better show and if the crowd isn't then we'll probably feel really self-conscious and the show will suck. We could be playing in front of Rammstein's audience or whatever, but I hope the crowd is up for it regardless. "This year we've just been busy the whole time," he continues. "2009 was really slow. We made this record and we made the 'Blakroc' record and we did a handful of shows but I was home for the majority of the year," he says. Since obtaining the brains of producer Danger Mouse on albums 'Attack & Release' and 'Brothers' as well as collaborating with the likes of Mos Def, RZA, Raekwon, Pharoahe Monch, Q-Tip, Ludacris, Jim Jones and several more on 'Blakroc', we can expect to hear a new and seasoned Black Keys in February. A lot has happened since their last visit. "With the Blakroc record we did the whole thing on Pro Tools, so basically we were making loops. We would jam for five minutes and record the whole jam and then go back and pick really small sections of what we liked," he explains. "The way we would do it is Dan and I would go into the studio at around 11am and we would work until about 5 each day; just the two of us and our engineer making the music. "Then at around 6, whichever rapper was supposed to come in that day would come in. Or sometimes there'd be two. For the most part every single dude would sit down and just get extremely fucking high," Carney laughs. "I don't think Mos was smoking weed, I'm not sure, but everyone else was getting really fucking high. So basically I hung out with a bunch of really stoned dudes for two weeks." What makes The Black Keys journey into hip hop so interesting is they've been backed by some of the most genuine, accomplished rappers today. 'Blakroc' feels more authentic than most other rap-rock records because every beat was genuinely made by band and every verse was well written, while avoiding the involvement of rappers like Fred Durst. "I think Dan and I both walked away from making the record with a lot of respect for rap as an art form," says Carney. "There's a lot that goes into it and when it's done well - which isn't easy to do - it's really fucking impressive. "On the other hand, when we made 'Brothers' we had a few loose ideas of what we wanted but for the most part we made everything up on the spot. That seems to have become our preferred method," he explains. "We wanted some variation in each song but just very subtle variation between chorus and verse. We wanted to make songs that were head-bobbing rock and roll. Which is what we like about most hip hop: when it's extremely repetitive, with just enough variation to keep you tuned in, but you're still able to zone out." The Black Keys will playon Fri 4 Feb at Adelaide's Big Day Out. 'Brothers' is out now through V2 records By Ash Prigent