On the latest episode of ALT CTRL Radio on Apple Music 1, Hanuman is joined by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys to discuss the band’s latest single “Wild Child”, their upcoming album ‘Dropout Boogie’, and the 20th anniversary of their debut album ’The Big Come Up’. He also tells Apple Music entering a prolific period with bandmate Dan, bringing in more outside collaborators, burning out and taking a break in 2016, the group’s decision not to immediately sign with a major label at first, and more.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music About The Origins of The Group’s New Single “Wild Child”...
We went to Dan's studio in Nashville, Easy Eye. And we just posted up there for a couple weeks and just threw down a bunch of ideas that came to us off the top of our heads. And I think it was the 10th idea was what became "Wild Child". But yeah, it was pretty much in two weeks we kind of laid out what became the whole new record. We spent a few more weeks after that finishing it up. And I mean, "Wild Child", the most simple way to describe where it comes from is when we get in the studio, there's a couple litmus tests we have for if something's worthwhile. And if it's fun to play. This was one of the songs that was really fun. And we were listening back to the instrumental and we were not sure what to do with the verses. We had our friend Greg Cartwright who was in a band called The Oblivions. He's in a bunch of bands, but he's a dude from Memphis. We had him come to town, hang out with us. So we played him that track and he's like, "Oh, I got an idea." And from that we were able to kind of put the song together.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music About Entering a Prolific Period and Inviting in More Outside Collaborators…
We've actually just been in the studio basically constantly since then. We've been having kind of a prolific period. We've been experimenting for the first time. The only other person we've ever invited in the studio to work with us, was Danger Mouse. And he produced 'Attack & Release', 'El Camino', and 'Turn Blue', and the song "Tighten Up" off of 'Brothers'. But that's the only guy we've ever collaborated with. And lately we've been kind of just inviting friends to the studio and jamming with them. And it's been so much fun.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music About Burning Out and Taking a Break From The Band in 2016...
We've been a band for almost 20 years. Our first record came out 20 years ago on May 14th. And it took us a long time to reach the point in our career where we started getting played on the radio and things like that. It took us six albums to get there. So it wasn't until 2010 that we kind of experienced that type of thing. And when that happened, we kind of went all in. Anything we got offered an opportunity to do touring wise or something and we just said, "Yes, yes, yes." And we ended up burning out basically. We just kind of got fried. And we just worked so much in a four year period of time, five year period time that we took 2016, 2017 off.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music How He Feels Listening Back To The Group’s Debut Album ‘The Big Come Up’ 20 Years Later…
Our first album, it kind of has a magical feeling to me when I hear it. We were two buddies from Akron, Ohio who both dropped out of college and decided to start this band because a small little indie label in LA decided to... Basically, they said they would put a record out if we sent them a finished record. So we had to pay for everything and we had no money. So we hunkered down into the basement at the house I lived in with some friends. And when we had time, we worked and figured out how to do it all ourselves. And it came out. There was no PR person. There was no agent. There was nothing. And we ended up getting into my minivan and touring around the country and really rolling the dice hard.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music About The Group’s Decision Not To Sign With A Major Label At First...
They started coming around. And so we ended up signing to that label, the label we aspired to be on. We signed that label for our second and third record. And it was a really weird, magical thing. The fall of 2002 was just six months after the record came out, Seymour Stein founder of Sire Records was flying into Cleveland to come see us and hang out with us. And the world was kind of our oyster out of us being line cooks at a greasy spoon restaurant and mowing lawns to this. And then we were smart and we didn't sign to the big label right off the bat. We took the hard road and we did it all ourselves a while and it took us a long time to figure it out. But we basically signed up for the minor leagues and went to spring training, learned how to write songs. And I'm convinced if we would've signed to that big label right off the bat, we would've been toast within a year or two. I was obsessed with the band Pavement and one of the lyrics was, "You have to pay your dues before you pay your rent.” And I really took it to heart. I still do and we definitely paid our dues and we definitely paid our rent too, so.
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney Tells Apple Music About The Band Burning Out, Coming Back Together, and Their Unlikely Bond and Friends and Bandmates...
I think that was the thing that ultimately kind of got to the point where we burned out because we got to the point where we became spoiled little bitches for a minute. We went from the minivan to being princes. And then we had to take a little time out. And it was that little minute of reflecting on everything. It allowed us to put in perspective just how special our friendship is and our chemistry in the studio. And this record, I think is just a reflection of that. When I talk about this record, it's hard for me to talk about the music or what we were doing sonically. That's not even that interesting to me. I think the record's really good. But to me, I think the most interesting thing for us to explain this to someone who doesn't know anything about music or something, it's just that Dan and I were kind of like... Our friendship was just circumstantial. We ended up growing up around the corner from each other and we weren't that similar when we were kids. And we found this one thing that we bonded on was music and humor. And we both have the same type of humor. And we both like the same type of music. And we define ourselves knowing each other for 35 years at this point. And to be in the band for 20 years and still having fun, I think that's just kind of a rarity.
