Fresh journey on The Arcs
Black Keys frontman Auerbach finds inspiration with ‘new’ band
For nearly half a decade, Dan Auerbach has been saddled with the Sisyphean task of representing guitar-based music in a pop world. As the frontman of The Black Keys, he’s sold out stadiums, made millions and had his music used to sell any number of products — cars, beer, phones, etc.
So when the opportunity to reinvent himself came around, somewhere between producing albums for Lana Del Rey and the last Keys tour, Auerbach saw it as a chance to refresh.
“It feels like something very much brand new to all of us,” he says of The Arcs, his new group with frequent collaborators Leon Michels (Lee Fields, Dr. John), Richard Swift (The Shins, Foxygen), Dap-Kings’ Homer Steinweiss ( Amy Winehouse, St. Vincent) and Nick Movshon (TV on the Radio, Wu Tang Clan). “It’s weird because we’ve all worked together before but this is very different. The idea of putting your own name on something changes things — to take equal ownership of something. It feels very fresh.”
As the band releases its debut album — Yours, Dreamily — Auerbach talks about rediscovering his place in a band and the fleeting muse of successes.
Q As I understand it, the members of The Arcs are your production backing band. How did it become its own entity?
A Swift and Leon are some of my oldest musical buddies. Guys I’ve been making records with for a long time. Every free chance we’d get over the years, we’d get together and we’d record and we started stockpil- ing these songs. Seven months ago, Leon and I got together to go over it all. We had 65 songs, something ridiculous. At that point we were like, ‘C’mon, we got to put some of this music out.’ Basically The Arcs is a platform to be able to do that.
Q So the songs on your debut are outtakes from album sessions?
A If eel l i ke everything changed when we gave it a name. When we decided this thing was called The Arcs, I felt like everybody’s focus sharpened. So when we got together we would finish up older songs but then we had this new focus so we started recording even more. I’d say 80 per cent of the album are newer songs that we recorded after that meeting where we took a count.
Q That’s likely why the songs have a natural, loose feel.
A I wouldn’t say we were trying to keep it natural. There’s lots of synthetic sounds (on the album). It is what it is for people who listen to trap music all the time and love rock ‘n’ roll and soul music, worship Jamaican recording studios — you know what I mean? You mix all those things together and, yeah, it is what you’d think it would be.
Q You mentioned you have a bunch of songs banked. Will there be more music coming out soon?
A Yeah, it’s a platform for us to release music. We released two singles before the album was released. We have an EP planned, we have half another album recorded. We have B-sides for days. So, yeah, I’m in Arcs universe right now. All the potential is a lot of fun.