Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney reflect on their 20-year journey as The Black Keys. The duo elaborates on the various collaborations of their new album, ‘Ohio Players,’ such as Juicy J, Noel Gallagher from Oasis, Lil Noid and more. They also share some insight into their upcoming tour, what the fans can expect on the setlist and more!
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00:00 One night we were working here at Sunset and there was a very rare record that Dan wanted on eBay.
00:06 I'd been waiting a year and a half to get it.
00:08 He didn't know that I knew that it was on eBay?
00:10 And I had like three minutes left and I just started jacking the price up.
00:14 I'm like watching him sweat.
00:15 He was behind me laughing. I didn't know what he was laughing at.
00:18 And I was just freaking out because somebody else was bidding so heavy on this thing.
00:23 I'd been waiting like six days for this auction to happen.
00:26 Hey, I'm Dan.
00:27 I'm Patrick. We're the Black Keys and you're watching Billboard News.
00:31 Hey, I'm Lindsay Havens for Billboard News
00:42 and we are here with the legendary hit-making duo the Black Keys.
00:45 What's up guys?
00:46 What's up? How are you?
00:48 ♪ Oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting ♪
00:53 ♪ I wanna get my ♪
00:55 ♪ Gold on the ceiling ♪
00:58 ♪ Everybody's on the game ♪
01:02 Album came out just a few weeks ago. How are we feeling?
01:07 We're stoked. We're very happy with the album.
01:09 We're excited for the year ahead.
01:11 So this is your 12th album. Obviously a long road to get here.
01:16 Do you have any rituals before you release an album at this point?
01:18 Or does it all sort of feel the same?
01:20 I heard that Chris Martin, when he prepares to write,
01:26 he's like, isolate himself and read all the bad reviews.
01:29 And that's what we do too.
01:31 Whoa. So you're paying attention.
01:33 We have an assistant that just finds the negative, feeds it to us.
01:36 We only get filtered.
01:37 You see nothing good.
01:39 That's what motivates us.
01:41 Hate.
01:42 Yeah, hate. Internet hate.
01:43 Love it. Yeah. Internet is ripe with that.
01:46 Not only is this your 12th album, but like I said, it's a long journey to get here.
01:50 You've been together for over 20 years. Does it feel like it's been that long?
01:54 In some ways it does. Yeah, it does.
01:57 It definitely feels like it's been 20 years.
01:58 But we're still having, I think we're having more fun now by a long shot than we were.
02:02 When we first start out, you're getting by by just the pure excitement of
02:06 seeing everything for the first time.
02:08 That's how you can put up with the misery in the beginning.
02:11 Yeah.
02:12 Oh, the brutal van trips.
02:13 Yeah, 12-hour van trip to go play.
02:15 Because there's just no way we could do that now.
02:17 Absolutely not. Yeah.
02:18 We're so high maintenance now.
02:20 We're so high maintenance.
02:21 You've earned the right to be, though.
02:23 We've paid the right to be.
02:24 We've paid the right.
02:26 But we're still having a lot of fun.
02:28 I definitely hear how much fun you two are having.
02:31 All your albums are so tight, but this one is just such a joy as a fan and a listener.
02:35 But thinking back, 24 years I think is the number it's been since you started.
02:40 Do you remember the first impressions you had of one another back then?
02:44 Dan would come over and honk his horn to wake me up.
02:47 And we would make coffee and then go down and start messing around with sounds.
02:51 Put microphones in weird places and swing microphones around.
02:56 Record the guitar.
02:57 Well, when we first met, it was way before that.
03:00 Because we grew up a few houses away from each other.
03:03 My dad moved into Dan's neighborhood in 1989.
03:10 And I do remember the first time I met Dan and his brother Jeff.
03:14 It was summertime and it was early evening.
03:17 And all the kids in the neighborhood were on their bikes.
03:19 I previously lived in a neighborhood where there were no other kids.
03:21 Just old people that would yell at us.
03:23 I was moving into Goonies territory.
03:25 We kind of grew up in a Goonies type.
03:27 Heavy Goonies vibe.
03:29 Heavy Goonies vibe.
03:30 In our neighborhood, yeah, absolutely.
03:32 There was this old junkyard.
03:33 We would climb down this ravine.
03:35 It was really fun.
03:38 So we would all go on these adventures we'd never let our kids go on.
03:42 The album title, Ohio Players.
03:43 The first album title to properly put Ohio front and center.
03:47 What was that decision process like?
03:49 Why was this album the one to pay homage?
03:53 We found this photo of a woman bowling in the 60s.
03:57 And we tried to license it, but we couldn't find the owner.
04:00 So we recreated it with a professional model, Sian.
04:06 Larry, our tour photographer, took the photo.
04:08 I think we just thought it looked cool.
04:10 You know, we started realizing we had to come up with an album title around May of last year.
04:18 It was actually while we were out here working in May.
04:22 That's when we kind of found the concept for the image on the cover.
04:28 We were doing one of our kind of DJ nights that we call record hangs.
04:34 Where we bring our 45s and always invite a friend to come.
04:38 So we were in Louisville and this guy we were spinning records with pulled out an Ohio Players 45.
04:44 It was one of the names in contention and that just solidified the...it was a sign.
04:49 Speaking of that album art really quick, who is a better bowler of you two?
04:53 Ooh.
04:55 We both would be injured at this point, quickly.
04:59 Instant tendonitis.
05:00 Yeah.
05:01 Is there anything that you're competitive about?
05:04 Whether it be bowling or something else.
05:05 I think we're both naturally very competitive.
05:08 Yeah, doing these record hangs like you mentioned, it's been fun.
05:11 Like fun, competitive, I guess.
05:13 Trying to see who can get the best 45 no one's ever heard.
05:18 When it comes to being in the studio together at this point,
05:20 I keep emphasizing this is a 12th album, you two know each other incredibly well.
05:24 Do you find that you're still impressing one another and pushing each other on each record that you make?
05:29 We got into music independently when we were in our early teens.
05:32 Then the first time we got together, Dan brought his guitar down to my dad's house.
05:37 I showed him this thing I had called a 4-track.
05:41 It's a cassette machine that you could record four different things at four different times.
05:46 You could do these overdubs, you know as they call it.
05:50 Dan had never seen one.
05:52 I was like, "We made something with that."
05:57 Our relationship has always been about making something together, recording it.
06:04 To this day, when we go into the studio, we work mostly at Dan's studio in Nashville, Easy Eye.
06:11 That's what our gig is, making something together.
06:17 That's what's so fun about being in a band, is that you have this dynamic and history.
06:23 If you find someone you share a vision with and taste, always keep it interesting.
06:28 In addition to vision and taste, making it 20 plus years together,
06:32 is there one other key ingredient you think a band needs to keep going that long?
06:36 For us, there's a few.
06:40 We both have a strong work ethic.
06:42 I think we have a very similar sense of humor.
06:47 We share the same goals.
06:50 It's very supportive.
06:53 That's the hard thing about bands, is that as you get popular, you can fracture a band easily.
06:59 The singer's going to get a lot of praise.
07:06 Jealousy and competitiveness can ensue.
07:09 It does always take part, so you have to figure out what's actually happening.
07:14 Focus on the actual relationship and let all the other stuff do its thing.
07:19 At the end of the day, there's no one else I know and no one else Dan knows that has the same experience.
07:27 When Dan's working on a record he's producing, or a solo record, or whatever else he's doing outside of the band,
07:34 I always try to be as supportive as I can.
07:37 For a while, I wasn't that vocal about it.
07:40 It would threaten me.
07:42 I think that's kind of the key, is to support each other.
07:48 Let's go back to the album for a second.
07:50 I think this is your most collaborative.
07:52 You have Beck, you have Juicy J, Noel Gallagher, the list goes on.
07:56 What are some of the benefits and challenges of bringing more people into your process?
08:01 It took us 20 years to be able to collaborate this deeply with people.
08:06 We're comfortable now being in the studio, just solely being supportive.
08:11 But it feels kind of amazing to be able to do this.
08:15 It just feels like anything's possible.
08:18 We can kind of navigate differently than we used to.
08:22 Because we really had fun and it didn't really feel like we sacrificed who we were.
08:26 When we got into the studio with these people, our footprint was still firmly planted.
08:31 When you're working with people who have different perspectives on melody, like Noel and Beck,
08:37 to just be able to thread the line between the songs, you do that with some overdubs.
08:43 And his voice is working and the harmony building and stuff.
08:47 So that's just a fun problem to have.
08:49 Dan, for you, being a label boss for the last few years now,
08:52 do you think that's helped make it easier to champion other people, even on your own records?
08:57 Yeah, I moved to Nashville 13 years ago, Pat shortly after.
09:02 14 years ago.
09:03 14 years ago now.
09:04 The scene there, the recording scene, is so collaborative.
09:06 I've met so many people.
09:08 It definitely opened my mind to collaboration.
09:11 And slowly dipped our toes in there, you know what I mean, on the last album.
09:16 Calling in some people that were from Nashville that I knew from doing other records.
09:21 Yeah, it slowly seeped in.
09:23 The lead single off this album became your eighth number one on Alternative Airplay.
09:31 To be on your 12th album and still be churning out chart-topping hits, does that mean anything?
09:36 I know you pay more attention to the hate, it seems, so maybe you didn't even know this.
09:40 But does that still mean something or feel something for you guys?
09:43 Absolutely.
09:44 You know, we didn't have a song even on the radio until our sixth album.
09:52 And so even then, when our first single that took off had come out,
09:56 it came out April 1st, 2010, called "Tighten Up."
10:01 And instantly, our feedback that we were getting from management and the labels, essentially,
10:06 "Man, this is not going to be it."
10:08 It's not really doing much.
10:11 And so it was fine. We were used to that.
10:14 But then it ended up going to number one, and that was just so surreal.
10:21 And to this day, it's surreal.
10:23 Because I think we've had a number one on every album we've put out since 2010.
10:30 Except for "Delta Cream," but that wasn't very...
10:34 It's not that type of album.
10:35 It's not that type of album.
10:36 It wasn't meant to do that.
10:37 No, if that had gone number one at Alternative Airplay,
10:41 we might be living in a much cooler society.
10:44 Honestly, I agree with that.
10:47 Sticking with that song, "Beautiful People Stay High" is the single.
10:50 What was the conversation like in determining that that would be the one to introduce this album?
10:55 Our taste is too wild to be selecting.
10:58 And we love all the songs on the record, so honestly,
11:00 we probably picked "Candy" and "Her Friends" as the single.
11:03 That one's awesome.
11:04 That's the conversation. Let the label do the label stuff.
11:07 Beck co-wrote this one. He's sort of sprinkled all over this album.
11:11 But you guys toured with him early on.
11:14 Do you have a lot of people in this industry that you feel like you've sustained relationships with
11:19 over the course of your career?
11:21 I met Beck in 1996, when I was 16 years old.
11:24 He was the first rock star I ever met.
11:26 I am a super fan of Beck.
11:28 That was the year "Otele" came out.
11:31 And I bought tickets to go see him in Cleveland at this place called the Odeon.
11:36 I told my uncle Ralph, who was a musician, who knew Beck, that I was going.
11:41 So Ralph arranged for me to have a backstage pass.
11:45 You hooked him up.
11:47 Yeah, he offered me a pair backstage.
11:50 Wow.
11:51 But he was being really funny.
11:53 All the kids in my high school thought I was really cool.
11:55 Or at least about ten people in my high school thought I was very cool.
11:58 Hey, that's enough.
11:59 And then we were opening for Sleater-Kinney in New York City in 2003.
12:03 And we went to an SNL afterparty that Beck had just performed at SNL.
12:08 And so I had brought a promo CD and gave it to Beck.
12:13 And he actually listened to it and then invited us on a tour for a seat change.
12:18 That's awesome. That's how it happened.
12:20 Yeah, that was like our first place playing big shows.
12:26 Yeah, first time playing Red Rocks. A lot of really cool places.
12:30 You mentioned 'Candy and Her Friends.'
12:31 That features Lil Noid, which is so awesome.
12:38 Tell me about why you wanted Lil Noid on a track, how you got him on this song, what that was like.
12:44 In the last couple years while we were making this new album, we got introduced to Memphis underground rap.
12:50 We've been lifelong rap fans but we never knew about it.
12:53 No one had ever hit us to it.
12:55 Not on Spotify or iTunes, it's only on YouTube. Fan uploaded from cassette tapes.
12:59 We were just listening to it all the time.
13:01 And after one of our record hangs late night, we were driving back to the hotel.
13:05 And we were listening to Lil Noid riding in the Chevy, which is like a classic.
13:10 And we were like, 'Where's Noid? What's he doing?'
13:15 And we found out he was just in Memphis.
13:17 And so we asked him if we'd come to the studio in Nashville.
13:20 He drove up. We didn't know what was going to happen.
13:22 And we just made the song that afternoon.
13:26 And it was amazing. He was super cool, extremely talented.
13:30 We felt like we needed one more rap verse maybe on the record
13:37 because one, maybe it would feel awkward by itself.
13:40 We reached out to a friend named Dante Ross who hooked us up with Juicy J.
13:44 And, you know, that was incredible because obviously he's a legend.
13:48 But he was the one who discovered Lil Noid when Noid was 16.
13:52 And, you know, to be able to kind of tell the story of Memphis rap too
13:56 with both of the features is nice also.
13:58 And then I did want to ask about 'Paper Crowns.'
14:00 That song has Juicy J on it, and then that's the one song that Beck is a featured artist on.
14:08 So considering how much he did co-write on this album,
14:11 why was this the one that either he or U2 wanted him to have more of a presence on?
14:15 We let him pick, and that's the one he wanted to.
14:18 Did he say why?
14:19 He didn't say why, but, you know, that was one of the first ones we made with Beck.
14:22 So he had been living with that for a while.
14:24 His performance on it too is pretty quintessential Beck.
14:28 So the coolest thing about the Lil Noid collaboration is that, you know,
14:34 he was in the studio with us and just like, while we were recording this part,
14:38 which would have been, you know, spring of last year,
14:41 he just like put the whole thing up on his Instagram.
14:45 And it's been there for a year, and no one has seen it
14:49 because there's literally zero overlap of our fan base in this,
14:52 which I think is like, amazing.
14:55 That's the song I'm most excited for people to hear.
15:03 The song with Juicy J, he sent it back to us, he added his verse and everything.
15:08 But he added record scratching in the beginning of the song,
15:12 where we never would have thought to do that.
15:15 That's the kind of thing that can happen when you collaborate.
15:22 So he didn't come to the studio for his...
15:25 No, we sent it to him, and like two days later he sent it back, finished.
15:29 So in addition to this album, which you have a tendency of releasing an album
15:33 like almost every two years, which is very consistent,
15:35 but you also have this doc that you're promoting,
15:37 which tells the entire story of the last 24 years.
15:40 How do you know, as a band that is still going just as strong,
15:44 that this was the time to tell that story?
15:46 A buddy of mine approached us, and he just basically said he thought,
15:50 have we considered having a doc made about us, and we had not.
15:54 I guess it's like crossing that 20 year threshold,
15:57 your perspective starts changing on your career.
16:00 And for me, and I think for Dan too, it was very important.
16:04 We never really discussed this, but I think I could just tell we were on the same page.
16:08 It's like we want to have a long career,
16:10 and we want people to know the origin of the band.
16:14 That was part of the 20 year thing,
16:16 was wanting to show a 15 year old kid in Akron,
16:20 be able to say, "Okay, this is how we did it."
16:23 We met, the origin story is very organic and humble,
16:29 and it relied a lot on the fate or something.
16:33 But the other part of it was, of that 20 year thing,
16:35 was wanting to make an album that was relevant.
16:39 Was there anything that made the final cut that you two watched back and cringed at?
16:43 A little like, "Oh man, I didn't think that would end up in it."
16:45 Most of the movie. Most of the movie is hard to watch.
16:47 Impossible to watch.
16:49 Have you sat through the whole thing at least once?
16:51 Yeah. No, it's real.
16:53 It's like, it's a document that shows the story of the band.
17:00 Yeah, which is important to tell.
17:02 Like you said in the red carpet interview,
17:03 it'll probably be your only movie you ever make,
17:05 but when we hit 50 years, we might need another.
17:08 That's when we get the deluxe package.
17:10 There we go. I'll wait. I'll wait.
17:11 That's when you get the 15 hour movie of us just in the studio,
17:14 and our girlfriends telling us stuff.
17:17 We each have a girlfriend next to us,
17:20 throwing lyric ideas out.
17:22 You announced an upcoming tour.
17:28 You played some of these songs for the first time at South By.
17:30 For those of us who were in attendance,
17:32 is that a good taste of what this tour will be like?
17:35 Is it a quintessential Black Keys tour,
17:37 or something different that we can expect?
17:39 There's a lot of songs off this album that would be fun to play live.
17:42 We're in the business of entertaining our fans.
17:45 We like to play hits.
17:47 We like to play songs that people want to hear.
17:49 I think the cool thing about streaming is that
17:51 when we go on this tour six months from now,
17:54 we'll be able to see what songs people want to hear.
17:57 You mentioned what you said.
17:59 Fans want to hear the hits when they come,
18:01 but we want to hear the new stuff too.
18:03 Of all of the many hits you've had,
18:04 do each of you have a personal favorite
18:06 that maybe we wouldn't expect,
18:07 or maybe is an obvious choice?
18:09 Personally, that new song we played in Austin felt amazing on the game.
18:14 That's a song we wrote with Noel Gallagher.
18:17 The recording that you hear on the record is us playing it for the first time.
18:22 First or second time that we made it through the song without messing up.
18:26 The cool thing about that song is it's easy to play.
18:29 It feels like a song that we've always known for some reason,
18:32 and it really felt good to play that.
18:34 Our set list is specifically curated to songs that we like playing.
18:38 I still get a kick out of--
18:41 We did a European tour for the first time in years last summer,
18:44 and the European crowds, I think we had forgotten how amazing they are.
18:50 And playing 'Lonely Boy' in front of 70,000 people is--
18:55 Mexico City, same thing.
18:56 It's very powerful to have a song that you can see some people having fun.
19:05 No matter where you play it.
19:07 Yeah, it makes you want to have more of those.
19:09 Well, I can't thank you two enough.
19:11 I know, Dan, you just sort of touched on it,
19:13 but this album and all of your albums, it's new,
19:15 but it always feels familiar to us, which I so appreciate.
19:19 So congratulations on your 12th album, 'Ohio Players,'
19:22 and thanks for stopping by.
19:23 Thank you.
19:23 (whooshing)
19:26 (whooshing)