Patrick Carney On What Defines The Black Keys

Watch: The Black Keys – Fever

MF: You’ve also said that everything in the band is unanimous and everyone has to agree to it – being that democratic, has there been anything that you wish you didn’t let go? Any ‘I told you so’ moments?

PC: There’s never like an ‘I told you so’ moment, but there are disagreements, but it’s easier when it’s just Dan and I. If Dan feels strongly about something, I’ll go along with it and if it seems like maybe it’s not the right decision, we’ll talk about it, but we seem to always make the right decision. I think it’s really important that there’s never any pushiness.

Like, when we recorded the song Tighten Up, I remember we were both a little hesitant about putting that on Brothers, because to us, Brothers was a certain type of record and that song, we weren’t sure if it would jive with the rest of it. And it was just us being way too precious and eventually, about two months after we recorded it, we decided that we would put it on the record.

It’s always little things like that. I do think it’s important that Dan and I both feel strongly in agreement of whatever it is we’re doing or you else can end up getting serious resentment going on and that’s a real bad thing to go on within a band. Because really, this band, the definition of The Black Keys, will always be two friends from Ohio, who were college dropouts, who decided to basically make music and go for it, and we’ve been learning the ropes together for the past 14 years or whatever.

Just because of that, we both have been in it since the beginning and learning together. If Dan has a concern about something, even if I, on the surface, maybe disagree, I really wanna take the time to sit around and see where he’s coming from, because I trust his opinion just as much as I would trust my own.

MF: That must contribute to your longevity. You mentioned around the time that the album came out that you read a Pitchfork review which argued that the reason you guys are so big now is because you’re one of the only bands to survive the early 2000s.

PC: [laughs] Yeah, I read that. I mean, I actually don’t put any stock into Pitchfork. I’ve never bought a record based on a record review in my life. I buy records based on two things, hearing it and liking it or repeated recommendations from people whose taste I respect. And that’s how I’ve always figured out the music that I wanna hear.

I think that’s the best thing about record stores, building a relationship with people who work there, who are usually more than willing to recommend stuff and I think that that’s the best way to learn about music, especially when you’re a teenager. That’s something that unfortunately there’s less and less of now.

MF: You guys will soon be touring Australia. Dan mentioned last year that you guys wouldn’t be taking on as many dates in a row when you come down. But your schedule looks pretty packed, did something change?

PC: Yeah, it’s that you book a tour and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and that’s the way it always goes. But when we came down last time in November and October of 2012, at that point we were really fried. We’d been on the road, for the most part, since January 20th of that year. We were there then and we were coming home for a week and then going back to Europe for our third three-week tour of Europe that year.

I think we were on the road 215 days in 2012, so at this point we’ve got it a little bit figured out where we’ve stretched out the tour and we can still take some breaks and by the time we get down to Australia, we’ll be rested.

MF: You guys have been touring here since 2003. When you get onstage now, is there an effort to show the fans that were at those first shows that you’re still the same band or are you the same band?

PC: I don’t think we are the same band. We’re the same people, obviously, but I think… by the time we come down there, I’ll be turning 35 in Australia, and the first time we went to Australia I was 23. I think if you’re making art or music or whatever and you haven’t changed or evolved from the time you’re 23 to when you’re 35, then something is really fucking wrong with you, basically.

I like a lot of the same music I liked when I was 15, you know? But I think I like it now for different reasons and I listen to a lot of stuff I would never have listened to at 23. Dan and I have always been big fans of bands that can manage to not pigeonhole themselves.

I think that’s something that started happening to us when we were making Magic Potion and something that we put a lot of effort into getting away from is going into the studio and having a preconceived notion of what a Black Keys song is.

And that’s what a big part of this record is. It’s going in the studio and realising that a Black Keys song is really whatever Dan and I want it to be. At one point, we would’ve sworn up and down that a Black Keys song is drums and guitar and it has maybe a couple elements that you could string through our albums. But at this point, I think we both like the idea that it will hopefully always kind of sound like us to a certain degree, even if we’re making seven-minute songs or whatever it is we wanna do.

The Black Keys’ ‘Turn Blue’ World Tour will visit Australia in April 2015, when the band will also play headline sets at Bluesfest 2015 and the inaugural Rolling Green. See all the tour dates below.