Interview: With The Black Keys On Pause, Dan Auerbach Finds Friends In The Arcs
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The room is smaller these days for Dan Auerbach, but the sound certainly isn't.
Last year, Auerbach worked his way around the world on tour with his band The Black Keys, stopping in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center. This Wednesday though the bus pulls up to The Fillmore Philly, for a much more intimate evening with his new band The Arcs.
After years of playing together and a hard drive of songs, The Black Keys singer and guitarist decided now was the time to introduce everyone to The Arcs - a group of studio friends and peers - and their stellar debut Yours, Dreamily.
The album finds the familiar voice of Auerbach exploring deeper influences of fuzzed out 60's soul and kicked up AM pop. The Arcs function not as a departure from The Black Keys, but a dazzling companion piece springing from the mind and fingers of Auerbach. Now along with a band of friends accumulated from studio sessions through the years, they hit the road.
"I met these guys in the studio, or I've met them recording. We've been doing records for other people, kind of things for ourselves just for fun because it's what we love to do" explains Auerbach. "Just a crew that I've made records with for years."
"It was just like the elephant in the room when we got together a year ago. We had like seventy-five songs on a hard drive that we've just recorded over the years, and it just made no sense to just keep accumulating this stuff and never share it." he says. "So from that point on everything that we recorded was made for Yours, Dreamily"
Before bringing the band home to the states, The Arcs did a run of dates in Europe - none more tragic then November 13th. Just miles away from the music venue Le Bataclan where terror struck killing ninety people, The Arcs performed simultaneously at Le Trianon. The band got word of the events after leaving the stage that night as sirens roared through Paris. The experience left Auerbach rattled and brokenhearted. "It was definitely a crazy week for us, and an exceptionally strange night to say the least" remembers Auerbach. "It took a while for us to snap out of it I'd say. But we played another show a few days later in Italy and I think it was therapeutic for us, and for the audience. Just getting back there and playing music. Nothing will ever stop me from playing music."
In the fallout from Paris the question has persisted even in the clubs where we experience music - how do we stop this from happening again? "It doesn't seem to me that there is any way that you can really protect against that" says Auerbach. "Most of these shows make so little money to begin with, the extra money it would cost. It's hard to say really. I think really it's a larger discussion about guns, gun safety, gun control. That kind of stuff."
With The Black Keys on hold, Auerbach has stayed crazy busy. Beyond the tour with The Arcs, the band just released their first in a series of "Inventors" EPs - finding the band collaborating with folks like Dr. John and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. Auerbach also continues his stretch of album production, credited as the man behind Cage The Elephant's latest album out this Friday December 18th.
Check out The Arcs this Wednesday December 16th at The Fillmore Philly. To hear more from Dan Auerbach, including his stance on streaming, listen to the full interview below.
Interview: With The Black Keys On Pause, Dan Auerbach Finds Friends In The Arcs
