Patrick Carney talks about what sets ‘Dropout Boogie’ apart from other Black Keys albums

With their 11th and latest album “Dropout Boogie,” The Black Keys are finally embracing the concept that while two’s company, three or more is no longer a crowd.

Ever since they burst out of Akron, Ohio as a two-man garage rock outfit, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have largely collaborated as a self-contained, self-produced unit, co-writing all of their original material and Auerbach focusing on vocals and guitar while Carney concentrated on drums.

And while that chief dynamic hasn’t changed from their 2001 formation — although, in 2008, they did invite producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton to indulge in what would become a continuing association over several projects, commencing with their album “Attack and Release,” — Carney said the six-time Grammy winners really loosened the reins for “Dropout Boogie,” out May 13, with five of their songs on the album co-written by outsiders.

“I think the collaboration theme is the big thing that sets this record apart,” said Carney recently over the phone from Nashville, where the duo has been based since 2010.

“A lot of artists struggle with letting somebody in — and I know I certainly have — from the very beginning. It took us a long time to even let another engineer in. We finally let Danger Mouse in on our fifth record — and we started learning, by our late ‘20s … the right people could be really helpful.

“It’s actually made it a lot easier and we probably should have done it a long time ago. But it was the most enjoyable record that we’ve ever made. I had a blast making it!”

Carney said the philosophical turnaround began with last year’s “Delta Kream,” a cover album of North Mississippi blues largely comprised of songs by bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside that was as unexpected as it was spontaneous.

“’Delta Kream’ was like an accidental album, but it ended up being kind of pivotal to changing the way Dan and I had been approaching music,” explained Carney.

“We recorded that at the end of 2019, right off the road of the first leg of the Let’s Rock tour, right before COVID. And it was last minute: Dan was working on another record and I wanted to come in for two days to make some music with (R.L. Burnside guitarist) Kenny Brown and (Junior Kimbraugh bassist) Eric Deaton, who were in town working on this (Louisiana blue singer) Robert Finley album. They finished early, so I came in.

“We weren’t even planning on making an album: it was just a jam that we recorded and it was just making music to make music that we enjoyed. And we ended up releasing it and it became one of my favourite Black Keys releases, honestly.”

Fuelled by the energy generated by of the impromptu project that reflected The Black Keys’ original influences — the first two tracks of their 2002 debut album “The Big Come Up” were renditions of Burnside’s “Busted” and Kimbraugh’s “Do The Romp,” respectively, Carney said they decided to take a fresh approach in the studio for “Dropout Boogie.”

“When it came time to make ‘Dropout Boogie,’ we approached the whole process of making that record differently than we had, up to that point: we put more emphasis on just pure enjoyment and working on something we liked rather than doing anything we felt was remotely tedious. If it felt tedious, we moved on.

“If we ran into trouble with a song on ‘Dropout Boogie,’ we kind of referenced back to ‘Delta Kream’ to the extent that that was a collaborative record and could not have been made without Kenny Brown, Eric Deaton and Sam (Bacco) the percussionist.

“I really felt the whole ‘Delta Kream’ through ‘Dropout Boogie’ sequence is kind of getting our heads in the right space. We get along better now than we ever have and are joking around more so than we ever used to. I’m really not sure why. Maybe it’s just a product of the pandemic … like really enjoying each other’s company after taking certain things for granted, I suppose.”

One of the outsiders that The Black Keys invited to contribute to “Dropout Boogie” was legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, who co-wrote and plays on “Good Love.”

“Dan has been a fan of Billy’s since we were kids,” Carney notes. “We’ve met him numerous times and we’ve even gone once to Malibu and jammed with him at Rick Rubin’s studio to see if we could help spark some writing with him for a ZZ Top record.

“Nothing ever came from that, but we’ve remained close. When we set aside the last two weeks last June to start ‘Dropout Boogie’ — writing, running down riffs, ideas and jams — we had Billy come out. He spent an hour at the studio and during that hour we ended up with 17 ideas; all improvised jams. We only used one of them for this record. It was actually the first time I ever jammed with a rock star legend. I mean, I’ve gone on stage, I suppose, with certain people, but to be in the studio and create something — I think that was the first time.”

Carney said it was “crazy” to look over and watch Gibbons work.

“I play guitar and I pay more attention to guitar than drums. I know a lot about Billy and people that I was talking to say he uses really light-gauge strings and Telecasters and that’s how he gets his sound.

“I watched him pull down this guitar — it was a Gibson Trini Lopez — which is basically the total opposite of a Telecaster — plug it directly into the amp and it sounded exactly like ZZ Top. To really see that it is all in the hands in terms of how he gets his tone is a beautiful thing.”

The 10-song album opens with the funky rocker “Wild Child,” a tune so catchy it sounded like it was a fairly quick composition.

But Carney said speed doesn’t necessarily equal quality.

“There have been a lot of songs that come really quickly that I would never really care to listen to again; that we never really finished,” he explains. “I need a little bit of a puzzle to solve in a song. It could be something that could take a couple of minutes and it could be something that takes an hour or longer, but you know that song is good if you’re putting in the time in to solve that problem.

“A song like ‘Wild Child’ is one of those — we had kind of had it together but we just couldn’t figure out how to hear the synth. We actually ended up having Greg Cartwright of (the band) Reigning Sound come to the studio and he helped us sort out part of the verse approach — and then we had Angelo (Petraglia) — a producer, songwriter (Kings Of Leon, Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood) here in Nashville — help us figure out the bridge and part of the chorus.

“We just needed perspective. And it’s funny, because in Nashville — and in L.A., I suppose — everywhere you go, what Dan and I tend to do is work on co-writes or work on stuff that’s been co-written, but we, ourselves, never do it. And it was really refreshing, honestly. It opened up this idea that we know all these musicians that are so talented that we could be writing and we could be asking to come help us writing songs and jamming with — and we’ve already started doing it more.”

Unfortunately, there was one nasty surprise awaiting them upon completion of “Dropout Boogie.”

“When we got to the very end of making the record, we all got COVID,” said Carney, who is married to singer and songwriter Michelle Branch. “It became a big clique ordeal by the time it ‘dominoed-down’ through everybody that was involved. My whole family got it. Dan’s family got it.”

Thankfully, everyone’s healthy at the moment and the duo is about to embark on a major tour that hits the Budweiser Stage on Sept. 6, with the Black Keys headlining a bill that includes Band of Horses.

“I think we’re going to dig deeper into the catalogue than we have in the last decade,” Carney said of the intended set list. “For this record, in a way, there’s three albums that we haven’t toured on because, although we did tour Let’s Rock, the tour was cut in half by COVID.

“We’re going to do a 30-minute ‘Delta Kream’ thing — we’re taking Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton on the road; we’re taking our friend Chris who is going to play some percussion, and like I said, Dan and I are getting along better than ever and we’re going to play these shows and hopefully to an audience that’s not terrified of COVID.’”

And The Black Keys are especially looking forward to playing Canada, where they’ve enjoyed huge hits like “Lonely Boy” and “Tighten Up” and have sold over 500,000 albums collectively of “Brothers” and “El Camino.”

“Nothing compares to playing really enthusiastic crowds and Toronto’s always one of those shows that we look forward to,” Carney said. “Canada has to be our biggest market in the world, and it is a place that we really enjoy playing and touring. We feel like we’re Canadian because we’re from only 50 miles away, right?”

SHARE: