T e Black Keys

drumkit and Rickenbacker bass. It was all really inspired. PAT CARNEY: When we got home, I looked at the 14-song track listing and kept thinking we should make one more song that was a little more intentional in terms of a pop structure. Brian [Burton, Danger Mouse] had just got a place in New York, so he and I were hanging out a lot. He did all of Attack & Release but we hadn’t worked with him at all for Brothers yet. AUERBACH: Before Attack & Release we’d never worked with a producer. The biggest change was letting people into our world. We hand-picked everyone. We choose people thoughtfully and we have always been well rewarded. CARNEY: Dan and I had made this hip-hop record called Blakroc and were going to do some late-night TV. It was recorded in the af ernoon, so the late night was free time. We booked a two-night session in a place in Brooklyn called The Bunker. First week of December 2009. Over the summer I’d been listening to Can and f gured out how to play the groove for “Vitamin C”. It was fuckin’ wrong, but I thought my take was cool. So that became a song called “The Only One”, a demo, but I liked the beat so much that maybe we could use a burst of that. That was the start of “Tighten Up”. AUERBACH: I remember singing the melody at the piano f rst. I don’t normally write on piano – but I was playing more keyboard at the time because I’d played keyboards on my solo album. Brian was the f rst person I called over when I thought I had a melody. I remember working on it together with him. Then I changed the melody to the guitar. Brian probably did some keyboard bass. He was listening to what I was doing and commenting, “Yes I like that… No, I don’t like that.” I trust Brian. He’s got great taste. CARNEY: Brian’s much more involved than most producers. He probably should have been given a writing credit on “Tighten Up”, but we didn’t know how shit worked, really. We weren’t sure what the role of producer was. It was all new to us and of course the next two full albums we split everything with him equally. I’ve got the karma payback many times myself when I’ve helped bands write songs and got fuckin’ shaf ed [laughs]. Af er Brian played the intro melody on keyboard, I suggested whistling it. Neither Brian nor I can whistle, so Dan stepped up and did it. Nailed it. We wrote and recorded the whole thing in 12 hours. AUERBACH: Otis Redding’s “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay” was my favourite song when I was a kid, so I was like, “Fuck yeah, I’ll do whistling!” CARNEY: It was winter in New York. One of the few times I’d been in the studio and it was a lot of fun. I never really drink in the studio, but we were drinking 40oz bottles and eating chicken wings both nights. AUERBACH: It was very high school. That pretty much explains the mindset when me, Pat and Brian get together. Brian’s like a high-school friend we never had. CARNEY: We had a two-and-a-half-minute song, so Brian suggested a tempo change in the middle. We talked about bands who’d done a similar thing, like The Clash with “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”. Dan went in the live room and jammed in a dif erent tempo in the same key.

We had this whole other section and

I said, “Well, I could do a stupid drum solo!” So I did a whole stupid drum solo and, surprisingly, it worked.

AUERBACH: I took a couple of verses out of a book of lyrics and worked round them. I worked like that a lot like then. Sometimes I write songs and it’s about the words; other times it’s about the vowel sound. If I try to put a smarter word in, it doesn’t sound

“I kept thinking we should make one more song with more of a pop structure”

PAT CARNEY

went in the live room and jammed in a dif erent tempo in the same key. We had this whole other section and I said, “Well, I could do a stupid drum solo!” So I did a whole stupid drum solo and, surprisingly, it worked. AUERBACH: out of a book of lyrics and worked round them. I worked like that a lot like then. Sometimes I write songs and it’s about the words; other times it’s about the vowel sound. If I try to put a smarter word in, it doesn’t sound