"This is not a side-project; this is not a solo project. This is a real band," Dan Auerbach, best known for his role as lead singer and guitarist for Nashville-residing international rock superstars The Black Keys, wants to make that clear as he tells the Scene about his new band, The Arcs. The shape-shifting Auerbach-fronted psychedelic R&B ensemble features core members Richard Swift, an indie-rock recording artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist sideman extraordinaire who's toured with The Shins and The Black Keys; Menahan Street Band and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss and saxophonist Leon Michaels on keys and co-production duties; and Steinweiss and Michaels' Menahan bandmate bassist Nick Movshon, whose credits include Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, The Wu-Tang Clan, TV on the Radio and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.
"What The Arcs have is an incredible chemistry," Auerbach exclaims. "We really do! You know, I've worked with so many bands, with so many different people, assembled so many different groups for albums — I feel like there's really something special [here]. And it's very exciting for me to be in a room with these guys."
The Arcs are a new band only on paper. Auerbach says they've been getting together to jam and kick ideas back and forth for years before starting on their debut full-length Yours, Dreamily, which dropped on Nonesuch earlier this month. The band, a democratic collective that writes its songs together during loose, spirited in-the-moment studio jams, cut the album — which also features guests appearances by famed Nashville session guitarist Kenny Vaughan and the world's only all-female mariachi band Mariachi Flor de Toloache — at scattered sessions in studios across the country in between's Auerbach's Black Keys gigs.
"There are very few songs that were cut with everyone in the room," Auerbach explains. "If there were a couple of us in a city at the same time, we'd really try to jump in the studio."
Here's what else we learned from our chat with Auerbach.
Kenny Vaughan is his hero.
"You know, Kenny is known as a great country artist, but I think that that pigeonholes him unfairly," Auerbach gushes. "I think that he is way more than just a great country guitar player, I think that Kenny Vaughan is — I mean that's who I want to be when I grow up, to be honest with you.
"I mean, he's just a great guy, well-respected, so well-rounded and loves music so much. All kinds of music! I mean, in 1969 he was a fuckin' hippie in Colorado on acid watching The Grateful Dead. And then in the '70s he was in New York City watching punk rock happen — he's not just a country guitar player to me, he's Kenny Vaughan, you know what I mean? The most dapper dude in the world."
His oft-opinionated, oft-outspoken Black Keys bandmate Patrick Carney hasn't told Auerbach what he thinks of The Arcs, and Auerbach hasn't asked.
"No," Auerbach says with a laugh when asked if Carney's given him his two cents. "He hasn't yet. But yeah, we all know Pat, so I'm sure it's coming at some point. ... I mean, listen, I'm in [The Black Keys] with Pat. I have been since I was a kid. But I don't run everything by Pat. ... Like my life decisions and my creative decisions, they're mine to fuck up."
The Black Keys are currently on "vacay."
"We just finished the Turn Blue Tour a couple weeks ago," says Auerbach, explaining that his other band doesn't have a new record in the works right now. "That [tour] was the end of pretty much four-and-a-half years straight of working. So, you know, [now] we do a little vacay."
Recently, Auerbach's dad, Charles Auerbach, a first-time recording artist who'd never even sung before, surprised his rock star son by cutting a record of his own at John Prine and David Ferguson's Nashville studio The Butcher Shoppe. Auerbach the younger produced the album and co-wrote many of its songs.
"He's ballsy, man," Auerbach says of his sire. "He set up the whole session. He called all the musicians, hired them, booked the studio, and he did it on a day that he knew I was available. So he said, 'Hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm doing this session if you feel like stopping by.' I couldn't say no. He knew I was home, and free, and I wasn't making a record.
"I'm proud of him. I think [the record's] great, honestly. It represents things that he loves about music, and early rock 'n' roll and country, it's kind of a mix of all of that, and it sounds very cohesive to me because it was all cut in just a few hours. ... I could tell he really practiced his ass off. It's like a freakin' record! I've got to be honest. ... there's no plans for it or anything. He sent it to all his friends, all the buddies, you know? [laughs]"
Expect to hear more from The Arcs.
"We already have a life beyond this record," he says. "We have an EP finished, pressed, and it's really exciting. I can't say anything about it, but it's really cool. And it's going to be the start of a series we'll be working on under The Arcs name. And we have another record that's, like, more than halfway done. It's kind of crazy."
Email Music@nashvillescene.com
