The rock duo revisit the eight-track tales and wild misadventures across 11 studio albums.
That was really important to us.
CARNEY: Coloring the sound was really hard to do back then on digital equipment.
Alive Records
It sounded so sterile that we spent the whole time just trying to get it to sound crunchy.
So we had to do a cover, and we didn’t have any ideas.
He made that cover in like two days.
Fat Possum Records
I love that album cover.
It’s one of my favorites.
This was pre-email, really.
Fat Possum Records
Like pre-“being able to send the songs.”
AUERBACH: Yeah, CDRs.
[Laughs]
Rubber Factory (2004)
CARNEY: It’s very literal, the title.
Nonesuch Records
We recordedRubber Factoryat an old General Tire factory that had offices on the second floor.
AUERBACH: We went to Firestone High School.
CARNEY: This real estate agent that my mom knew said he could get us into this rubber factory.
Nonesuch Records
It was kind of expensive, but we had access to probably 50,000 square feet.
We could do anything we wanted up there.
AUERBACH: Just a giant, frightening building.
Nonesuch Records
We were so scared to be there alone at night.
It was straight out of a horror film, a mad scientist laboratory.
With the water dripping in the hallway…
CARNEY: It was like something out ofRick and Morty.
Nonesuch Records
Do you remember that?
But it was big for us, because it was our first major-label record.
I think we started becoming aware of the limitations.
Nonesuch Records
It was going to be like a Ike Turner return to form.
AUERBACH:He just has such an ear for music and hooks and stuff like that.
He opened our eyes to all the possibilities we had every time we stepped in the studio.
Nonesuch Records
CARNEY: It was like hanging out with the older brother we never had.
There was a lot of ball busting, and he taught us a lot.
We both had just turned 30.
Nonesuch Records
Dan had a toddler and we had to take it a bit more seriously.
[Laughs]I mean, it was identical.
Hard surfaces everywhere, no treatment, no instruments.
Nonesuch Records
CARNEY:Literally nothing worked.
AUERBACH: But there’s something magical about that city.
I don’t know what it is, but it just drew it out of us.
As soon as we got there we started recording and making songs, and it was flowing really easy.
Neither of us played the keyboard.
CARNEY: Our manager showed up the next day with a harpsichord and this weed called Train Wreck.
It was too much for me.
One of the main actors wasBob Odenkirk,and it was this huge production.
It was one take, so special.
I love that moment.
And I love Derrick, too.
CARNEY: I still message with Derrick probably about once a week.
And we spent like $85,000 on that video, literally for one shot.
But Dan was adamant about it, and it was the right call.
And I think it’s got, like, 130 million YouTube views or something.
At one point we were doing some serious prank stuff that we should have done more with.
Some of them were really amazing.
Ignore what they just said.
We’re one step behind them all day."
AUERBACH: Very effective.
Dan did a solo record, and we took 2016 and 2017 off.
I think we only even chatted once we were just really giving each other space.
And then around early, mid-2018, we made plans to make another record.
‘Let’s Rock’was our first time in the studio together in five years.
Really, most importantly, it was our first time without a producer in a long time.
So it took us a minute to get things back.
It wasn’t a struggle just finding the point of view.
I think it’s likeMagic Potionto me.
It was a transitional record.
But I still think “Lo/Hi” is one of our best songs.
We’re such huge fans.
CARNEY:It’s priceless.
I kept telling Dan we could never afford it.
That was one of the records we kept coming back to.
CARNEY: We would listen to it all the time.
And we took kind of a…
I was like, “Yeah, we can play the teacher and the guidance counselor!”
and Dan’s like, “No, man.
We dropped out of school.
We’d have to be the janitor and the cook.”
AUERBACH: That’s pretty much it.
Do our kids think we’re cool?
My daughter’s 14.
She shakes her head at me all the time.
CARNEY: Dan has a soon-to-be 7-year-old boy.
But when they get to be 16, they won’t think that anymore.
