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You guys have logged some time in basements making albums, but this time you went off to a "proper" studio. How much of an impact did that have?

Sonically, it had a huge impact, definitely. Paul [Hamann] and his studio played a big role. We like his studio and we like everything that's come out there, sonically. It was part of this experience—not putting that pressure on ourselves to engineer it. I was still moving mics around doing engineering things, but it was Paul's realm.

Patrick talked to ARTISTdirect around the time of your last album [Magic Potion] and he told us some horror stories of attempts to have outside guys come in and record with you. At the time, he was saying that it was difficult to imagine bringing in someone to produce a Black Keys record. You'd been working with Danger Mouse on an Ike Turner project, but at what point did you say "Hey, we could actually work together on a Black Keys album"?

Well, after about two and a half months of working on the Ike thing, we just realized that it was going to take so long—and we really needed to make our own record. It was time. We told Brian [Burton, aka Danger Mouse] "Hey, man, we gotta take a break from this Ike thing and make our own record." Once we told him that, he expressed interest in producing it. He said something like, "If you ask me to produce your record, I’ll say yes, by the way." [Laughs] Pat and I talked it over, and we'd been working with the guy for two and a half months on this other thing. It'd been nothing but great working with him, he's a really cool guy, and we have a lot in common musically. So why not give it a shot? We had nothing to lose. And from working with him on the Ike thing, he was obviously not the kind of guy who imposes his musical will on you. He's really there with an open mind and good taste.

"Remember When" shows up on the album in two very different forms. Is that typical that a song will have such radically different renderings?

For us it is. Our records are really just a document of that time period for us—those days of that year. If we recorded the same record a month later or a month before, it would sound totally different. We do things by the seat of our pants in the studio. There's lots of improvisation and things come about organically.

Does that make it more difficult to transition to stage?

No, just because we never try to recreate the record on stage. We're almost opposed to that. When bands sound just like their records, it's sort of boring.

You've got a duet with Jessica Lea Mayfield on the record. It seems like her star is kind of on the rise right now, and I know you've been working on her own material. How did you first find out about her?

I actually heard about her from my dad. Her songs are so mature for her age—and not even that—but they're just good. Her voice is really cool and her vocal phrasing is awesome. She lives sort of next door, basically, and we started recording almost three years ago now. We finally are done with the record, so hopefully that will be out soon.

I checked her out on MySpace.

Yeah, the new stuff is pretty different. It's still her—just fleshed out a little more.

I saw you guys for the first time right around the time thickfreakness was released, opening for Sleater-Kinney. Now you’re in the position where you can introduce new bands to big audiences. Who are you taking out on the road?

On the West Coast tour, we’re taking out Jay Reatard from Memphis. He's straight-up old-school punk rock, but a really good songwriter and a really interesting guy. On the East Coast, we have a band called the Buffalo Killers from Cincinnati. I just finished recording their new record.

You know what, I would like to pontificate on this a bit. Sleater-Kinney really was the band that showed us the ropes and taught us a whole shitload—they sort of taught us how to be a band on the road, basically. They were in this indie realm and they conducted their business in the same way. I mean, we were on the road following them in a caravan. They would tip us out of their pocket every night, and it meant the world to us. We learned a lot from them. Hopefully we can do the same for the bands we're playing with.

Yeah, I love Sleater-Kinney—and miss them terribly.

Yeah, I feel so lucky that we got to tour with them—especially at that point in their career. They were just an insane live band—they were so good. They were working on songs for The Woods and they were going on these massive, heavy jams that were totally improvised. [Laughs] It was fucking crazy.

The new album came out on April 1st. Have you ever played a good April Fools joke on someone?

No, not really. I'm always too obsessed with music and the other shit I'm doing. I don't get into too many schemes and surprises. I guess I might be a little too self-absorbed. [Laughs]

—Adam McKibbin
04.09.08

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