The Black Keys have gone back to their bluesy roots on new album Peaches!, a conscious decision to re-engage with the music that they fell in love with as teenagers.
And as the Akron, Ohio duo - vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney - explain in a new interview with The Times, while recording a collection of blues covers is unlikely to thrust them into stadiums, the raw purity of Peaches! serves as a reminder that playing music for its own sake is the perfect antidote to the demands of the "poisonous" industry in which they make a living. If the record sounds like a step back from the slick, arena-tilting garage rock of their best known album, 2011's El Camino, which sold two million copies in the US alone, that's entirely intentional. For the pair are thoroughly done with trying to play the industry game following experiences which could have crushed a lesser band.
In 2024 the band were forced to scrap a scheduled North American arena tour, which forced them to sack their entire road crew, and also led to them parting company with their management, industry veterans Irving Azoff and Steve Moir. Carney subsequently tweeted, "We got fucked. I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned."
The band's main issue was a dispute with concert promoters Live Nation which left them frustrated and disillusioned with the way the modern music industry works.
"I'm an artist managed by Live Nation, trying to negotiate with Live Nation, being promoted and ticketed by Live Nation?" says Carney. "It’s insane!"
"When you get famous real quick, you’re suddenly surrounded by people who seem like they’re your buddies but they’re not," the drummer tells The Times. "That’s when you start asking yourself, what does it all mean? I don’t want to be a content creator. I don’t think it’s cool to be on Instagram all the time. We’re interested in the natural state of things, which you can hear on the first album — and the last."
"We still love music," he adds. "But you know why the industry sucks? Because it’s all owned by billionaires who are trying to make even more money. At this point, having fun and enjoying being in a band again is the goal. And to do it without getting fucked would be nice."
Reviewing Peaches! for Classic Rock, Julian Marszalek writes, "By returning to their sonic roots, The Black Keys sound revitalised, urgent and gloriously unrefined once again. Whether they pursue this righteous path remains to be seen, but this is exactly what’s needed from them now."
