While their latest music video for their single, Go, pretends that the reason for their hiatus was because they hated each other, Carney likened their relationship to the closeness of brothers.
"I love the guy, but also at the same time, man, sometimes I want to wring his neck," Carney said.
Auerbach responded: "I've never had those feelings about Pat."
But jokes aside, the four-time Grammy winners behind hits such as Lonely Boy, Howlin' For You, and Tighten Up needed a break from the road. Their tour schedule was taking a toll on them and they had to put the brakes on it.
"No one who is working for us or with us is going to say, 'Yeah, don't generate any income for five years'," said Carney. "We had to realise we needed to take a break and that's okay."
Inspired by blues rock and low-fi garage rock, Carney and Auerbach met in high school in Akron, Ohio, in the 90s, tinkering around with four-track recording systems at Carney's house.
In the break, both continued to work on separate projects as producers and collaborators. Auerbach, who won has won a Grammy for non-classical producer of the year, built up his label Easy Eye Sound with emerging acts and highlighting unknown blues players, as well as working on his own solo album and producing Cage The Elephant's Grammy-winning rock album Tell Me I'm Pretty. Carney worked as a producer on his wife's last album, as well as producing Nashville artists.
"It's been really good for us," said Auerbach. "We really had fun making the new record when we did get back together. And I think it was because we were able to do all that different work during the time off."
There was little preparation for their return to the studio. They went into Auerbach's Nashville studio with no songs or lyrics prepared and no producer.
"We just set a date and showed up here at Dan's studio and it was the first time we had recorded music together in five years," said Carney.
The album came out in June and the tour features 33 dates in North America.
- AP
