Black Keys hit the road

The Black Keys hit the road to play blues after being fired from lawn mowing.

Poor old Dan Auerbach is in the middle of nowhereville USA with a snotty attitude.

He has no idea where he is. He's outside of his home state of Ohio on his way to pick up a sound recorder he just bought.

Although he doesn't seem the type to be annoyed by getting lost, perhaps it's the reason the singer and guitarist from the Black Keys is a little terse today?

Maybe talking about one of his musical heroes will cheer him up. Last month the Black Keys played with Ray Davies from the Kinks at the 15th Annual Tibet House Benefit concert at New York's Carnegie Hall.

"It was unbelievable. He was a really great guy, really nice, positive. I didn't really know what to expect from a guy like that, who many people consider a legend."

That question went well.

Did he know you'd covered a Kinks' song on [the Black Keys last album] Rubber Factory?

"I don't know," he snaps, slackly. "I didn't really talk to him about that."

But you played Act Nice and Gentle with him?

"Oh yeah, we rehearsed it a couple of times and then we played it at Carnegie Hall with him."

Why did you do a Kinks' song on Rubber Factory?

"Cause we liked it."

Long pause. Why?

"Cause we love the Kinks. I love a lot of things about the Kinks."

Longer pause. What like?

"Lyrics. Their snotty attitude ... "

Now we're getting somewhere. The Black Keys, who play the Kings Arms on Monday night, have a swaggering attitude that Ray Davies would be, and apparently is, proud of.

"He was really supportive of me and Pat [Carney, the drummer]," says Auerbach, who tells us that Davies still has his snotty attitude.

"And he was still getting over a gunshot wound to the leg. [Davies got shot by a mugger in January, 2004.] He's got a metal rod in his leg and he's still recovering from it."

Other Kinks' attributes like "the sound of their guitars and their really cool drumming" are also important elements in the Black Keys' sound. And then you have Auerbach spreading tales of love, loss and girls with a voice that's as lived-in as a leather saddle.

"We never try to sound old, or do things exactly like we've learned them or heard them. We always try to do what comes naturally. You know, we don't have to think about it too hard because the things that come easy always seem to sound best."

Similar to Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough - another of Auerbach's musical influences. He says Kimbrough is "comfortable" with his music whereas he describes Robert Cray, and BB King's later material, as "elevator music".

"I don't know what defines the blues. I like blues music. I think it's an old traditional thing that doesn't happen much anymore. The stuff people do nowadays that people call blues is not really blues, it's just rock'n'roll."

The pair were two college drop-outs living in Akron, Ohio, who mowed lawns for a buck three years ago when they finished their first album, The Big Come Up.

They got fired from lawn mowing and hit the road to play their songs.

They went into the recording studio and recorded their second album, Thickfreakness in under 12 hours.

Then last year they released Rubber Factory, a more ambitious album that was sometimes heavy, sometimes eerie, but always raw, and it showed off Auerbach's slick songwriting.

"Sometimes I have a song in my head and I tell Pat what kinda sound I'm going for. But other times a song will just come out of us by improvising on the spot. Coming up with a feeling like that is total team work, I guess. It takes as much from him as it does from me.

"The Black Keys are me and Pat. If one of us wanted to go, then that would be the end of the Black Keys. There is no pressure [on relying on Pat] because when we play music we have fun - there's no pressure in that."

The success of Rubber Factory and sell-out shows in Britain and Europe, and now Australia, and no doubt New Zealand on Monday night, still shocks the band.

"It was that famous old theatre [the Shepherds Bush Empire in London] that was the most overwhelming part, the size of that venue and how quickly it happened for us when it's still really just the two of us recording the record and not getting a whole lot of help from the [record] label. There's no videos, none of that. Just all word of mouth through fans."

It's the perfect way to be in a band, especially for someone who, if he's not playing music, would rather be at home or taking his dog Hunter for a walk. "I like being at home. I'm not one for going out and partying and stuff like that."

Performance

* Who: The Black Keys, Ohio duo of Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney

* What: Raw blues rock with groove

* Where: Kings Arms, Auckland, with The Fiery Furnaces

* When: Monday, March 21