June 9, 2025 • 19 mins
The Black Keys join Booker and Stryker and chat about the New Ablum, Tour, Not selling out and their favorite Los Angeles Venue.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hard everybody. It is Booker and Striker. We got guests.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Black Keys. Welcome, gentlemen, thanks for having us.
Good to see you guys.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
To let everybody know, two nights ago was the LA Show.
Last night, San Diego. Here you are today. The tour
just kicked off. How are you boys?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Feeling?
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Feels good? Feel refreshed. It's nice to be on stage again.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, yeah, any screw ups? Is it going every night?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes? Good, that's the whole point.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yeah, total disaster. When I stepped on stage last night.
See no, everything was broken, is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
My monitors were off, everything was off.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Do you remember bad shows? Did they stick with you?
Or bad shows kind of end up being good shows
in memory?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I feel like we only remember the bad ones.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Actually yeah, I mean I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
I can't really think of a show I thought was
just bad. No, I mean like bad, like everything didn't
wear showing up, like playing like Salt Lake City in
two thousand and two to like eight people. Oh really,
something like that might be kind of a bad show
or the back then, so they charged you to get
into the show because they sold beer, so you had
(01:04):
like joined the club and we were broke, so we
spent the money we got paid to join the club.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Wait was that the pay for play thing or you
paid them to play the show?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah? Real stupid, extra dumb. I can't drink unless you
remember of the private.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
To enter the bar. Meanwhile, they're in, they're the entertainment,
but they still had to pay to get into to
do their own damn show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
But in high school I did.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I did have a band and we got a show
at this place in Cleveland called Peabodies down Under. We
were so stoked and then they like mailed us fifty
tickets and like sell these.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh they give us all the money.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
All right, this is confusing. My dad bought won, but
here's forty nine tickets. I didn't get it. You know,
they were they did not have us back.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The Greek Theater show from two nights ago. We both
saw the footage. Of course, it was packed. What a historic,
awesome venue we have in our own backyard. What was
the vibe for you guys playing there a couple of
nights ago? Patrick, Yeah, the show was. The show is
really good.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean, obviously we've played La a ton of times.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I thought it was. I thought the crowd was really good.
You know that that can be the thing that can
get hard sometimes about like New York and LA. You
can get a little jaded audience sometimes. But the crowd
was great. And you know it's the funny thing is
it rained before we played, and it's like been raining
almost every day on the No Rain, No Flowers tour.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So I think we've kind of cursed ourselves.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
What makes for a good venue when you're playing, I
mean you've played in front of literally every size crowd,
from that crappy place at Peabodies or whatever you said,
to massive stadiums. When you think of Los Angeles, what's
the room you say that sounds good or what feels good?
Like what decides it for a band?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, LA's got a ton of a ton of good rooms.
I mean the Pladium is a great place.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I think that.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
I think having like a little bit of an open
floor is kind of our thing, you know, that's the
rooms what we did.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, when the people in front of the state can
get loose and aren't confined to their rows, the energy
just goes.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Up a notch, you know. Always.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Yeah, like the best venues and to us to play
and are basically Brickson Academy in London.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Which is like five thousand. It's like it's like the Pladium.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And then there's a place in Paris called the Zenith
which is similar size and it's just like at like
five six seven thousand, open floor.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's kind of great.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
But I think what makes a good venue for us
now is having a bathroom backstage?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Is that for the drugs or to use the bathroom
so we can, yeah, do drugs in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Okay, we played nowhere to do drugs.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
We played this place the other day in Boise and uh,
it was like outdoor space. They're having like fifty or
sixty concerts this year and they do it every year,
and like here's the backstage room and it was like
literally one bathroom. There's like seventy people working. And I'm like,
I like, I bet you guys make enough money tonight
to build a couple of bathrooms, right, And I looked
at the number and sure enough they definitely did.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Do you miss one another when you're not touring? I mean,
do you tour on a bus together? Do you sleep together?
Does one of you snore?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Is it that kind of friendship that's obviously went for
many many years.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Since since, I mean the last seven years we except
for some of COVID, we've been We we work basically
five days a week and then you know, Dan does
records a lot of times too, so we'll take a
little breaks here in there, but we're I mean, I'll
see Dan a couple of times a week, even if
we're not making a record.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I have a question Dan about No Rain, No Flowers.
I mean, I hear the title and I create images
in my mind and themes, et cetera. But what does
it mean to you and the band that album title?
And of course it's an awesome song as well.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, well, I mean I think it's it's clear it's
about you know, getting past your your troubles and your
trauma and and moving forward. And that was kind of
what that song was destined to become with that title,
you know. And when we had Rick Knowles come out
to Nashville and we presented him with it, it was
(05:12):
it just unfolded so quickly. It just was sort of
just meant to be.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Really, and Rick Knowles, he's a songwriter and keyboard player.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Do I have that right? Yeah? How do you know
him and what did he add to the.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
The When I worked with Lana on Ultra Violence, I
kind of found out that she'd worked with this guy
Rick for the majority of the record and the majority
of her early albums. So when Pat and I were
talking about who we wanted to work with, his name
kept coming up because I just always loved how he
was able to write melancholy pop songs. Those are kind of,
(05:45):
you know, my favorite tears of clown type type thing,
you know, And so we reached out to him and
he said, you know what, I'm going to be in
Nashville next week for the first time ever. He never
had been to Nashville as a songwriter his whole life,
never go to Nashville. So we took it as a
sign and like, book the time with.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Them this time around. Reading some pressed with you guys,
and I've seen it a couple of times where it says,
you know, you're really doing your thing your own way again,
did you lose your way as a band? Like get
into that, Like.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
No, I mean I think that's just a reference to
you know, they're like, it's you know, doing what we do, uh,
like the way that we do it. It's like you know,
we we write the songs, we record the songs, we
come up with you know, artworker help concept, the artwork,
the T shirt designs.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
You know, there's this like it's never ending thing, but
then there's the whole business side of stuff where it's
like you know, strategizing like what we're doing, and then
so like a lot of times, like you know, we've realized,
you know that if you if you don't kind of
keep your hands on everything, you're going to get screwed.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And so that's a reference to that.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's just like having to it's just a reminder, you know,
about how how much responsibility there actually is to oversee
your business.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, Dan's dad passed away a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
One of the last things he said to me, he's like, Patrick,
you know, this is you and Dan's lively, that is
your business.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He's like, you have to.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Keep an eye on every single thing moving forward because
he knew what happened to us last year, and you know,
he was absolutely right. So yeah, I think it's just
that it's like you know, but I think even more so,
I think that the people that we see that are
the most successful and success being like the ability to
kind of do what you want to do creatively and
(07:37):
then serve your fans in a healthy way. Like there
are people who are fully involved in like in their
career and really steering the ship.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Are there aspects of that business side that you're forced
to do that you hate all of it? Okay, next question.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We were also kind.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Of like it was like I was like indoctated. Well,
you know, like watching the interviews is not my favorite
musicians as a kid in the nineties. It was like
basically you were like, you know, a nerd if you've
acknowledged that there's money involved, you know, or you or
you were sellout if you even acknowledged that there's a
business here. But you know, then you find out that
like wait, all these guys kind of saying their own
(08:16):
record labels and like and they're like wait, like Epitaphs
owned by punk rock guy and wait wait, but we're
being told not to worry about this, right right, Yeah
the music business school, but yeah, the music business is
just slimy, Right, It's the slimiest because there's no there's
no uh, you know, there's no you know, anybody can
(08:37):
interest anybody can say they're a manager. Yeah, if you
have a piece of paper, you can sign any band
if you have some money. So you know, it's it's
great for idiots and and and suckers like us.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I think I have a question in here.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
There was a time I remember clearly nineties, early two
thousands where bands were afraid to say yes to everything. Hey,
you want to play this super Bowl thing, You want
to play this Coca cola, you want your song on
this week. Oh fans may think we're sellouts, but now
I feel, in this day and age, it is stupid
to say no to opportunities. Like if someone is presenting
you something, for the most part, you say yes.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How do you guys tick on that?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Well, I mean there are things that you don't want
to say yes too, for sure. But I mean when
we first it took us like six albums before we
started getting played on the radio and started getting you know,
you know, offer us to do stuff that we never received,
play SNL and and.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
The Spike TV Video game Award, right legendary.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
You know, I want to award it one of those
Wait that's your interview, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It is.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
You know, for a while, you know, for a while,
we were saying yes to everything, and you know, but
you know, we know we'll play ball to a certain degree,
you know, but yeah, I think a big thing for
us early on was, you know, you know, like speaking
back to that thing where it was like it's not
a cool look to like make you know, make money
or whatever. But we would get some offers for some
(10:09):
commercials and we were definitely advised not to not take
the money. And at the time, like I was living
in a four hundred dollars a month apartment. He was
living in a four month apartment. And we were going
on tour and we would tour for a whole year
and we each make maybe twelve grand or something, and
we were being told they don't take the one hundred
thousand dollars from the Mayonnai's commercial.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And is there one specifically you remember was it actually was.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
More than that that thick freakness perfect it was a
British man, No, it was a British man. Is someone
was like, it's going to ruin your careers, and we
were just like, that's more money than like we could
retire at acuring in two thousand and three with that
kind of money.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
How much was it? It was one hundred thousand pounds aside.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now he's mad about it again.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
But now you see George Clooney's got all the money
in the world doing coffee commercials and Danny DeVito selling
beer on TV.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I'm like, okay, it's okay commercial.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's totally acceptable now, but back then it wasn't for
some reason, and we said no to it, and then
we got right back into the tour van had no
money and continued on cray.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
There's more to the story because eventually we said yes,
and we just kept saying yes, and then we got
ridiculed for being the band that was like in you know,
like there's like memes about how Black Keys released a
new song like titled Ford Commercial or something. But it's
like it's like, you know what you can you can
you know, there's bands like Modest Mouse and The Shins
that definitely did commercials before us, and those are the bands.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I was like, they can do it, we can do it.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
We respect this band, so we may bee you know,
we maybe helped make it okay to sink your music,
to make a little bit of money off your music.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, we were talking the other day to someone.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
We've got a great idea for for the spring, maybe
we should do a theater tour. I was like, that
sounds funny. Yeah, you won't make any money, but it's
gonna be it's gonna be awesome. And I was like, okay,
but I just reminder, everyone else that works with us
will make money. Yeah, it's just us two that won't.
So that's mostly what the music business is.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
How do you maintain the fun up there with the tour?
You play the same instrument that you have for years,
and you do the same thing. How do you challenge
yourself every tour to say, let's try something weirdly different.
Is there anything that you've tried or failed at?
Speaker 5 (12:23):
I mean, I think that if you're really trying to
put on a good performance, there's enough nerves and you know,
adrenaline happening that you've got to channel and it becomes like,
you know, it's like a game.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It never gets poring.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
But it's been fun working on the set list too
for this tour because it's like, got so much material
to pull from, so many songs that we've never played.
I mean, we've added songs to the set list that
we hadn't played in fifteen years or more.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Does it come back to you as the muscle memory, Yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
It does oddly, but have to definitely have to be
reminded of how went well.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Not We were like, we should do a couple of
songs as a two piece.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
So we thought it like a little medley we can
do and the first time we hadn't played these songs
in probably fifteen years to twelve years.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But yeah, we we went right through it without We just.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hit a medley and we did it.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And we never really did it.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There are stars on forty five, it is all of them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How many songs? How many tracks are there on No Rain,
No Flowers? Eleven? Eleven?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You guys just make eleven and these are the eleven?
Or do you have twenty two done and then you
choose eleven? How does it work for the two of you?
Speaker 5 (13:37):
We made eighteen songs and then you know the last record,
last album we made how players? You know, we made
like twenty songs and you know our initial concept was
like put.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Them all out on one LP.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
And then you're kind of advised like, well you should
actually break it up and you can use this other
thing as an addition so help market or tour looking
back on it. It just was like, uh, you know,
I wish we would have just put all the songs
out at once, you know, but in this case, like
I think that that we did find a collection of
eleven songs that go together, and then the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
We'll figure out what to do with it later.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
As a band, you can live in a vacuum, get
caught in your own thoughts and what you guys think,
is there someone or people on the outside that you
trust when it comes to no, it's going to be
eleven songs, Let's see what they think. Let's let them
live with it for a while. Do you have those
people still?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I mean, ultimately think we just have to trust our gut.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
But I think, yeah, we listened to suggestions.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
We've got a lot of friends. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I think that, you know, the concept of making records
these days for us is way more open minded than
it used to be. And I think just collaboration is
really from the start, we start collaborating with people. It's
more fun that way, and I think we've opened ourselves
up too. We ask certain people that we trust or
certain you know, people in the management or the label
(14:59):
to get their honest opinions.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Because you know it's helpful.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You know, always dm us and you know you take
not that we know anything anything because we don't probably
give you the worst, be awful.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
We can help them with the DJ thing. Yes, there
we go, There we go.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
We've discussed this before. Are you guys dj in a
club in l A. And I haven't seen it in person,
But do you have a set list for that? Or
do you feel the crowd? Are you playing vinyl? And
are you mixing? Or does a song fade then you
hit play a lot of questions please answer.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, I mean we.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Played forty five's and we don't really call it DJing,
but there's not.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Really Yeah, we're not cutting any records. We blend them
a little bit, but not well yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well do both just standing up like like justice like.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Well, we call them record hangs because I think it's
a nice way to present what we do. You know,
we don't take it too seriously, although we do take
it serious.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
We take what we're playing seriously.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, but we usually invite one friend and then everybody
gets to spend for thirty minutes and then we do
a round robin where we just go back and forth.
O fun and We've got Peanut Butter Wolf spinning records
with us tonight, and you know, we've had people like
Eedon and our buddy Leon Michaels and just you know,
it's it's really fun and kind of competitive. Yeah, and
then you know, it just got us both back into
(16:22):
just obsessing about records and trying to find that record
that would like be the one, you know what I mean.
So it's a healthy competition, I think.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, I feel like there could be really cool arguments
between the two, like no, that sucks or no that's good,
you're going to lose the room, or so your music.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You can't argue with the crowd though, that's the thing.
You put the record on. The crowd tells you what's happening,
and if it's a dud.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We know, we know, yeah, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
And we don't hesitate to know turning off You don't
really seconds do you know?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
If a crowd likes it? And then do your feelings
get hurt? And how long is it to get the
next record on?
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Well, I mean I think we're we're not really throwing
duds out there too much ourselves lately. But it's usually
like if we have a guest who doesn't really know that.
We had these one guys come help out and they
brought like a Madonna record and I like like ejected
it from the room Risbee time out.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
But how does you ask how it looks? It looks great.
I've got my marshmallow head on. No, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
They're really daft punk for revealing it.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Now, these are the guys.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Wait, I have a question, and if you don't have
an answer, just say pass. Is there a song that
you've heard on the radio or whatever YouTube in the
last twenty years that you wish that you guys wrote it?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
We were like, Jesus Christ, that's good. I mean, I
think the Arctic Monkeys whole album am you know? Do
I want to know? On there?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
We took them out on tour on the El Camino
tour a year before they put that out, but they
did release the single are You Mine Well while they're
on tour with us. But you know, we got pretty
close with those guys. And I remember going to see
the AM tour in Nashville in September of twenty thirteen
and they were playing this marathon music works just like
a thousand seat room, and I was just floored by
(18:14):
like the singles, and they came over to my house
afterwards with the head of their label, and I was like,
you need to hire a radio plugger, Like.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
What the this is? Like a huge radio song was
going on.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I was like so like annoying about it, and I'm
not taking credit for it, but I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I'm just saying, no, I'll take at all.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
No, he's not no, but that record you know, I'm
my my.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Six year old's obsessed with it. Oh yeah, I am
as well. Do you have? That's how you know if
you got a good album, if you're if a six
year old is nothing, kids just like oh your microphone, microphone.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Oh there's nothing worse than when you put on your
new stuff and your kids are just like, what else
you got next?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Like it makes me think maybe, like maybe Michael Jackson
wasn't that creepy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
He just had a lot of six year old fans
because his music was so good. Ah, there's the line
of the century.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I think that's a good one to go out.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We love the Black Keeys.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Patrick and Dan. Always a great time to talk to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Guys, No rain, no flowers man.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Thanks for coming up. Good luck with the Tony know
it just started it. Thank you guys, you know, thanks
for stopping.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Always having your back. Thanks for being so nice over
so many years. We appreciate that you guys. Thank you
very much
Hard everybody. It is Booker and Striker. We got guests.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Black Keys. Welcome, gentlemen, thanks for having us.
Good to see you guys.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
To let everybody know, two nights ago was the LA Show.
Last night, San Diego. Here you are today. The tour
just kicked off. How are you boys?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Feeling?
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Feels good? Feel refreshed. It's nice to be on stage again.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, yeah, any screw ups? Is it going every night?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes? Good, that's the whole point.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yeah, total disaster. When I stepped on stage last night.
See no, everything was broken, is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
My monitors were off, everything was off.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Do you remember bad shows? Did they stick with you?
Or bad shows kind of end up being good shows
in memory?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I feel like we only remember the bad ones.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Actually yeah, I mean I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
I can't really think of a show I thought was
just bad. No, I mean like bad, like everything didn't
wear showing up, like playing like Salt Lake City in
two thousand and two to like eight people. Oh really,
something like that might be kind of a bad show
or the back then, so they charged you to get
into the show because they sold beer, so you had
(01:04):
like joined the club and we were broke, so we
spent the money we got paid to join the club.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Wait was that the pay for play thing or you
paid them to play the show?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah? Real stupid, extra dumb. I can't drink unless you
remember of the private.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
To enter the bar. Meanwhile, they're in, they're the entertainment,
but they still had to pay to get into to
do their own damn show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
But in high school I did.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I did have a band and we got a show
at this place in Cleveland called Peabodies down Under. We
were so stoked and then they like mailed us fifty
tickets and like sell these.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh they give us all the money.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
All right, this is confusing. My dad bought won, but
here's forty nine tickets. I didn't get it. You know,
they were they did not have us back.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
The Greek Theater show from two nights ago. We both
saw the footage. Of course, it was packed. What a historic,
awesome venue we have in our own backyard. What was
the vibe for you guys playing there a couple of
nights ago? Patrick, Yeah, the show was. The show is
really good.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean, obviously we've played La a ton of times.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I thought it was. I thought the crowd was really good.
You know that that can be the thing that can
get hard sometimes about like New York and LA. You
can get a little jaded audience sometimes. But the crowd
was great. And you know it's the funny thing is
it rained before we played, and it's like been raining
almost every day on the No Rain, No Flowers tour.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So I think we've kind of cursed ourselves.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
What makes for a good venue when you're playing, I
mean you've played in front of literally every size crowd,
from that crappy place at Peabodies or whatever you said,
to massive stadiums. When you think of Los Angeles, what's
the room you say that sounds good or what feels good?
Like what decides it for a band?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, LA's got a ton of a ton of good rooms.
I mean the Pladium is a great place.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I think that.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
I think having like a little bit of an open
floor is kind of our thing, you know, that's the
rooms what we did.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, when the people in front of the state can
get loose and aren't confined to their rows, the energy
just goes.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Up a notch, you know. Always.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Yeah, like the best venues and to us to play
and are basically Brickson Academy in London.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Which is like five thousand. It's like it's like the Pladium.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And then there's a place in Paris called the Zenith
which is similar size and it's just like at like
five six seven thousand, open floor.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's kind of great.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
But I think what makes a good venue for us
now is having a bathroom backstage?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Is that for the drugs or to use the bathroom
so we can, yeah, do drugs in the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Okay, we played nowhere to do drugs.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
We played this place the other day in Boise and uh,
it was like outdoor space. They're having like fifty or
sixty concerts this year and they do it every year,
and like here's the backstage room and it was like
literally one bathroom. There's like seventy people working. And I'm like,
I like, I bet you guys make enough money tonight
to build a couple of bathrooms, right, And I looked
at the number and sure enough they definitely did.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Do you miss one another when you're not touring? I mean,
do you tour on a bus together? Do you sleep together?
Does one of you snore?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Is it that kind of friendship that's obviously went for
many many years.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Since since, I mean the last seven years we except
for some of COVID, we've been We we work basically
five days a week and then you know, Dan does
records a lot of times too, so we'll take a
little breaks here in there, but we're I mean, I'll
see Dan a couple of times a week, even if
we're not making a record.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I have a question Dan about No Rain, No Flowers.
I mean, I hear the title and I create images
in my mind and themes, et cetera. But what does
it mean to you and the band that album title?
And of course it's an awesome song as well.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah, well, I mean I think it's it's clear it's
about you know, getting past your your troubles and your
trauma and and moving forward. And that was kind of
what that song was destined to become with that title,
you know. And when we had Rick Knowles come out
to Nashville and we presented him with it, it was
(05:12):
it just unfolded so quickly. It just was sort of
just meant to be.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Really, and Rick Knowles, he's a songwriter and keyboard player.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Do I have that right? Yeah? How do you know
him and what did he add to the.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
The When I worked with Lana on Ultra Violence, I
kind of found out that she'd worked with this guy
Rick for the majority of the record and the majority
of her early albums. So when Pat and I were
talking about who we wanted to work with, his name
kept coming up because I just always loved how he
was able to write melancholy pop songs. Those are kind of,
(05:45):
you know, my favorite tears of clown type type thing,
you know, And so we reached out to him and
he said, you know what, I'm going to be in
Nashville next week for the first time ever. He never
had been to Nashville as a songwriter his whole life,
never go to Nashville. So we took it as a
sign and like, book the time with.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Them this time around. Reading some pressed with you guys,
and I've seen it a couple of times where it says,
you know, you're really doing your thing your own way again,
did you lose your way as a band? Like get
into that, Like.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
No, I mean I think that's just a reference to
you know, they're like, it's you know, doing what we do, uh,
like the way that we do it. It's like you know,
we we write the songs, we record the songs, we
come up with you know, artworker help concept, the artwork,
the T shirt designs.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
You know, there's this like it's never ending thing, but
then there's the whole business side of stuff where it's
like you know, strategizing like what we're doing, and then
so like a lot of times, like you know, we've realized,
you know that if you if you don't kind of
keep your hands on everything, you're going to get screwed.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And so that's a reference to that.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's just like having to it's just a reminder, you know,
about how how much responsibility there actually is to oversee
your business.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
You know, Dan's dad passed away a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
One of the last things he said to me, he's like, Patrick,
you know, this is you and Dan's lively, that is
your business.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He's like, you have to.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Keep an eye on every single thing moving forward because
he knew what happened to us last year, and you know,
he was absolutely right. So yeah, I think it's just
that it's like you know, but I think even more so,
I think that the people that we see that are
the most successful and success being like the ability to
kind of do what you want to do creatively and
(07:37):
then serve your fans in a healthy way. Like there
are people who are fully involved in like in their
career and really steering the ship.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Are there aspects of that business side that you're forced
to do that you hate all of it? Okay, next question.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We were also kind.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Of like it was like I was like indoctated. Well,
you know, like watching the interviews is not my favorite
musicians as a kid in the nineties. It was like
basically you were like, you know, a nerd if you've
acknowledged that there's money involved, you know, or you or
you were sellout if you even acknowledged that there's a
business here. But you know, then you find out that
like wait, all these guys kind of saying their own
(08:16):
record labels and like and they're like wait, like Epitaphs
owned by punk rock guy and wait wait, but we're
being told not to worry about this, right right, Yeah
the music business school, but yeah, the music business is
just slimy, Right, It's the slimiest because there's no there's
no uh, you know, there's no you know, anybody can
(08:37):
interest anybody can say they're a manager. Yeah, if you
have a piece of paper, you can sign any band
if you have some money. So you know, it's it's
great for idiots and and and suckers like us.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I think I have a question in here.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
There was a time I remember clearly nineties, early two
thousands where bands were afraid to say yes to everything. Hey,
you want to play this super Bowl thing, You want
to play this Coca cola, you want your song on
this week. Oh fans may think we're sellouts, but now
I feel, in this day and age, it is stupid
to say no to opportunities. Like if someone is presenting
you something, for the most part, you say yes.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How do you guys tick on that?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Well, I mean there are things that you don't want
to say yes too, for sure. But I mean when
we first it took us like six albums before we
started getting played on the radio and started getting you know,
you know, offer us to do stuff that we never received,
play SNL and and.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
The Spike TV Video game Award, right legendary.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
You know, I want to award it one of those
Wait that's your interview, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It is.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
You know, for a while, you know, for a while,
we were saying yes to everything, and you know, but
you know, we know we'll play ball to a certain degree,
you know, but yeah, I think a big thing for
us early on was, you know, you know, like speaking
back to that thing where it was like it's not
a cool look to like make you know, make money
or whatever. But we would get some offers for some
(10:09):
commercials and we were definitely advised not to not take
the money. And at the time, like I was living
in a four hundred dollars a month apartment. He was
living in a four month apartment. And we were going
on tour and we would tour for a whole year
and we each make maybe twelve grand or something, and
we were being told they don't take the one hundred
thousand dollars from the Mayonnai's commercial.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And is there one specifically you remember was it actually was.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
More than that that thick freakness perfect it was a
British man, No, it was a British man. Is someone
was like, it's going to ruin your careers, and we
were just like, that's more money than like we could
retire at acuring in two thousand and three with that
kind of money.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
How much was it? It was one hundred thousand pounds aside.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now he's mad about it again.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
But now you see George Clooney's got all the money
in the world doing coffee commercials and Danny DeVito selling
beer on TV.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I'm like, okay, it's okay commercial.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's totally acceptable now, but back then it wasn't for
some reason, and we said no to it, and then
we got right back into the tour van had no
money and continued on cray.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
There's more to the story because eventually we said yes,
and we just kept saying yes, and then we got
ridiculed for being the band that was like in you know,
like there's like memes about how Black Keys released a
new song like titled Ford Commercial or something. But it's
like it's like, you know what you can you can
you know, there's bands like Modest Mouse and The Shins
that definitely did commercials before us, and those are the bands.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I was like, they can do it, we can do it.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
We respect this band, so we may bee you know,
we maybe helped make it okay to sink your music,
to make a little bit of money off your music.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, we were talking the other day to someone.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
We've got a great idea for for the spring, maybe
we should do a theater tour. I was like, that
sounds funny. Yeah, you won't make any money, but it's
gonna be it's gonna be awesome. And I was like, okay,
but I just reminder, everyone else that works with us
will make money. Yeah, it's just us two that won't.
So that's mostly what the music business is.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
How do you maintain the fun up there with the tour?
You play the same instrument that you have for years,
and you do the same thing. How do you challenge
yourself every tour to say, let's try something weirdly different.
Is there anything that you've tried or failed at?
Speaker 5 (12:23):
I mean, I think that if you're really trying to
put on a good performance, there's enough nerves and you know,
adrenaline happening that you've got to channel and it becomes like,
you know, it's like a game.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It never gets poring.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
But it's been fun working on the set list too
for this tour because it's like, got so much material
to pull from, so many songs that we've never played.
I mean, we've added songs to the set list that
we hadn't played in fifteen years or more.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Does it come back to you as the muscle memory, Yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
It does oddly, but have to definitely have to be
reminded of how went well.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Not We were like, we should do a couple of
songs as a two piece.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
So we thought it like a little medley we can
do and the first time we hadn't played these songs
in probably fifteen years to twelve years.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But yeah, we we went right through it without We just.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hit a medley and we did it.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And we never really did it.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
There are stars on forty five, it is all of them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
How many songs? How many tracks are there on No Rain,
No Flowers? Eleven? Eleven?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You guys just make eleven and these are the eleven?
Or do you have twenty two done and then you
choose eleven? How does it work for the two of you?
Speaker 5 (13:37):
We made eighteen songs and then you know the last record,
last album we made how players? You know, we made
like twenty songs and you know our initial concept was
like put.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Them all out on one LP.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
And then you're kind of advised like, well you should
actually break it up and you can use this other
thing as an addition so help market or tour looking
back on it. It just was like, uh, you know,
I wish we would have just put all the songs
out at once, you know, but in this case, like
I think that that we did find a collection of
eleven songs that go together, and then the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
We'll figure out what to do with it later.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
As a band, you can live in a vacuum, get
caught in your own thoughts and what you guys think,
is there someone or people on the outside that you
trust when it comes to no, it's going to be
eleven songs, Let's see what they think. Let's let them
live with it for a while. Do you have those
people still?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I mean, ultimately think we just have to trust our gut.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
But I think, yeah, we listened to suggestions.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
We've got a lot of friends. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I think that, you know, the concept of making records
these days for us is way more open minded than
it used to be. And I think just collaboration is
really from the start, we start collaborating with people. It's
more fun that way, and I think we've opened ourselves
up too. We ask certain people that we trust or
certain you know, people in the management or the label
(14:59):
to get their honest opinions.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Because you know it's helpful.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You know, always dm us and you know you take
not that we know anything anything because we don't probably
give you the worst, be awful.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
We can help them with the DJ thing. Yes, there
we go, There we go.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
We've discussed this before. Are you guys dj in a
club in l A. And I haven't seen it in person,
But do you have a set list for that? Or
do you feel the crowd? Are you playing vinyl? And
are you mixing? Or does a song fade then you
hit play a lot of questions please answer.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, I mean we.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Played forty five's and we don't really call it DJing,
but there's not.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Really Yeah, we're not cutting any records. We blend them
a little bit, but not well yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well do both just standing up like like justice like.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Well, we call them record hangs because I think it's
a nice way to present what we do. You know,
we don't take it too seriously, although we do take
it serious.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
We take what we're playing seriously.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah, but we usually invite one friend and then everybody
gets to spend for thirty minutes and then we do
a round robin where we just go back and forth.
O fun and We've got Peanut Butter Wolf spinning records
with us tonight, and you know, we've had people like
Eedon and our buddy Leon Michaels and just you know,
it's it's really fun and kind of competitive. Yeah, and
then you know, it just got us both back into
(16:22):
just obsessing about records and trying to find that record
that would like be the one, you know what I mean.
So it's a healthy competition, I think.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, I feel like there could be really cool arguments
between the two, like no, that sucks or no that's good,
you're going to lose the room, or so your music.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You can't argue with the crowd though, that's the thing.
You put the record on. The crowd tells you what's happening,
and if it's a dud.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We know, we know, yeah, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (16:50):
And we don't hesitate to know turning off You don't
really seconds do you know?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
If a crowd likes it? And then do your feelings
get hurt? And how long is it to get the
next record on?
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Well, I mean I think we're we're not really throwing
duds out there too much ourselves lately. But it's usually
like if we have a guest who doesn't really know that.
We had these one guys come help out and they
brought like a Madonna record and I like like ejected
it from the room Risbee time out.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
But how does you ask how it looks? It looks great.
I've got my marshmallow head on. No, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
They're really daft punk for revealing it.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Now, these are the guys.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Wait, I have a question, and if you don't have
an answer, just say pass. Is there a song that
you've heard on the radio or whatever YouTube in the
last twenty years that you wish that you guys wrote it?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
We were like, Jesus Christ, that's good. I mean, I
think the Arctic Monkeys whole album am you know? Do
I want to know? On there?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
We took them out on tour on the El Camino
tour a year before they put that out, but they
did release the single are You Mine Well while they're
on tour with us. But you know, we got pretty
close with those guys. And I remember going to see
the AM tour in Nashville in September of twenty thirteen
and they were playing this marathon music works just like
a thousand seat room, and I was just floored by
(18:14):
like the singles, and they came over to my house
afterwards with the head of their label, and I was like,
you need to hire a radio plugger, Like.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
What the this is? Like a huge radio song was
going on.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I was like so like annoying about it, and I'm
not taking credit for it, but I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I'm just saying, no, I'll take at all.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
No, he's not no, but that record you know, I'm
my my.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Six year old's obsessed with it. Oh yeah, I am
as well. Do you have? That's how you know if
you got a good album, if you're if a six
year old is nothing, kids just like oh your microphone, microphone.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Oh there's nothing worse than when you put on your
new stuff and your kids are just like, what else
you got next?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Like it makes me think maybe, like maybe Michael Jackson
wasn't that creepy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
He just had a lot of six year old fans
because his music was so good. Ah, there's the line
of the century.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I think that's a good one to go out.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We love the Black Keeys.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Patrick and Dan. Always a great time to talk to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Guys, No rain, no flowers man.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Thanks for coming up. Good luck with the Tony know
it just started it. Thank you guys, you know, thanks
for stopping.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Always having your back. Thanks for being so nice over
so many years. We appreciate that you guys. Thank you
very much
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