Jack White has been pretty quiet recently, and if history tells us anything it’s that the man is very likely not relaxing on his back porch with the Tennessee mosquitoes. Indeed, the prolific man-of-too-many-hats has revealed that in addition to recording new material with both The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, he’s also got nearly two dozen songs of his own for what may be a follow-up to 2012’s excellent Blunderbuss.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about his life in Nashville, White explained that all members of his bands are living in his hometown, and the gathering of musical friends take regular field trips together.
“We all live in Nashville now,” he explained. “All The Raconteurs and all The Dead Weather live in Nashville now, so we often go on trips together, because we’re all just good pals. We’ve recorded some things, too. And Brendan (Benson) and The Raconteurs just built a new studio right in town, so it’s a lot of great inspiration going around.”
As for his own solo material, “I’ve got about 20 to 25 tracks I’m working on right now,” he said. “A lot of songs. So it’s a good time for writing for me. I just want to write and bring the Buzzards and Peacocks in and work on some things, and work on the things with no intention of what it’s going to be. No competition between the bands. People just keep writing and recording until I decide what it’s going to be. And I haven’t decided yet, so.”
As for whether the wide range of sound found on Blunderbuss would continue, White confirmed the diversity of the new material. “It’s definitely not one sound. It’s definitely several. Like you heard in ‘Blunderbuss’, there’s many different styles there. I don’t pick my style and then write a song. I just write whatever comes out of me, and whatever style it is is what it is, and it becomes something later.”
Additionally, White’s Third Man Records will release Jay-Z’s new album ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ on vinyl, with a particularly unique approach to releasing one of the album’s outtakes, “Open Letter”.
Photo: Johnny Firecloud
