JUDY WOODRUFF: The band The
Black Keys debuted its first
album in five years recently at
the number one spot of
the U.S. album chart.
Its vocalist and guitarist,
Dan Auerbach, has also been
making a name for himself in
recent years in another setting.
Jeffrey Brown visited
him in Nashville recently
as part of our ongoing
arts and culture series,
Canvas.
DAN AUERBACH, The Black Keys:
The idea here is to be able
to see everyone and kind of
make eye contact.
I can even see the singer in
the other room over there.
JEFFREY BROWN: Eclectic,
functional, and intimate,
it's a space that seems
to sum up Dan Auerbach's
philosophy for making music.
Auerbach is best known as
one half of the two-man rock
band The Black Keys, as well
as for his solo work.
But he's also made a mark as
a record producer as head of
the label Easy Eye Sound, based
here at his studio in Nashville.
It's a nondescript building,
a former call center, but now
the source of nearly a dozen
albums in the past two years.
DAN AUERBACH: That drum booth,
the way it's set up, I set it
up after Muscle Shoals Sound.
JEFFREY BROWN: It combines
features of famed recording
studios Auerbach loves, such as
Muscle Shoals Alabama, a 1970s
mecca for soul, blues, and rock.
DAN AUERBACH: I did a
lot of investigating.
I went to Memphis, and New York
City, and L.A., and visited
the classic rooms, and talked
to the classic console makers.
And so this studio is
hand-picked down to the wire.
You know what I mean?
Every little part of it.
And it's completely unique,
and there's no other studio
in the world like it.
JEFFREY BROWN: Every piece
of vintage gear works.
It's fully wired, ready
to record, multiple
keyboards, four sets of
drums, dozens of guitars.
DAN AUERBACH: I used this one
on of the very first Black
Keys recordings we ever made.
JEFFREY BROWN: Oh, yes?
DAN AUERBACH: An old Stratotone.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, each one of
these has got some history, huh?
DAN AUERBACH: Each one of these
has some history and each one
of these has its own sound.
It's like having a toolbox
full of different tools.
JEFFREY BROWN: But tools alone,
Auerbach says, aren't enough
to replicate what he calls the
famous music factories.
DAN AUERBACH: I think when you
start, you are attracted by
all the lights, and all the
faders, and all the knobs, and
then when you get down to it,
you realize it's mostly just
the musicians.
JEFFREY BROWN: But then -- but
I'm -- I mean, we're in a studio
surrounded by instruments...
DAN AUERBACH: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: ... and gear.
DAN AUERBACH: Well, this
is a city where the people
know how to play them.
JEFFREY BROWN: That's why
Auerbach started Easy Eye
here in 2017 by hauling
some of Nashville's
best session musicians out of
retirement, including Billy
Sanford, who created one of
the most famous riffs
in rock history for Roy
Orbison's hit "Pretty Woman."
BILLY SANFORD, Musician:
That was one of them.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, I
think everybody knows that.
BILLY SANFORD: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
Yes.
But that's you, huh?
BILLY SANFORD: That's me and
two other guitar players.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
Yes.
The Easy Eye house band
now includes Sanford and
keyboard player Bobby
Wood, renowned session
musicians who can improvise,
collaborate, learn a part
quickly, and record six to eight
songs in a day.
BILLY SANFORD: You never
know what's coming next.
But that's good.
That keeps you on your toes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Here, everyone
sits side-by-side, Sanford says,
like the old days of recording,
very different from the way many
studios now record vocalists
and musicians, in isolation,
mixing it all together
in post-production.
BILLY SANFORD: The main thing
is, all the players are here.
You're not looking at some guy
doing some guitar work here
in Nashville, and then sending
it off to L.A. or somewhere
else, or -- I think you missed
the heartbeat of a record
unless everybody's playing
together at the same time.
JEFFREY BROWN: I asked Auerbach
if he'd set out to preserve
something important being
lost.
DAN AUERBACH: I don't feel
like a preservationist.
I feel like everything
we're doing is new.
I don't want to cut -- we
don't cut old songs here.
We cut new songs.
I just want to make something
I'm proud of and make something
that feels like the records
that I love, the records that I
just want to live with forever.
JEFFREY BROWN: That's meant a
variety of genres and a growing
portfolio of rising artists,
including Yola, Shannon
Shaw, Robert Finley, and
21-year-old Dee White.
White, who is from
Slapout, Alabama, had
barely started singing
when he was brought in by
a mutual acquaintance.
He and Auerbach clicked, and
that led days of intensive
songwriting, followed quickly
by a recording session,
with special guests like
Alison Krauss stopping
by to sing harmony.
DEE WHITE, Musician: Part of
the reason that this is such a
blessing for me is there hasn't
been any kind of molding
or shaping of what I
should be doing musically.
I feel like that is something
that a lot of people
who come to town face.
JEFFREY BROWN: You mean
trying to put you into
a certain box, or...
DEE WHITE: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes?
DEE WHITE: You know, as
far as a sound or whatever.
And I feel like a lot of people
have to compromise in some ways,
and I never had to do that.
JEFFREY BROWN: Easy Eye Sound
has signed 10 artists so far,
with several high-profile
announcements expected
in the coming months.
And for a long time Black Keys
fans, the band's new album
was recorded here recently.
Is this like the long-term
sustainable way of life?
Is that you -- what
you're building?
DAN AUERBACH: Well, I mean,
if you talk to my accountant,
he'd probably tell you no,
but...
JEFFREY BROWN: Really?
DAN AUERBACH: ... I mean, in my
heart, I believe that this is
what I'm supposed to be doing.
JEFFREY BROWN: A blend of old
and new, one song at a time.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Jeffrey Brown in Nashville.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Jeff gets
all the good assignments.