Photo: Ashley Osborn for iHeartRadio
The Black Keys celebrated the release of their highly-anticipated 12th studio album, Ohio Players, in style with an exclusive iHeartRadio album release party on Friday (April 5)! The standouts stopped by the studio to perform a few hits, new and old, and discuss the making of the album with iHeartRadio's Stryker.
The live audience went wild as rock duo Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney kicked off a melodic night to remember with 2008's "I Got Mine," featured on Attack & Release and 2010's "Howlin' for You" featured on Brothers.
Amid the creation of the 14-track masterpiece that is Ohio Players, the pair got into a routine of performing scheduled dates and heading to clubs after to play records. They referred to these intimate shows as "record hangs;" a series of events that ultimately inspired their latest album.
"So we've been throwing these parties while we're on tour called record hangs," Carney relayed. "It really inspired the record. Getting in front of crowds and playing records and seeing how they resonate with people is kind of insane." The records in question came from "all different decades and all different genres."
The duo would play songs from various records and see which the crowds liked best in an effort to create the best content for their next album (which eventually turned into Ohio Players). Auerbach added:
"Ultimately you want to find the record that sounds like a hit that people haven't heard before. That's what the goal is. So we were having this friendly competition buying records, searching for records, trying to spin records and see how they would go over with the crowd. Then we would take that energy into the studio."
The Black Keys worked with various artists to put Ohio Players together including Beck and Noel Gallagher, and spoke highly of each for their contributions to various album singles.
The album release party proceeded with an exclusive performance of "Beautiful People (Stay High)," an energetic single that set the tone for the entire album upon its release in January. Other electric tracks featured on Ohio Players include "This Is Nowhere," "Don't Let Me Go," and "On the Game" to name a few.
Photo: Ashley Osborn for iHeartRadio
Transitioning from one hit to the next, Stryker inquired if the band felt any pressure between 2010's Brothers and 2011's El Camino, given the extremely different sounds present within each record, to which Carney replied:
"I mean there should have been because we were supposed to go to Australia at the beginning of 2011 and we were so burned out that we cancelled the tour. We actually payed like $200,000 not to go to Australia. We spent like most of the money we'd made touring to get out of the work. So anyway, we went into Dan's studio instead and went immediately right to work without having time to think about anything. It was right after we'd won our first GRAMMY."
Speaking of tours, Auerbach revealed that they try to switch the setlist up for every show depending on what "people are listening to."
"We want to play the songs the fans want to hear too." The Black Keys will jet off to Europe for a string of shows at the end of April before heading back to the U.S. for their "International Players Tour," beginning in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 17th!
Head to iHeartRadio now to listen to Ohio Players in its entirety!