SXSW 2024: Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach Share Their Musical Origins In This Is A Film About The Black Keys
At SXSW 2024, The Black Keys debuted their brand new documentary This Is A Film About The Black Keys. Pop Culture Planet’s Jordan Bohan spoke with the band and director Jeff Dupre about the origins of the documentary, the key to a longlasting band, and some of their most notable performances.
Band members Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach typically keep their personal lives very private, but with a documentary coming out solely about them, there is much for fans to learn. “I think a lot of casual fans don't know much about the story of us and I think seeing how we met is the most interesting thing for me,” Carney shared, with director Jeff Dupre adding: “The story is really about a friendship that was built on top of this incredible musical bond that they shared. I think it's really a story about friendship and brotherhood and perseverance. They've never had their story told before so it's going to enable people to hear their music with new ears and just give it added dimension.”
The Black Keys have been around for 23 years, giving Dupre much content to work from. “[I’ve] been a fan of the band for many, many years. I met them about 10 years ago interviewing them for another project. I went down to Nashville and loved their whole scene,” he said about making the documentary. “During the pandemic, we were like this is a great time to actually do this work. What else are we doing? They can't tour, neither can I, so that was the genesis of it.”
Bands have been notorious for tumultuous relationships and backstage drama, but this duo hasn’t seemed to face those same issues. When asked what the key to success and staying together was, they shared that it truly is about the music. “I think the secret is we've always been on the same page creatively,” shared Carney. “That's most important.”
Auerbach continued: “Having the perseverance to get through it, it's pretty rough in the beginning and took a very long time. Part of this documentary is showing how we started. Most of the fans didn't hear about us until our sixth record. We didn't get a song played on the radio till then so it's nice to tell the beginning part of the story.”
As a New England native, I found one of the band’s most iconic performances to be at the 2023 NHL Winter Classic held at Fenway park, an outdoor professional hockey game played on a baseball field in early January. When asked about their most unique concert venue, the duo mentioned they haven’t played many odd places, but rather some peculiar events. “We played a couple weird events, but I think one of them was we played a porn distributors holiday party in New Orleans,” said Carney, with Auerbach adding: “It was very weird. It was very randy.”
This Is A Film About The Black Keys does not yet have a confirmed release date.
