( This article was published in Audiby Magazine’s August 2014 issue – http://issuu.com/audiby/docs/10_issue_web1 . Some of these ideas were used in another publication- ‘The sound riddles’. )
Jack White’s debut solo record ‘Blunderbuss’ was the first album that was completely recorded on an 8-track analogue tape to make it to the top of the UK and US charts in more than twenty years. He founded Third Man Records, an independent record label, in 2001 and built a studio of the same name in 2009 which had his band The Dead Weather’s single ‘Hang you from Heavens’ as its debut release. This was bound to happen for someone who believed “technology is a big destroyer of truth”.
His meddling with recording technology, in order to achieve his ideas on sound, began with the White Stripes records. For instance, he produced their album ‘Elephant’ with old analog equipment, including an 8-track tape machine and an array of other such pre-1960s recording gear. On most of the earlier White Stripes records, even drums were recorded on a single track with one overhead mike, a seemingly bizarre idea in light of modern recording techniques. Apparently on their last record ‘Icky Thump’, for which White wanted greater “editing capabilities”, he had to let go of his extreme drum-recording techniques and also opt for a 16-track tape recording for the entire album – although he disagreed to use pro tools or any form of digital editing which meant that the recording engineer, Joe Chiccarelli had to spend a lot of time cutting tape with a razor blade. It is often retold by many of his engineers that he frequently asks them, during the mixing stages of his songs, to “not make it sound too good”.
The good in Jack White’s book, which is often a result of his own manic persona, couldn’t be more unpredictable. One can’t really gather his ideas and construct a theory based on it, which would surely nullify its own existence (and the music of those who try to apply it). His premise generally is that every detail of the process of recording is secondary to sounds, thoughts and even lyrics that are born out of spontaneity. He is known to almost never start composing until a week before the recording dates at the studio. Paradoxically, his apparent fascination with ‘true’ sound does not transcend onto the other aspects of his character – “I grew up in the 90’s in the time of grunge when, if you didn’t go on stage in jeans and a T shirt, you weren’t ‘real.’ That seemed ridiculous to me.” His forte is based on the contrast of ‘real’ sound with theatric visuals. It always seemed like he relished all the freedom from everything but his music, which still drew from self-inflicted frugal means such as his famous red JB Hutto Montgomery Airline, a low-quality plastic guitar which was sold via mail order during the 60’s, and which is considered to be almost impossible to play. His favorite review of his own music, he says is “The White Stripes are simultaneously the most ‘real’ and ‘fake’ band in the world”. His other perpetual contradiction comes from drawing so much from the past (such as the bluesy sound of the White Stripes), yet being wary of retrophilia, trying not to sound 60’s-ish. But all this has always brought about an inimitable yet completely accessible sensibility in all his work. Perhaps his ideas are best reflected by the title of the White Stripes’ first record ‘De stijl’.
Taking on the new role of a director of his solo efforts, he claims “When you are in a band, you don’t really tell other people what to play”. His solo records have given him more space to experiment with music since he has the sound sorted out to his liking in his own studio. The result is as refreshing as the White Stripes records were back when they were released. His latest album ‘Lazaretto’ (released on June 10) has been produced both on tape as well as digitally, with Jack claiming that the tougher portions of the album have been edited on Pro Tools and rerecorded on tape. Previously he was only known to have accepted digital on the duet with Alicia Keys “Another way to die”, the soundtrack for Quantum of Solace. It seems that over time he has softened up to digital technology. The LP also features many interesting stunts, which are inevitable with his name tag on it, such as secret grooves & holograms, and songs that appear when played at different RPMs on vinyl. The album now holds the record for the most vinyl records sold in a single week at 40,000 topping the previous record holder – Pearl Jam’s ‘Vitalogy’ which sold 34,000.
A great dramatizer of ideas, Jack White pulled off an elaborate stunt on record store day – April 19 – with “the fastest record in the world”. Putting up a show full of songs from his latest release at the “Blue Room” (the only live studio in the world that records live performances directly onto tape), he organized the recording, cutting and subsequent mixing of the record in 3 hours, 55 minutes and 21 seconds. The final mix was transported to United Record Pressing, to be manufactured and packaged. After the show, White himself went across to oversee the pressing bringing back the first retail copies to present to fans that were waiting outside the Third Man Records studio. Gimmick has been central to all the aspects of Jack White’s music from the very beginning.
“I want to be part of the resurgence of things that are tangible, beautiful and soulful, rather than just give in to the digital age”. Everybody gets a sense of it but only he seems intent on yanking it out into existence.