Rolling Stone has just posted a wide-ranging Q&A with Jack White in which the singer/songwriter/record label exec frankly answers all the questions thrown at him. Within the piece White gives insight into the future of Third Man, The Raconteurs, his solo projects and even weighs in on the authenticity of bands such as The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons.
Here’s Jack White’s take on the music of acts such as The Lumineers & Mumford…
I think it’s brilliant that that music is catching people’s attention. It’s beautiful. That’s a surprise, because even at the moment – when the White Stripes came out and we were performing that type of music and we were getting to do it on television across the world, which we kind of felt was an amazing opportunity – even when the White Stripes did the Grammys, we were going to play “Seven Nation Army,” but I said, “I really want to play ‘Death Letter’ by Son House, as long as I have the opportunity.” And we did. That was a triumph for me – a Son House song was once again played for the American people. And I think these acts nowadays are keeping people’s ears open to the idea of the soulfulness of folk-style music and acoustic music, and you get a little bit closer to the musician, to the writer, at times. It doesn’t have to be about them. I don’t think it’s about authenticity at all. It’s just about the idea that style can sometimes bring you in and bring you closer, like someone sitting at a piano can.
White also discusses the infamous Radiohead pre-Bonnaroo recording session…
Will we ever hear the music Radiohead recorded at your studio in June?
I hope so, yeah. I love it. I hope that’s gonna come out soon. It’s up to Radiohead. I don’t know what – I don’t know where they’re at with it.What did you guys do?
They produced it themselves, or Thom [Yorke] produced it or something. They just recorded it at my studio, a couple of tracks, and then went on to play at Bonnaroo the next day.
As huge Raconteurs fans, we dig JW’s answer about whether he’ll be working with them soon…
Yeah, we’ve always been working together, you know? We did some Raconteurs shows like a year ago. Our things pick their place for us. We don’t really sit down and pick them. They pick our place for us. Like, the Kills make a record or Queens of the Stone Age makes a record, I make a record, and it all falls into place, you know? Like, we didn’t know we were going to do two Dead Weather records in a row. We didn’t have any plan at all. We were just going to record a seven-inch, and it keeps going, and we make two albums’ worth of material. We try not to tell it what to do. We let it tell us what to do.
As far as White walking off from one of his Radio City gigs last year?
Oh, I just do what the crowd tells me to do. I always do that. I always have and always will. If I play an old folks’ home or a fire station, I shut up when the crowd tells me to shut up. I provoke when the crowd tells me to provoke. The crowd’s in complete control of me. So that’s, that’s what will happen at any given night you see me.
Jack also reveals that 2013 is a blank slate for him as he doesn’t have much planned at this point. We can cut and paste nearly all of his responses as there’s thoughts worth reading in each of his responses, but why don’t you head over to Rolling Stone to read the whole thing.
