Dan Auerbach

Rising to fame as the singer, guitarist, and leader of the raw and imaginative blues-rock duo the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach has become one of the key movers and shakers in the American roots music community. In addition to his work with the Black Keys and solo albums like 2009's Keep It Hid and 2017's Waiting on a Song, Auerbach also leads the psych-influenced soul-blues band the Arcs (who debuted with 2015's Yours, Dreamily), and has established a thriving career as a producer. Working out of studios he built in Akron, Ohio and Nashville, Tennessee, Auerbach has used his unobtrusive studio savvy, intuitive skill with arranging songs and assembling studio bands, and naturalistic feel to sessions with artists such as Ray LaMontagne, Dr. John, Lana Del Rey, the Pretenders, Kurt Vile, and Hank Williams, Jr.

Dan Auerbach was born in Wooster, Ohio on May 14, 1979. He grew up in a household of music fans with eclectic tastes, listening to vintage blues and bluegrass sounds, and he was a distant cousin of Lou Reed and Richard Hell guitarist Robert Quine. The first two concerts he attended as a child were Whitney Houston (with his mother) and the Grateful Dead (with his father). After graduating from high school, Auerbach enrolled at the University of Akron, but his studies took a hit when he discovered the music of iconic Mississippi hill country bluesman Junior Kimbrough. Auerbach spent so much time trying to re-create Kimbrough's spectral guitar style on his own instrument that he ended up quitting school and dug deep into the blues, studying the recordings of Son House, Hound Dog Taylor, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and R.L. Burnside, among others. In 2000, Auerbach formed his first band, a blues-based rock combo called the Barnburners, who self-released The Raw Boogie EP in 2001. That same year, Auerbach began jamming with a friend from high school, drummer Patrick Carney, and one day, when Auerbach was the only one to show up for a Barnburners' practice, he and Carney began working up songs and soon produced a rough demo tape. The tape helped them land a deal with respected independent label Alive Naturalsound, and billing themselves as the Black Keys, their first album, The Big Come Up, arrived in 2002. In 2006, the Black Keys had created enough of a buzz that they landed a major-label deal with Nonesuch Records, and on the strength of albums like 2008's Attack & Release, 2010's Brothers, and 2011's El Camino, they broke through to mainstream popularity and amassed platinum records, Grammy awards, and sold-our arena tours.

Auerbach was a man who liked to stay busy during his downtime, and as the Black Keys became more successful, he opened his own recording studio in Akron. In 2009, he launched a side project, the Fast Five, featuring members of Hacienda and My Morning Jacket, who mounted several tours that year, some opening for the Black Keys. The same year, he teamed with producer and Roc-A-Fella Records founder Damon Dash to create BlakRoc, with Auerbach and Carney generating tough, blues-influenced grooves to accompany a number of noted rappers, including Mos Def, Q-Tip, Ludacris, RZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Auerbach also found time in 2009 to bring out his first solo LP, the raw and swampy Keep It Hid. In 2015, Auerbach brought out Yours, Dreamily, the first album from his project the Arcs, a blend of soul, rock, and psychedelia in which he teamed with songwriter and guitarist Richard Swift and several musicians from the New York retro soul community. Swift died in 2018, and a second Arcs album, Electrophonic Chronic, was issued in 2023 as a tribute, featuring material he recorded with the group before his death.

In the mid-2000s, Auerbach began branching out into production, working with Midwest acts like SSM, Brimstone Howl, and Nathaniel Mayer, and in 2011, he produced Abdication … For Your Love for the Memphis-based garage-soul band Reigning Sound, as well as Tell Me for moody singer and songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield. In 2012, he helped Dr. John conjure the hoodoo magic of his Night Tripper-era recordings on Locked Down, and 2013's Head in the Dirt was a project with artist and musician Hanni El Khatib. In 2014, the Black Keys went on hiatus, and Auerbach used the extra time to produce three celebrated albums: Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence, Ray LaMontagne's Supernova, and Nikki Lane's debut All or Nothin'. Chrissie Hynde recruited Auerbach to produce the Pretenders' 2016 release Alone, and to play keyboards on the sessions, and in 2017, Auerbach released his second solo album, Waiting on a Song, which gave him room to explore his influences from '70s pop and rock.

Waiting on a Song was one of the first releases on Easy Eye Sound, a label Auerbach created to release material by artists he admired; he also gave the same name to a recording studio he opened in Nashville, where he could work on his many projects at his own pace. In addition to releasing his solo material and albums from the Black Keys and the Arcs, Easy Eye also issued archival albums from Son House (2022's Forever on My Mind) and Tony Joe White (2021's Smoke from the Chimney), new material from established artists such as Hank Williams, Jr. (2022's Rich White Honky Blues) and John Anderson (2020's Years), LPs from rising stars like Marcus King (2022's Young Blood) and Yola (2021's Stand for Myself), and new discoveries like Nat Myers (2023's Yellow Peril) and Ceramic Animal (2022's Sweet Unknown). Auerbach dug deep into his passion for the blues with the 2023 compilation Tell Everybody! 21st Century Juke Joint Blues from Easy Eye Sound, which included his tune "Every Chance I Get (I Want You in the Flesh)" as well as rare tracks from Robert Finley, R.L. Boyce, Mississippi Gabe Carter, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, and one of the final recordings from Glenn Schwartz, the reclusive guitar hero who worked with the James Gang, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the All Saved Freak Band. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi