A Clean Mess

The Black Keys, on how they would describe their sound:

“When we first started out, we could only make things sound like garbage, but we liked the way garbage sounded… so, we had no problem.

And then we started encountering problems when we wanted things to sound like really nice garbage. And it’s hard to get things to sound big, and (bad) trashy.

So I think we recorded this record (Brothers), you know, actually pretty cleanly, but really minimally.  And then had Tchad Blake mix it, and uh, apply the garbage to it. So yeah, that’s what we’re goin for.”

...This reminds me of my personal style- tasteful, sophisticated, yet paired with a constant element of ruggedness. A clean mess, a round-about achievement.

-KB