Black Keys Frontman Dan Auerbach Has An “Extra Weird” New Side Project Called The Arcs

Dan Auerbach, whom you might remember from such bands as The Black Keys, has just unveiled his new side-project, The Arcs.

The band features Auerbach performing alongside a vast array of musical friends, including Black Keys touring bassist Richard Swift, Amy Winehouse collaborator Nick Movshon and they have even recorded tracks with members of all-female mariachi band Mariachi Flor de Toloache.

“This is the culmination of all these years playing together,” Auerbach told Rolling Stone. “We just finally put a name to it and decided to put out an album.”

That album is Yours, Dreamily, which has been slated for release on September 4th. It’s headed up by the band’s debut single, Stay In My Corner, which is available for streaming below.

The song itself is a late-sixties style soul-rock crooner with a George Harrison-esque guitar solo, and Auerbach says it was inspired by the recent Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight. Weird, right? Well that’s exactly how Auerbach has described his new side-project’s first album: “extra weird”.

“It was cut really quick in a week and a half, two weeks of recording. I just wanted to do my thing and get extra weird… I wanted everything to flow [and] be cohesive,” he told Rolling Stone.

“A lot of the songs bleed one into the other, a lot like the Grateful Dead – my favourite records that they did. So I’ve got a lot of connected songs. It’s basically everything I love about music all wrapped up into one record – that’s all!”

Auerbach also explained that the project has allowed him to work free from commercial constraints for the first time. “We weren’t thinking about making songs for radio, obviously,” he said. “I’ve spent enough time thinking about that with the Black Keys, not that we ever wrote songs just for radio. I just don’t want to ever think about that stuff again.

“With The Arcs, we were just trying to make music that lives up to the kinds of standards that we love: old soul records, Captain Beefheart, newer hip-hop records. The songs are really experimental, but not over your head. I hate when people try to be so obviously out there.”

His announcement about the side-project came less than 24 hours after The Black Keys played the annual Governors Ball festival.

The duo recently cancelled their 2015 Australian tour and Bluesfest appearances after drummer Patrick Carney suffered a shoulder injury. The tour has yet to be rescheduled.

Listen: The Arcs – Stay In My Corner

Yours, Dreamily Tracklisting:

Once We Begin (Intro)
Outta My Mind
Put A Flower In Your Pocket
Pistol Made Of Bones
Everything You Do (You Do For You)
Stay In My Corner
Cold Companion
The Arc
Nature’s Child
Velvet Ditch
Chains Of Love
Come & Go
Rosie (Ooh La La)
Searching The Blue