Daniel Quine Auerbach, known as Dan Auerbach, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. He serves as the main producer on Lana Del Rey's album Ultraviolence.
Meeting Lana Del Rey[]
According to both Emile Haynie and Lana Del Rey, he [Haynie] was the one who introduced Del Rey to Dan Auerbach, as they hadn't met before and didn't know much about each other's music. The three of them were suppposed to travel to Easy Eye Sound Studios at Nashville to start working together on Del Rey's album Ultraviolence.[1] They met at a party at Riviera club in Queens where Lana went with Haynie and met Auerbach who was with mutual friend engineer and mixer Tom Elmhirst.[2] Auerbach and Del Rey hung out through the night and as they talked about music, found things in common and decided to work together. Shortly afterwards Emile Haynie decided to step down from the project as he was struggling with personal issues, leaving Auerbach as the main producer of the record.
About working on Ultraviolence[]
About his role as the lead producer on Ultraviolence, Dan Auerbach stated he and Lana were only going to meet for a three-days studio session, but they ended up working for two weeks and finished the whole record. Lana had already worked with Rick Nowels at Lee Foster's Electric Lady Studios for approximately three weeks[3] on demos for approximately nine or ten tracks, including songs like "West Coast" and "Shades of Cool". However, she felt the need to rework what she already had with Dan Auerbach's loose techniques adding a California vibe to the record by recording in single takes, with cheap microphones bought from the drugstore. Auerbach reworked these songs and, even though he described the previously recorded versions as good, he wanted to include his sound into the record without ruining the original vibe of the songs, so he brought musicians to play instruments. "Her demos were so good, her songs were so strong that I wanted to get my musicians in who I love and get my sound that I get here with her songs and that's it. I didn't want to mess it up," He said to Rolling Stone, emphasizing that "she sang live with a seven-piece band. That's the whole record – a seven-piece band with her singing live. It was crazy."[4]
He described Lana as "a true eccentric and extremely talented," as well as having "a definite vision of what she is and what she wants to be, musically and visually" as well as looking at the record as a "big art project". He also went and said Lana stood firmly about what she wanted to do with the album, and said this led to him and Lana "bumping heads a little bit" but then at the end of the day they "were dancing to the songs".[5] Lana described the involvement of Auerbach as a pivotal moment in her career, as after she released her debut album Born to Die and follow-up EP Paradise she stated she didn't know if she was ever going to release another record. Del Rey stated Auerbach "gave her some confidence back" and helped some songs to have another dimension.
In an interview with Les Inrockuptibles on June, 2014 she also talked about Dan's way of working, as well as her influence on his own band's record, describing him as "Versatile: he can be very quiet a day and then very excited. But between us we had a lot of fun. He is a true passionate person, with strict dogmas: he refuses to do some things categorically. That made us brought closer. At the beginning, my album and The Black Keys' one, Turn Blue, were supposed to be released the same day. After 4 weeks of recording for mine, he was so implied that he began to imagine my album was his and it also influenced his work with his band – he has redone some tracks he didn’t find them up to par! He loves my album, he called me very late at night just for saying: 'I don’t know if I am going insane but I feel we’re doing a super disc!´"[6]
Label's hesitation about the record[]
However, Auerbach openly criticized her label's role on the creative output of the record. He stated the label threatened with not extending the recording session for Ultraviolence any longer unless they heard something from the record.[7] After they sent them [the label] the rough mix of what they had at the moment they were unhappy about the results. They even threatened Lana the record wasn't going to be out unless she worked with "the Adele producer", who most fans speculate to be Paul Epworth, long time producer on Adele records, who also reworked previously leaked demo of "Black Beauty" to fit in more with the sound of the record. According to Auerbach, after Epworth listened to the same rough mix he loved it and stated the album was amazing and that he wouldn't do anything to change it. His words may have influenced the label's own opinions as they changed their mind suddenly and let Lana release the record.
About working on future projects with Del Rey[]
When asked if he was going to work on Lana's 2015 Honeymoon, Auerbach said to NME: “I think [Lana] went back and is working with her old producer.”[8] Referring to Rick Nowels taking the lead as an executive producer on the previously mentioned album.
Credits[]
Songs from Ultraviolence (2014)[]
- 01. "Cruel World"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Handclaps.
- 02. "Ultraviolence"
- Production role: Producer, mixer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar.
- 03. "Shades of Cool"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar.
- 04. "Brooklyn Baby"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar.
- 05. "West Coast"
- Production role: Producer, mixer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, 12-String Guitar [Acoustic], Synthesizer, Shaker.
- 06. "Sad Girl"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Synthesizer.
- "Money Power Glory" (Demo)
- Production role: Producer.
- 09. "Fucked My Way Up to the Top"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar.
- 11. "The Other Woman"
- Production role: Producer.
- Instrumentation: Synthesizer.
- 14. "Florida Kilos"
- Production role: Songwriter, producer, mixer.
- Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Synthesizer, Backing Vocals.
Songs currently unleaked[]
- "Pretty When You Cry" (demo)
- Production role: Producer.
- "Guns and Roses" (demo)
- Production role: Producer.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.complex.com/music/2015/02/emile-haynie-profile-we-fall.
- ↑ https://www.complex.com/covers/lana-del-rey-interview-against-the-grain-2014-cover-story/
- ↑ https://www.complex.com/covers/lana-del-rey-interview-against-the-grain-2014-cover-story/
- ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dan-auerbach-on-working-with-lana-del-rey-it-was-amazing-188889/#ixzz315IAitFZ
- ↑ https://www.nme.com/news/music/lana-del-rey-114-1245121
- ↑ http://www.lanadelreyfan.com/lana-del-rey-covers-les-inrockuptibles/
- ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-lana-del-rey-fought-to-get-her-radical-ultraviolence-lp-released-236453/
- ↑ https://www.nme.com/news/music/lana-del-rey-52-1213529