When long-time friends, and bandmates in The Raconteurs, Jack White (The White Stripes) and Brendan Benson started jamming and recording in an old, spacious attic during breaks from their usual projects, neither man knew what was to come. “We’ve been friends for a long time, fans of each other’s music, and kind of studying each other in a way for a long time,” recalls White. “We were just recording a couple of songs, and we didn’t really know what it was for.”
It wasn’t until they had written their eventual lead single, “Steady, As She Goes”, that White and Benson knew they had something special. In order to make a true go of it as a band, they brought in buddies Patrick Keeler (drums) and Jack Lawrence (bass), of The Greenhornes. Subsequently, The Raconteurs were born. “‘Steady, As She Goes’ was the first thing we did,” says White, “and it doesn’t sound like Brendan’s solo album, it doesn’t sound like The White Stripes, and it doesn’t sound like The Greenhornes. After we were done recording it, I think we were off to ‘a spot of a winner’, as the English would say.”
The band: The Raconteurs, the rock ’n roll brainchild of The White Stripes’ Jack White and alt-rock aficionado Brendan Benson.
Right now: May 16th saw the release of the band’s 10-track debut disc, Broken Boy Soldiers.
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