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The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach brings his new band The Arcs to Massey Hall

THE ARCS at Massey Hall (178 Victoria), Thursday (December 10), 8 pm, all ages. $49.50-$59.50. ticketfly.com


Dan Auerbach‘s new band, The Arcs, has been in the making for six years. But the first time they played together in the same room at the same time was just six months ago.

In between world tours with the Black Keys and studio sessions with a host of musicians, Auerbach and his long-time friends, multi-instrumentalist/Truth & Soul Records founder Leon Michels and producer Richard Swift, would get together every couple of months to write.

“We basically had been accumulating a ridiculous catalogue,” Auerbach says on the phone from his home in Nashville. “We had, like, 80 songs. It was at that moment that we agreed it was just stupidity to be recording all this material and not putting it out.”

The trio then recruited bassist Nick Movshon (the Dap-Kings, TV on the Radio) and R&B drummer Homer Steinweiss to round out the band. Since it was “literally impossible to get five musicians in the same room,” whenever a few of the Arcs were in close proximity to one another they’d head to the nearest studio and record.

The result of those sporadic sessions is Yours, Dreamily (Nonesuch), which builds on the bluesy tones of the Black Keys with a helping of psychedelia and scrappy garage, plus glimpses of R&B.

Lyrically, songs range from drug dealer anthems and ex-lover kiss-offs to loose odes to boxing, a favourite sport of Auerbach’s. In fact, the Arcs’ first 7-inch included the songs Stay In My Corner and Tomato Can (“a nickname for boxers who go into the ring knowing they’re going to lose – when you drop them they bleed red”) and was released on the day of the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao match in May.

“They call boxing the sweet science,” Auerbach says. “If you get into boxing, you get into the micro-details of body movement and the real finer things. It’s very delicate, and the people who master it are like ballerinas to me. Their movement is beautiful.”

This love of detail and precision is apparent in Auerbach’s approach to music, too. The guitarist/vocalist/producer is obsessive in the studio, insisting on being involved in everything from writing and recording to producing and mixing.

“I like to get into projects for the long haul and really dive in. It’s like that with whatever I do, and especially with the Arcs. I don’t make music to win Grammys. I’ve only ever tried a couple of times to write a catchy song for the radio, and that was just a fun experiment, like a challenge. 

“I just want to do something I’m proud of and know that I put my all into it. I know it sounds corny,” laughs Auerbach, “but I swear to god it’s true.”

music@nowtoronto.com | @SamEdwardsTO

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