Earlier today, Jack White let loose two new songs: “Connected By Love” and “Respect Commander”. Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Third Man rocker has revealed more details about his forthcoming solo album, which he’s titled, Boarding House Reach.
White initially began working on the album in a small Nashville apartment, where he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder that he bought when he was fourteen with money he made mowing lawns. “Connected By Love” was the first song he wrote in the apartment. “I just started humming notes out loud, staring out the window,” he told Rolling Stone. “After that, you really can’t explain it. You just have to get out of the way and let it happen. And you don’t really notice it as it’s happening.”
He went on to produce and record the album in three proper studio settings: Sear Sound in New York City, Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, and his own Third Man Records Studio in Nashville. For the sessions, he recruited an entirely new group of musicians, including drummer Louis Cato (Beyoncé/Q-Tip/John Legend); bassist Charlotte Kemp Muhl (The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger); bassist NeonPhoenix (Kanye West); synth players DJ Harrison and Anthony “Brew” Brewster (Fishbone, The Untouchables); keyboardist Neal Evans (Soulive/Talib Kweli/John Scofield); keyboardist Quincy McCrary (Unknown Mortal Orchestra); percussionist Bobby Allende (David Byrne); percussionist Justin Poree (Ozomotali); as well as backing vocalists Ann and Regina McCrary of gospel trio The McCrary Sisters and C.W. Stoneking, who contributes a spoken word performance on the album track “Abulia and Akrasia”. Past collaborators including drummers Daru Jones (Nas, Talib Kweli) and Carla Azar (Autolux, Depeche Mode) also appear on the album.
White previously called Boarding House Reach a “bizarre one,” jokingly describing it as “good gardening music or roofing music or, you know, back-alley stabbing music.” The synth-laden “Connected By Love” is certainly a diversion from White’s typical blues rock stylings, while “Respect Commander” incorporates elements of Detroit techno.
This Saturday, for one day only, “Connected By Love” and “Respect Commander” will be available on limited-edition 7-inch vinyl at Third Man Records’ stores in Nashville and Detroit.
A release date for Boarding House Reach is still forthcoming, but when it does surface it will be release through White’s own Third Man Records and Columbia.
In support of the release, White has already lined up festival gigs at New York’s Governors Ball, Boston Calling, and Shaky Knees in Atlanta, with further dates to be announced shortly.