Jan 22, 2016
Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys has added his distinctive bluesy-garage influence to a new comic-book mini-series, by composing an accompanying soundtrack, as reported by Vulture.
The series, titled Murder Ballads, is to be released by Z2 Comics in the fall of this year and will follow the gloomy adventures of a dispirited record-label owner who meets two mysterious blues musicians. According to Z2, Murder Ballads is a “rock’n’roll noir story about the music industry and redemption.”
The comic and the music are connected to one another, but Auerbach says he’ll be enjoying them separately because he can’t “listen to music that has lyrics and read at the same time.” As for the length of his score, it’ll apparently be “shorter than a double-LP and longer than eight minutes,” though the mixing stage of the process is yet to be completed, so this could change.
Gabe Soria, the creative mind behind Murder Ballads met Auerbach whilst The Black Keys were grafting on the small-venue circuits, and this has been a passion-project in the pipeline ever since.
The Black Keys' last record, Turn Blue, was released in May 2014, so this will be a nice pacifier for any fans who are eager for some new material. Auerbach also lent his ear and produced Cage The Elephant's latest album, Tell Me I'm Pretty.