Jack White Gets Dark and Dangerous With The Dead Weather : Rolling Stone

The Dead Weather

Horehound June

"I produced the record from the drummer's seat, which is a new angle for me," Jack White boasts.

Actually, the White Stripes and Raconteurs singer-guitarist is back to his first instrument — he started out as a drummer — in his latest band, the Dead Weather, which includes singer Alison Mosshart of the electro-blues duo the Kills, Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita.

The Dead Weather began as a lark, after the Kills opened some Raconteurs shows in the U.S. last summer. White, Mosshart and Lawrence recorded a cover of Gary Numan's "Are 'Friends' Electric?" then quickly started writing originals and cutting a whole album at White's new Third Man studio-label complex in Nashville, which includes a vinyl-record store, a photography studio and a stage for live performances.

White, who also sings on the record, describes Dead Weather songs such as "Treat Me Like Your Mother" and "Hang You From the Heavens" as "very dark, very dangerous. There are synthesizers and acoustic instruments treated so they don't sound like themselves anymore."

The band recently unveiled its bluesy mix at a show for 150 friends — including Raconteurs Brendan Benson and Patrick Keeler and the White Stripes' Meg White — in Nashville, an event that also marked the opening of White's new Third Man offices.

Mosshart is a bit dizzy from the speed with which the Dead Weather made their debut — it came together in just three weeks. (They will also tour after the album's release in June.) "In the Kills, it takes a long time to finish anything," Mosshart says. "This band is fun because Jack works so fast. There is never a dull moment — ever."