Detroit's White Stripes Help Lead the Motor City Rock Resurgence: A Q&A

There's something funny going on in the Motor City. Guys with names like "Jim Diamond" and "Dave Buick" are making music that's quickly put Detroit back on the map as the rock capital of the world. At the Mercury Lounge last fall we caught Michigan's hottest musical export, the White Stripes, a two-person Led Zeppelin who in the last three years didn't just conquer indie hipsters and rockers alike, but made it to the final frontier?this month they appear in Rolling Stone as one of the "Next Big Things," thanks to their latest release, De Stijl. We had some trouble tracking frontman/guitarist Jack White down, but once we did he seemed more than happy to talk about how Detroit musicians write the best songs, kids today think of blues as an old photograph of their mom and the fact that the White Stripes were started "as a real childish band, like little kids playing instruments."

 

Lisa LeeKing: What happened the other day?

The other day? With my car? Transmission broke for the third time in a month.

Tanya Richardson: Can't drive with that emergency brake up, guy.

Yeah, so I had to take it back in and it's still broken. We wrote a song called "The Big Three Killed My Baby," and we've been cursed automotively ever since.

TR: I found an old Danzig poster on eBay the other day. The auction closed in an hour, and I was about to bid on it when I saw that the current high bidder's e-mail address was "unholy."

You can't beat that!

TR: Right? He obviously wanted it more. I mention it because you guys have the same hard-driving, heavy riffs as Danzig's first solo album, only it's very stripped down.

There's a lot of garage rock bands in Detroit, and if they write a riff they mess it up by covering it up with so much complication. Whereas I thought they should just play the same riff over and over without three guitars and a drummer trying to cover each other up. If there was just one guitar and that pounding drum, then there'd be no way you could ignore that riff. Like AC/DC. You can identify with a real simple riff, but now stuff on the radio has 128 tracks of recording. There's so many frequencies going on, you can't identify with it.

TR: Another writer here wanted us to ask you about the blues. And I thought, why?

He wanted you to ask me about the blues? [laughs] Well, it's my favorite kind of music. Mississippi blues is probably the pinnacle of songwriting in America, and maybe the world. I don't think it's ever going to be topped. It's hard for a lot of people to get interested in it, because blues just seems like an old-time photo of your mom or something. You see a 1940s movie and say, "That lady is really pretty," and then someone else will say, "Oh, she looks like an old lady." But she's probably 20 in the film.

LL: Those Mississippi influences really come out in your music. Tell us about Blind Willie McTell.

I think people have heard the name, but he seems to be really overlooked. He knew a lot about melody, and how melody is so important to a song structure. I don't understand why his songs aren't famous, like "God Bless America." We're going down to Memphis next week to record the new album, so hopefully some of that will come out. It's a double album called White Blood Cells. There's not a lot of rock 'n' roll on it, more country influences.

LL: The first time I heard your name was when we interviewed Bobby Harlow from the Go. You played on their Sub Pop release.

Oh those guys are amazing! And some of the songs on that album are really, really, really good. I joined the band just as a lead guitar player, and it was the best time I ever had. I wish I could've stayed. I was kind of asked to leave, so...

TR: What happened?

I don't know what happened. There were like contracts and stuff that said I wouldn't be allowed to play with the White Stripes unless I got permission from the label and the Go.

LL: Any regrets?

[laughs] I think it was part of God's plan. There was no way it would have worked out. We would've disagreed all the time. We have different ways of looking at stuff.

TR: The kneejerk criticism about new garage rock is that it's been done before, it sounds just like music from the 60s, etc. But the MC5 and the Stooges got the same criticism when they started?that they were ripping off Chuck Berry.

When someone sees something that they don't like, the kneejerk response is to rip it apart and try to dissect it. Music is just an idea. Like how there's only six different types of humor. It's hard to make up a joke right now without someone saying, "Well, that's pathos," or "That's irony." It's all been around for 2000 years.

TR: People don't criticize the White Stripes as much as other garage bands, because with only two people, you seem more unique?the whole minimalism shtick. You have an edge there. But what's going on with garage rock in general in the Detroit scene?

Unbiased, I've never seen bands write songs like they do here in Detroit. There's a couple different scenes in Detroit, and people say, "Oh that's just garage rock and they're rehashing 60s stuff," but a lot of these bands right now are just trying to write really good songs, and maybe people are missing the point. It's not Radiohead or anything like that, which is great music, but you can't say that they're being original. They're not!

TR: When you played New York, the crowd mobbed you afterward. How does it feel? You're obviously not Madonna, but does it bother you to be a public figure?

In the last year, when everything's been getting a lot more exciting, it feels like it's not going to last. We're in the new issue of Rolling Stone, which is amazing for us because we don't have a manager or a publicist or any promotional stuff.

TR: At the show it looked like you didn't even have a roadie.

Right. So it's amazing that word of mouth got us so far. It just always feels like we're the flavor of the month.

LL: I've never seen a New York crowd be so attentive as when you played the Mercury Lounge. No one even left to use the bathroom during your set. After the show there were people buying a copy of each record, and the singles.

That was totally overwhelming. I don't think we've ever sold that much after a show. We didn't know what to expect. Everyone says New York and L.A. think they've heard everything?they'll just chew you up and spit you out. So we didn't have high hopes for it.

LL: How did you come to choose a peppermint candy as the unofficial logo on all your t-shirts and albums?

Well that was one of [drummer] Meg's favorite things as a kid. See, the band started off as a real childish idea, as a real childish band. Like little kids playing instruments.

TR: Why did you decide to cover "Jolene"?

Both me and Meg always loved that song. It's in a minor key and almost has an evil tone to it.

TR: Like Danzig!

[laughs] Yeah! We were going to do a country record with that song on one side and a Loretta Lynn song called "Rated X" on the other.

LL: What is your relationship with Meg?

What's that?

LL: [nervously] What is your relationship with Meg?

She's my older sister. We're the youngest of 10 kids.

LL: [looks over at Tanya] I've seen that in print, but when you played New York there were rumors that you guys were married and then you got divorced. Is that true?

We've heard that ever since we started. I don't know what it is. Some people come up to us and say, "God, you guys really look like you're brother and sister." And we say, "That's because we are!"

TR: Married is a much better story. But now how is it to be on the road and see people hit on your sister?

I think people are kind of afraid of us. Guys come up to Meg and they're like, "Aw shucks!" But we both have a girlfriend and a boyfriend.

TR: There's a famous quote from John Lydon, back when he was in the Sex Pistols. He said he'd never live in a mansion, and then after PiL got big he went out and bought a mansion in California. Would you change if you made it?

You know, when you're young and sitting around the house with your friends you say, "Yeah, if I was rich I'd have my house like this and this." But I think it'd be really hard to remember all those ideas you had when you were a kid. You don't get money and automatically think, "Oh, now I get to put 300 chrome hair dryers all over my house or color the whole thing purple!"

TR: Slow down, Elvis. What I really meant was, would you change the music?

Well, number one, it's never going to get to that point, but if it did...

TR: You'd get a roadie?

We might get a roadie if we got that famous. That would be the one thing we'd change.

The White Stripes play Maxwell's with the Greenhornes on Feb. 19 at Bowery Ballroom and with the Gossip on Feb. 24.