The Black Keys' Patrick Carney talks deluxe 'Brothers,' postseason Browns

More than a decade after releasing its breakthrough sixth studio album "Brothers," The Black Keys are still "Howlin' for You." The Akron-bred duo — singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney — recently revisited and remastered the multiplatinum and Grammy Award-winning album, releasing it with three bonus songs — "Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth," "Black Mud Part II" and "Chop and Change." "Brothers" marked the first time The Black Keys released material recorded outside of Ohio. The majority of the album was cut at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. The remaining tracks were recorded in Brooklyn (with Danger Mouse), San Diego and Auerbach's Akron basement. The Chronicle-Telegram talked to Carney — who is weathering the pandemic at his new South Carolina home with wife, musician Michelle Branch, and their 2-year-old son — about "Brothers" and his beloved Cleveland Browns. Hey Patrick, how are you holding up? I'm doing good. We're beyond fortunate. Hopefully, we can get back to normal in the next few months, but I was fortunate to have the Cleveland Browns season get extended. Now I only have about 10 weeks to figure out what to do with myself before the Cleveland Indians season starts. I can't believe it's been 10 years since the release of "Brothers." How did the rerelease come about? I've spent some time over the last few years organizing our archive of music. We kind of have a release schedule for the next decade to touch on and expand all of our records. The whole plan was to do stuff around the 20th anniversary of the first record, which is next year. Because we got the rights back to "Brothers," it made sense to start there. Of course, within a day of this deluxe edition coming out, I realized that there was one other song I forgot to include. We'll get that out at some point. "Brothers" played an important part in breaking The Black Keys into the mainstream. What do you remember most about recording it? It's hard to even talk about because when we made the record we had been recording for eight years. We kind of felt like old men at the time. And once we made the record, it was like our 20s started over again. We ended up going on the road harder than we ever have. Our lives changed. It was very exciting, but too exciting, maybe. We had to take a couple of years off toward the end of the decade. Looking back on that record, I guess there were a lot of hard decisions and tension that went into making it. With (the 2008 album) "Attack & Release," we let someone in to help us. Then with "Brothers," we let multiple people in and we pushed ourselves a little bit more. The fact that it kind of became such a successful album, it made us excited to work more. From that, Dan ended up producing dozens of albums and we both worked on music with other people. It kind of validated us. While singles "Tighten Up" and "Howlin' for You" were the big singles off "Brothers," what album tracks define the project for you? For me, "Brothers" is like "Too Afraid to Love You," "I'm Not the One," "Sinister Kid" and "Ten Cent Pistol." That's the groove and the energy but none of those are hits. The whole thing that was happening on that record is that Dan and I previously made this hip-hop collaborated record "Blakroc." We realized it was easier to find a groove if Dan played bass and I played the drums, so we used the guitar as more of like an accent instrument. That's how we approached "Brothers." That's why the drumbeats have a lot of space. I was getting kind of weird with the floor toms and things like that. By the time we get to (2011 album) "El Camino," we started playing bigger and bigger shows. Danger Mouse, who produced "El Camino" with us, said it's hard to play a song like "Ten Cent Pistol" in a big arena. You have to have some fuel, some faster songs. He was right. Speaking of getting something right, how excited were you about the recent Cleveland Browns season? I watched the Sunday night game weeks ago. There was a whole montage using "Little Black Submarines" in the pre-game. I didn't know it was going to happen. It was honestly me sitting in my like studio/man cave by myself watching my favorite football team and we're part of it somehow. It's pretty insane. I've been optimistic the last five seasons, especially when (Baker) Mayfield came around. To watch the season opener be kind of a "Here we go again" to getting into the playoffs, I think we're going to be a solid football team. Consistency, that's all I want out of Cleveland sports. One could argue these days both The Black Keys and the Cleveland Browns both have a blue-collar swagger. I think that's the Northeast Ohio MO though. The ethos is you're a perpetual underdog and that's what makes you try harder. That works for us. We were told, you can't be a band from Cleveland or Akron. You got to go to Los Angeles or New York City. When it worked out for us, when "Brothers" hit, we did it from Ohio. For more information, visit theblackkeys.com Contact John Benson at Ndiffrence@att.net.