“It’s how you say it”: Jack White’s analogue versus digital experiment
Detroit, Michigan, has produced some truly groundbreaking musicians over the years, from the blues of the 1920s to the garage rock of the 1960s. Throughout its history, however, the city has not seen many figures as tireless or experimental as Jack White. Since he first burst onto the scene in 1997 as one-half of The White Stripes, the songwriter has always done things differently. More so than most, White seems dedicated to the inner workings of music production, which is perhaps what led him to form his own record label, Third Man Records.
The benefits of owning and operating your own independent record label should be obvious: you can do pretty much whatever you want. Over the years, White has certainly used that freedom to his heart’s content. From playing a one-note concert with The White Stripes to pressing secret songs into the paper label of his Lazaretto LPs, the songwriter has repeatedly used his musical career as a vehicle for interesting, diverse, and often strange experiments both within his music and its physical publication.
One of the things that White is perhaps best known for is his dedication to analogue music. Third Man Records played a not insignificant role in repopularising vinyl records as a format, so it makes sense that White himself is a self-confessed vinyl junkie. As a result, his musical output has always leaned heavily towards an analogue way of doing things, avoiding digital influence wherever possible.
A prime example of this dedication to analogue music came in 2021, when the songwriter unveiled the track ‘Taking Me Back’, taken from his fourth studio album Fear of the Dawn. The song itself is a fairly straightforward garage rock track, harking back to the sounds of White’s early material created with The White Stripes, much like the rest of Fear of the Dawn.
In contrast to the garage rock of the 2021 single, the B side of the single featured a vastly different version of the same song, titled ‘Taking Me Back (Gently)’. This version featured as the lead single of White’s folk-centric studio album Entering Heaven Alive, released shortly after Fear of the Dawn. The sister albums served to showcase the diverse offerings of White’s sound and how similar songs can be used to convey vastly different emotional responses.
Speaking to Zane Lowe about the two different versions of ‘Taking Me Back’, White revealed his motives. “‘‘Taking Me Back’ electric is super digital, recorded straight into the board and pro tools, and edited perfectly. I constructed that song,” he shared.
Conversely, he revealed: “‘Taking Me Back’, the gentle version, is several amazing musicians in a room, recorded through microphones, through 1930s RCA mic pres onto tape, and performing live all at the same time.”
White has always harboured a penchant for vintage equipment, regularly employing their distinctive powers throughout his music career. ‘Taking Me Back (Gently)’ made particular use of old-school production equipment and techniques, imbuing the track with a retro folk-rock feel, which was completely at odds with the modern garage rock of the other version.
“I wanted to show people ‘Look, it doesn’t really matter what the song is, it’s how you say it,’” the songwriter shared, adding, “You can say the same song in two totally different ways.”
That ethos permeated throughout the production of Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive, which remain some of the most daring and revolutionary projects White has ever taken on. These musical experiments and theories are testament to the incredible mind of the musician, who never seems to have slowed down in his quest to experiment with the mechanics of music making.
