Jack White’s long ambition to write like Michael Jackson: “You think of them”
Regardless of the album or project you’re listening to from Jack White’s oeuvre, his great sense of versatility oozes undeniably.
Entering the scene with a DIY aesthetic and making music for the hell of it attitude, he burst in as one-half of The White Stripes, drawing people to their unique sound and band dynamic. With just one guitarist and one drummer, the sound was raw and raspy, and those early albums are still considered classics.
We have such an affinity for these albums that realistically, White could have continued to churn out more of the same for his entire career and rested on his laurels, but that was never his style. Never been one to turn down a project, he constantly looks for different creative outlets, potential collaborators, and interesting and novel directions he can take his music.
His voice might be distinct and easy to recognise, but that’s the only consistency when you listen to all of the music he’s made. If you play something from White Stripes, Dead Weather, The Raconteurs and his solo career, chances are, you are going to be able to pick out which is which as the sound and direction veer massively. It’s a career which it has truly been a treat to be a bystander for.
So, what is White’s process when it comes to putting together these exciting pieces of music? Understandably, he channels a number of different artists, styles and sounds, but his devotion to his craft, especially writing, is reminiscent of two musical legends before him: Prince and Michael Jackson. He, too, likes to create the perfect space within which to lexically let loose, while equally attempting to use his imagination to the fullest extent.
He did the former by moving into a house where his sole purpose was to create. It was isolated, so he wouldn’t have to worry about upsetting the neighbours with the unrelenting noise of first drafts when he was putting something together. This is comparable to Prince, as he was also adamant about creating the best space to write. For him, that didn’t mean moving into an isolated house; it meant playing the same two movies on repeat.
“When he was alive, whenever you’d go to Prince’s house, two things were always on TV: Finding Nemo and Black Orpheus, this beautiful Brazilian film from 1959,” said Questlove, reflecting on times he’d spent at Prince’s home. “He would have those on a constant loop: ‘Yeah, it’s my aquarium.'”
Whether or not White knew that he was embodying a Prince technique when he moved into an isolated house is unknown; however, his affinity towards Michael Jackson was very intentional. He had previously heard about the way Jackson would write songs entirely in his head, and liked the idea of giving himself up entirely to his imagination. If he thought of a riff, rather than bringing it into existence, he would bank it in a corner of his mind and then attempt to write lyrics on the other side. It meant that when he eventually brought songs into existence, he only had a blueprint and wasn’t bound by the riff, drumbeat or chorus that he had already written.
“I’m going to try to write songs where I can’t be heard by the next-door neighbour,” White concluded. “And I want to write like Michael Jackson would write, instead of writing parts on the instruments or humming melodies, you think of them. To do everything in my head and to do it in silence and use only one room.”
