“The easy way out”: The musician Jack White considers to be his kindred spirit
At times, a staleness overcomes any creative industry. The airwaves and mainstream media are infiltrated by the droning sound of sameness. It doesn’t sound bad necessarily, but the originality and spark of what transcends good to great music is lost. Art is always more interesting when there’s variety being pushed. For Jack White, maintaining his ingenuity and label as an outsider has always been of the utmost importance. He’s an advocate for keeping art interesting, sharing the sentiments of artists who, like him, create without considering outward expectations too much.
Back in 2014, around the time that White released his second solo studio album, Lazaretto, in an interview with The Guardian, he shared his thoughts on music culture. He commented on the frequency of artists just doing whatever was popular at the time rather than experimenting with sound and energy in their projects. Regarding this, he encouraged artists and listeners both to not stand for this sort of lazy artistic expression, saying, “You can’t applaud that; I don’t applaud that activity.”
Throughout his career as a solo artist with The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather, White has stayed true to his nonconformist image. Through the rousing successes of songs like ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’, ‘We’re Going to Be Friends’, and ‘Steady, As She Goes’, White has continued to exude sincerity in his art. His attitude hasn’t shifted as time has passed. Of course, some songs or projects have worked better than others. However, if you consider the fact that he could’ve just made 20 different versions of ‘Seven Nation Army’ and racked up a fortune easily, the calibre of his artistry is that much more impressive when you step back and observe the range of his discography.
So when he discusses the importance of upholding creative liberty, White isn’t just chatting to nag about the insipid and habitual work produced by other artists. That said, there are a few artists whom he credits as holding the same sort of values. His list of kindred musical spirits is quite brief, that’s not to say it’s not varied, though.
His list of creative contemporaries comprises Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Neil Young. Young is the most significant of the quartet, as he and White collaborated on A Letter Home in 2014, which is a collection of covers that Young recorded with White’s recording label, Third Man Records. The album has an old-timey, little bit rough around the edges sound to it. It’s admittedly a bit sonically dim and perhaps too vintage, but it’s evidently done with purpose. The pair recorded the project in a refurbished 1947 Voice-O-Graph vinyl recording booth in White’s Nashville studio.
While the album itself is not the most compelling work either artist has created, it exists as a testament to their innovative spirit. The record might be dull, but credit must be given to the musicians for their attempt at reinventing classic tunes in a retro way that’s a far leap from anything being presented by more conventionally driven artists.
Where music is concerned, for Jack White, what’s more interesting will always be the primary consideration. He’ll create by following his pulse as opposed to tapping into the popular, tired and overworked vein.
