Sun’s out, fun’s out!
You’ll never see photos ofJack White’s breakfast on Instagram.
Nor any pets, family, or “squad.”
Jack White.Paige Sara
He’s the rare public figure who eschews social media… and cell phones.
EW reviewed the “wooly wall of sound” that isFear of the Dawn, which scored nine no.
1s, including onBillboard’s Top Album sales chart, following its April 8 release.
But that LP was only half of White’s recent recorded output.
What does that do to your psyche?
JACK WHITE:If it had been my only creative outlet, it would have been a humongous crisis.
Because I had this feeling when I was a teenager and in my 20s.
These things add more opportunity to the table for me to be creative.
And then in 2020, I did startthe Instagram account for my upholstery shop.
And all my design work….
It felt good and cathartic to finally share that.
Do you enjoy looking at pictures of people’s breakfasts or dogs?
I don’t really indulge in the voyeuristic part of [social media].
I do like to see other makers working.
Whether it’s painters or carpenters, I enjoy that a lot.
My friends were saying that, and I would tend to agree.
It’s kind of a safe bet, that idea.
Or that a song title is going to be a headline.
It sadly starts to make you reevaluate your own art and that’s not a good thing.
For the most part, you have to stay away from that as much as possible.
you could’t think of things that way when you’re writing.
I mean, I can’t at least.
But sometimes there are battles that aren’t really worth fighting.
Aww, that’s sad.
[Laughs] It kind of is, right?
But it’s the reality of it, not me whining or anything.
So you’re always either sounding like them or not sounding like them.
Whichever way you choose, you’re already immediately turning off 50 percent of people.
So you have to do kind of dumb things, which you shouldn’t have to think of.
I mean, Martin Scorsese shouldn’t have to think aboutTaxi Driverwhen he’s making his new movie.
It’s a high-class problem to have, but it’s the way you scope things.
I don’t know if you know it.
Both your song and the movie are old-fashioned but have the “wink and a nod” thing…
I love that movie so hard so much, it’s hard for me to watch it.
It chokes me up to watch it.
Thanks for saying that, because that is a very strange song.
It took me to a whole different spot, writing that song.
I was challenging myself to sort of see what I could get away with!
I would say, “Never, I would never do that!”
Like “supermarket,” “Christmas,” “coffee,” whatever.
The song is so hard.
Some of them made it, and some of them didn’t.
But I like giving myself little challenges.
How did you decide to full-circle the records like that?
I thought it’d be a cool test and experiment.
So that came out really cool.
I wanted there to be connections.
So that was nice to be able to do that.
Where did the titleEntering Heaven Alivecome from?
That was a reading about Elijah going into heaven without dying first [in the Bible].
I thought, “Interesting, wait a second, is that something that other people…?”
I started reading a lot of things about that.
I like to write down phrases that make me think down the line.
That was one of them: “Entering Heaven Alive.”
I know there were inherent challenges in making these albums due to COVID.
The recording by myself, I had never really done that.
I ended up doing a lot of songs where I played all the instruments.
I think the first three songs onFear of the Dawnare all me.
So I’m glad I got to break through that and try that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
