Chris DeLine

While drummer Patrick Carney had already left the band’s hometown of Akron, Ohio for New York, both he and Dan Auerbach have now shifted the Black Keys home-based south to Music City. Explaining the group’s reasoning behind their collective move, Auerbach spoke to the Cleveland Scene this past summer, “Akron’s a great place” he said. “But we get to see all these great cities and spend time in these beautiful cities, and sometimes you come home and it’s a little bit of a bummer. We have to drive to Cleveland to go to Whole Foods and the West Side Market almost every week. To see an independent film, you’ve got to drive 40 minutes.”

In addition to setting up base in the city, Auerbach is also in the process of putting the final touches on a new recording studio which he’s been setting up downtown, reports the Associated Press’ Chris Talbott,

“Like [Jack] White’s thriving operation, Auerbach’s studio will be in downtown Nashville. It won’t have the public component that Third Man Records has with its record store and concert space. But like Third Man, Auerbach’s studio will become a nucleus around which other acts will circle. Auerbach is a busy producer and he says he’ll also lend the space to friends for their own projects.”

This doesn’t mean that the band’s only focus these days is on the business of music however. Continuing on with Talbott Auerbach joked, “Honestly, if Miami had given Pat and I the amount of money they gave LeBron, we would be living in Miami right now.”

The band’s latest album, Brothers, dropped via Nonesuch this past May, and has since garnered the duo six Grammy nominations.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]