Sunday, May 16, 2010

Pat from the Black Keys

"Well, I remember when Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” was in that Volkswagen commercial, and I thought that was very strange. I mean, you feel like you’re the only one that likes Nick Drake, when in reality there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people who have been fans of his for a lot longer than me. And because of that commercial, a lot of people know who he is. Maybe he’s rolling in his grave—I think that might be questionable when you’re dead. For us, it’s easier to justify doing a commercial. Modest Mouse did a commercial for Nissan, we did a commercial for Nissan as well. I was a fan of The Shins before their first seven-inch even came out, and they had a song on a McDonald’s commercial. I see no problem with it—at the time, no one knew who those bands were. Now people do, and I think they make awesome music. It obviously hasn’t corrupted them. Rancid got nearly two million dollars to do a shampoo commercial—I don’t know, maybe that’s the punkest thing they could do. If someone offers you enough money to buy a new guitar and pay your rent for a while, and you don’t have to do anything for it…the only thing you have to do is take the flak. We’ve turned down ads, we don’t take everything we get. We turned down a Hummer ad. We finish records in a basement, we live in Akron, Ohio. Not too long ago we were making five bucks an hour."

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