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Guitarist Dan Auerbach, center, and drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys will perform at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday.Evan Agostini/The Associated Press

The new album from the Black Keys is Turn Blue, a textured, occasionally eerie opus of classic-rock psychedelia and 21st-century blues. We spoke to lyricist, singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach about fishy smells, maggot brains and weights lifted.

I think the new record, Turn Blue, is the Black Keys' most album-orientated album yet. Your co-producer Brian Burton said you guys were consciously avoiding writing singles. Is that true?

I don't know if it is. I will say that during the session that we did with Brian in Los Angeles, we weren't worrying about singles. But, honestly, I don't think you really can worry about them. If you're going to sit around trying to write a single, I think it smells fishy. So, what Brian said is partly true, and partly not true.

The album's first track, Weight of Love, has a grand psychedelia to it, like Pink Floyd. And your solos remind me of Eddie Hazel's work on Funkadelic's Maggot Brain. How did they come together on that song?

It took no thought. It took no time. I think in a matter of 10 minutes I had all those solos layered up and finished.

What about the epic, languorous style though? That's new for you, isn't it?

I've always been able to do that. But it was never appropriate for the Black Keys and what we were working on. But because the foundation we played on Weight of Love was so strong and steady, I was able to do that and have it work.

Sounds like you were surfing.

Yeah, it sort of was. It was nice. It was fun. I grew up listening to that kind of music: Maggot Brain, Allman Brothers, Derek and the Dominoes. I really do love that stuff. I've just never tried to emulate it on record.

I've read that before recording the Maggot Brain solo, guitarist Eddie Hazel was told by George Clinton to imagine he had been told his mother had died, but then learned later that it wasn't true.

Oh my god. [Laughs.]

But you mentioned Derek and the Dominos. The expression of your soloing makes me think of Eric Clapton's Layla and the catharsis of it. So, where was your head at for this record in general, and Weight of Love in particular?

I was going through a breakup. It was pretty brutal. I've never really had that kind of emotion come through me in the music before. But it definitely did, and I think that's one of the reasons why the record sounds like it does.

You captured something, yes?

It was spontaneous. It came from a pure place. And what I was going through was manifested in what I played.

The Black Keys play the Air Canada Centre, Sept. 16. $56.50 to $111.50. 50 Bay St., 1-855-985-5000 or ticketmaster.ca

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