Jack White Deep Into 'Blunderbuss' Follow-Up

'It's definitely not one sound,' rocker says

by: Patrick Doyle

Jack White nearly blew the roof off the 55th Grammy Awards last night with "Love Interruption" and "Freedom at 21," but the performance was just one chapter of a busy season: he's producing a Valentine's Day single for the Butthole Surfer's Gibby Haynes and releasing remastered recordings of blues pioneers Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi Sheiks and Charlie Patton for his label Third Man Records. But fans will be most excited to hear White is deep into recording his follow up to last year's Blunderbuss.

"I've got about 20 to 25 tracks I'm working on right now – a lot of songs," White tells Rolling Stone. "It's a good time for writing for me."

Like Blunderbuss, White has been recording the Buzzards and the Peacocks, his separate male and female bands, respectively. "Everybody involved was inspired," he says of working with the bands. "Nobody had really done that before, and it was scary in a way. I wanted to keep that going on this one. I just want to write and bring the Buzzards and Peacocks in and work on some things and work on the things with no intention of what it's going to be. No competition between the bands – just keep writing and recording until I decide what it's going to be."

So what's it sounding like? "It's definitely not one sound," he says. "It's all over the place. After going out on the road with two bands, that a gigantic new family, my influences have just spread out even more."

White isn't sure when he'll release the follow-up. "I don't know if it'll come out this year or not," he adds. "The last one kind of came together so strangely, I was in the middle of making it and I didn't realize I was doing it, you know? I was just doing it because I needed to get these songs down and then I realized I was making a record."

Jack White Plans to Record and Produce a Single on Record Store Day

Record Store Day – April 19, this year – has typically brought stacks of collectible rarities and limited-edition pressings, made available just for the day, usually on vinyl only, and only at physical record stores, an endangered species these days. Collectors snap these discs up, and so do speculators: it often seems as if most items find their way to eBay before the day is out.

But as Record Store Day stunts go, no one has an edge on Jack White. Mr. White now runs his own label, Third Man Records, in Nashville, and the label’s headquarters, which he opened in 2009, also has its own record store. Mr. White’s plan for Record Store Day is to produce the world’s fastest record release.

At 10 a.m., he will take the stage at Third Man Records, and will perform – and record – the title track from his coming album, “Lazaretto.” The master recording will then be taken to United Record Pressing, where copies of a 45-r.p.m. vinyl single will be mastered and pressed, while cover art, using photos taken at the performance, will be printed. The discs will be rushed back to the store (they are expected by 4 p.m., possibly earlier) and sold. The plant will continue pressing the discs so long as there are buyers waiting — just, that is, for the rest of the day.