Jack White thought he’d be touring right now with the White Stripes.
Instead, he’s been catching up on other projects. In September, the band called off its U.S. concert tour because Meg White, Jack’s bandmate and former wife, was suffering from acute anxiety and could not travel.
White was fairly unfazed by the cancellation. To say the least.
“If you sit down and say, ‘Well, this is how my year is going to be — in March I’m going to do this, in April I’m going do this,’ you’ll definitely be disappointed,” the 32-year-old said. “Half of me was glad because I have three other records I’m working on and I didn’t have any time to work on them, and I was really getting worried that I might have to not do these things I wanted to do because of the touring.”
White says he’s not at liberty to name his current projects, but he’s not talking about the long-rumored solo album (“I don’t know, I haven’t gotten there yet”), nor about the Raconteurs, his band with singer Brendan Benson.
So while he might not have been playing to packed arenas this fall, he was able to work on those music projects, build things in his home workshop, help with his growing family (he and his wife, model Karen Elson, had their second child in August) and appear as Elvis in the John C. Reilly comedy “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” which opens Friday.
He hasn’t forgotten the White Stripes either. About a month ago he and Meg recorded a few songs in the living room of one of her L.A. neighbors, a fellow named Beck.
“We had some songs that were kind of lingering around,” White said. “Meg and I had never really played them, we just kind of learned them in Beck’s living room.”
The Stripes’ new songs come out on three 7-inch vinyl discs Tuesday, two of them paired with the “Icky Thump” track “Conquest” and the third with an acoustic version of that mariachi-flavored remake of the ’50s-era Patti Page hit. A digital package with all five tracks also will be released.
“It’s My Fault for Being Famous,” “Cash Grab Complications on the Matter” and “Honey, We Can’t Afford to Look This Cheap” touch on the Stripes’ country/folk side rather than their aggressive garage-rock identity, but it will come as a reassuring sign of life for White Stripes fans unsure about the band’s future.
“Maybe working at Beck’s house was something we needed to do to remind ourselves that touring is only one component of what we do,” White said. “Taking a break from shows isn’t going to stop it.”
At this point, White can’t predict how long the Stripes’ break will be or whether it will ever end. He almost seems to be priming himself for the challenge of remaining a viable band while making records but staying away from the road.
“Well, the Beatles did it,” he said. “I’m joking, but if we didn’t ever tour again it doesn’t matter to me … If something isn’t working for you and it’s detrimental to you, then you have to figure out a new way to attack it, a new way to look at it. I think that’s what Meg’s doing … We’ll find our spots, we’ll find our moments. We already talked about other songs we’re working on.”
