The White Stripes |
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Fri. June 04.2004 12:00 AM EDT |
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The White Stripes: The Odd Couple Explains ThemselvesJack & Meg are against celebrity and for home-schooled musicians; they recount their rise. by C. Bottomley |
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(V2 Records) |
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Jack White, one half of the White Stripes, has sold millions of records, dated Renee Zellweger, appeared in movies, and put Detroit on the musical map for the first time since Iggy Pop met David Bowie. But don't ask him about being a
"I hate that word!" White recoils. "Celebrity is very empty. It's like all the people talking about Paris Hilton or whatever. There's really nothing going on there. I've never wanted that; anything that's happened [to me] is sort of a by-product of creativity." While many might question White's attitude towards the spotlight, no one can argue about the vision that got him there. After playing in a country band called Goober & the Peas, guitarist/singer John Anthony White formed the White Stripes in 1997 with Meg White on drums. Named after Meg's favorite mints and wearing uniforms of red, black or white, the duo based everything about themselves around the number three. "Vocals, guitars, drums; melody, storytelling and rhythm; red, white and black," Jack explains. "All these components revolve around the number three. It was all about, 'Let's live inside of a box and have there be rules.' The whole idea of the band is that it was all about what not to do. Why be repetitive? Why have two guitar players? Why have a bass player playing the same thing a guitar is playing? Let's break this down as much possible and have it still be rock 'n' roll and show what two people can do." It might seem like a strange formula for success, but Jack had become used to doing things the hard way. As a kid he asked a pal to teach him guitar. He got an unexpected answer. "He said, 'No one ever taught me. Teach yourself,'' White recalled. "I'm glad that he didn't show me, because it's better to learn yourself. For example I played bar chords with these two fingers [indicating his index and little finger] and that's the not the way you're supposed to do it. It's more natural. That helps with the songwriting, I think." The odds were certainly stacked against the pair. Think of rock in 1997 and you'll shiver to recall faceless entities like Third Eye Blind and Sister Hazel that followed the first wave of grunge. The Stripes drew on the emotional wail of blues and country, but with an energetic punk rock perspective. With Jack's untutored guitar bouncing off Meg's primitive drumming, theirs was an uncompromising sound. The Stripes' idealistic art took its time to burrow into the mainstream, but when it did, they shook it with the force of Nirvana's Nevermind. "Fell in Love With a Girl," with Jack's whiny bark and Meg's waterfall of drum fills, had more passion and intent than a label's-worth of Hootie & the Blowfish tunes. The Stripes' third album, White Blood Cells, became a word-of-mouth sensation, and the duo found itself competing with their friends the Strokes for the title of "It" band. Bye bye, Sister Hazel. Rock was back. "It was never our goal to expand," Jack protests at their sudden success. "After White Blood Cells came out [and] we were on the covers of all these magazines, we didn't have a manager or a lawyer. We were not a signed band. We never sent out demos to a record label to try to get signed." The band's mystique made them as compelling as Michel Gondry's memorable video for "Fell in Love ..." where the director remade the twosome out of Lego bricks. Meg's relationship to Jack is something of a mystery. The White Stripes myth is that they're brother and sister. However, court papers suggest they were a married couple who divorced in 2000, the same year they released their second album De Stijl. In conversation, Meg White is the quiet one. While Jack outlines their ideas and theories, she smiles silently to herself. She only comes to life when Jack begins talking about their work with Gondry, who also made the video for their 2003 single "Seven Nation Army." "It was like working with a six-year-old," beams Jack. "I think he's very mathematical in a way," Meg adds. "Everything is worked out to the tiniest little detail. Every second is mapped out but at the same time, there's a total childlike fascination with color and shapes and sequences." Ask her what she's listening to at the moment, though, and Meg smiles again and mumbles, "Bubblegum music. Actually, all my records and CDs were all boxed up for a while because I'm moving, so I was cut off from most of them for a while. Nothing new and exciting. Just the usual rock 'n' roll and country ..." "She hates this question by the way," Jack interrupts. "My mind goes blank at this point," she apologizes. "We've always gotten along pretty well" Jack White says of their relationship. "The important part of a two-piece band is you can't take sides. There's not a third person to take someone's side and call off the tension." They also work together with ruthless efficiency. White Blood Cells was made in three days. Their latest album, Elephant, took ten. It spawned the hits "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button to Button." Instead of tempering their inspirations, their rock sound took on even more of a bluesy edge, testifying to Jack's love of guitarists like Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Son House. If Meg stays coy about her record collection, the unique nature of the Stripes is partly contained in their enthusiasms. They dedicated White Blood Cells to country queen Loretta Lynn, and Jack went on to produce her latest acclaimed release, Van Lear Rose. "She sent me a thank you letter and invited us down for dinner," Jack said about meeting the coal miner's daughter. "She made us chicken dumplings. We played a show together in New York and she said she was thinking about another album. I threw my name out: 'I'd love to produce it, if there's any chance.' I couldn't believe they let me do it. We got really, really close to the real Loretta making that record." They've also branched into movie appearances. Jack and Meg demonstrate a Tesla coil in the recent Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes. And Jack appeared as a balladeer in last year's Civil War drama Cold Mountain, where he met Zellweger. But he downplays the suggestion that he's selling out. "People misinterpret things like that," he says. "Me being in Cold Mountain was because [of] how much I loved American and Southern American folk music. It wasn't a step in the direction of fame." See photos from Coffee and Cigarettes [Watch the movie trailer for Coffee and Cigarettes] Notoriety has nevertheless dogged them. A tour had to be postponed last year after Jack injured his hand in a car crash. Then in December, he was charged with assault after pummeling fellow Detroit rocker Jason Stollsteimer of the Von Bondies last December. He'd prefer to downplay those setbacks. "It's been the best year of my life," he says. "I've gotten the chance to play with or be on the same stage with Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Beck, Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Iggy Pop ... these are things that would never occur to me that they would ever be possible, let alone have my favorite aspect [performing] be acknowledged and [be] able to share that with an audience." And what about Meg? What's the best thing about being a White Stripe? "Maybe that you get to meet your idols," she says. "The opportunity to travel ..." She draws her conclusion with the utter simplicity that's at the band's heart. "Those kinds of things are good." |
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