Jack White: “There’s no romance in singing about an iPod”

Jack White has spoken about his issues with digital format music and his love of vinyl records.

Speaking in a video interview with the BBC, the former frontman of The White Stripes said that he enjoys the “romance” of vinyl, adding that “invisible” digital music “makes you feel like some other being is in charge”.

White, whose Third Man Records label uses a vinyl plant local to its base in Nashville to press their records, said: “The whole experience of vinyl is what we’re after, the romance of it… The smell of vinyl, the smell of a newly opened record. If we don’t see something moving, we lose romance. There’s no romance for me to sing to you about an iPod.”

He continued: “But why? Because nothing’s moving. I think digital and invisible things, they make you feel like some other being is in charge of this somewhere else, ‘I’m just a witness to this and I’ll just sit here politely’.”

White also explained his reasoning for giving Third Man Records a yellow, white and black colour theme. “I don’t like image for the sake of image,” he said. “It has to come from a place that means something. The colours yellow, white and black go all the way back to my upholstery hand tools from my upholstery shop.”

Earlier this month Radiohead’s Thom Yorke hinted that he could be set to collaborate with Jack White. According to Billboard, the singer made a cryptic announcement from the stage during the band’s set at the Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival in Tennessee, suggesting that he and White had some exciting plans in the pipeline.

Dedicating the track “Supercollider” to the Blunderbuss singer, he said: “This song is for Jack White. We saw him yesterday. A big thank-you to him, but we can’t tell you why. You’ll find out.”

Photo: Jo McCaughey/Press