Sonny Smith Talks To Brooklyn Vegan About Dan Auerbach, His Mom, and So Much More

“He believes in ‘first thought best thought,'” Sonny Smith says of Dan Auerbach, the Black Keys member who produced Smith’s new album Rod For Your Love and released it via his own Easy Eye Sound label. According to Smith, Auerbach kept “the pace fast enough that you can’t second guess too much. I think there was a moment when someone wanted to play synth and he rolled his eyes because once the synth is out, it takes like twenty minutes to find the right sound. So that’s kind of an example of the speed, don’t wanna be doing nothing for twenty minutes!!! Compare that to studios where the engineer takes two days to mic the drums…” Still, however, they had so much fun that Rod For Your Love wasn’t as stripped-down as Smith intended: “you have fun in the studio and the next thing you know there’s piano and back up vocals and congas and stuff!”

All of these insights come from a recent interview with Brooklyn Vegan, in which Smith talks about how great it is to work with Auerbach, explains the difference between this “solo project” and his work with Sonny and the Sunsets, and gives the gist of the new sitcom he’s producing in which his mom plays his drummer in a touring band. It’s all very lovely – check it out here. Rod For Your Love is at radio now and itching for a strong NACC debut next week.