Georgia garage punks Black Lips have spoken about recent recording sessions with Mark Ronson.
After becoming defined as the king of retro lounge cool, Mark Ronson has tried to diversify. Taking on different projects, his new group The Business Intl moves between indie, hip hop and more.
However few expected him to take on renowned hell-raisers Black Lips. A band who were recently ejected from India, the Georgia flower-punks are renowned for their extreme onstage antics and lo-fi sound.
Yet in a new twist Black Lips have teamed up with Mark Ronson for new material. Speaking to Pitchfork, Jared Swilley explained how the collaboration came about.
"We've always self-produced all of our own stuff, just done it with just us and an engineer. Over the years, Vice had suggested working with a producer" he said. "We would always throw out names. Mark worked with them on that Creators Project. During that, they mentioned it. He seemed into it, and we were into it, so it fell in place."
Continuing, Swilley insisted that Mark Ronson has not changed the essential sound of Black Lips. "He's not changing a lot of the stuff we're already doing. It was fun like that, because he was a fan of our music, and I like stuff that he's done" the singer claimed.
"It seems like we wouldn't have a lot in common, but there's no radical departure from anything. He just interjected other ideas that we hadn't really tried. He's working out different drum sounds or using microphones that we haven't used before. So it's been an interesting process."
However the new material does boast a horn section. "We did have a saxophone come in. But we did two sessions before we worked with him, and we already had a song with a horn section. And that was why I was interested in working with him. I like a lot of the drum sounds he's done and his work with horns."
Black Lips are set to release their new album next year.