You May Not Know Him But You’ve Heard Him

It must be a lot fun to be in the Raconteurs.
It's a blast. The toughest part is being constantly referred to as "Jack and company" or "Jack and his band" or "Jack and friends," that sort of thing, which I didn't mind on the first record but …

But because you wrote all the songs with him …
Yeah. It's just like, you feel a little slighted.

Is the new record the same?
Yeah, we did it the same way, although the rhythm section had a lot more input in the arrangement this time, and it sounds so good. I'm really proud of it.

When do you fit in doing your solo stuff?
That's what I did in the interim—while we were not recording, I recorded my record. It won't be out for another year. The idea was to get it done now so I wouldn't have to go make it then after the Raconteurs. It's good and bad: I have to wait, and by the time it comes out the songs will be kind of old.

But they'll only be old to you!
Yeah. [Laughs] I can deal.

Your solo work keeps popping up in commercials [for Sears and Saturn], and the last one for the Apple iPod iTouch. So what's that like?
I don't care, almost to a fault—I think I probably should. I see a lot of musicians who take an interest in the business, and a lot of times they're really good at it, and it works for them and they know how to work it. I'm always just so occupied with other things, and I've been doing this for 15 years.