Interview: Jack White, guitarist and singer

He’s made records that are tri-coloured, glow in the dark or scented – and even released them tied to helium balloons. So, what’s next from the mercurial Jack White, asks Fiona Shepherd

The work of an international rock star/independent record mogul is never done. For Jack White, on this particular day, that means folding record sleeves at his Third Man Records HQ. The former White Stripes frontman – the duo formally announced their split last year – set up his label in earnest three years ago, releasing music by his other bands The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and his ex-wife Karen Elson among a host of other signings and one-off rarities, predominantly on vinyl. White is passionate about his wax, and he and his team have been working on “secret innovations” for the upcoming Record Store Day.

“The medium of vinyl is over a hundred years old and we’ve actually been able to come up with several things that have never been done before,” he announces proudly. So far, Third Man has produced limited editions of eight and 13-inch vinyl, tri-coloured vinyl, glow-in-the-dark vinyl, scented vinyl, a triple decker record which required the sabotage of a 12-inch to reach the 7-inch encased within, and a souvenir album which played at 3rpm (“People were asking ‘how are we supposed to play this?’ It’s not our problem…”).

And now, new for 2012, they present the world’s first playable etched, liquid-filled record, a 12-inch version of White’s new solo single Sixteen Saltines. If you want to grab yourself such a desirable item, you’ll need to show up personally at Third Man Records in Nashville’s hipster Gulch neighbourhood on 21 April to buy it. If you live elsewhere in Tennessee, or maybe Alabama, you might be one of the lucky punters to find a flexi-disc of another new White track, Freedom At 21, 1000 of which were released by helium balloon – on 1 April, no less – as a means of “exploring non-traditional forms of record distribution”.

“To me those aren’t gimmicks,” says White, “those are enticing ways to get kids into soulful music. Bigger labels can’t waste time on some of the things we do. We spend a lot of energy on things that we give away for free. They don’t make the label any money but they really help propel the art form in a new direction.”

White is pleased to report that US chain stores are stocking turntables again. Sales of vinyl are on the up on both sides of the Atlantic. Third Man is responsible for 600,000 of those sales and has been profitable from the get-go – a victory for their dedication to imaginative, loss-leading collectables.

“All that digital, invisible music is portable and easy to get, and that’s great,” he says. “But the romance of music can only be heard and experienced through a vinyl record. It’s analogous to saying you haven’t really experienced a film until you see it in a theatre with the lights turned off on the big screen. It’s scary to think that one day we might not have movie theatres. Some things are too perfect, too classic to lose. I think vinyl is like that.”

White may spend a lot of time mulling over the medium, but he is also consumed with the message. Third Man’s next big release will be his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, arguably the natural but by no means the inevitable move for this serial band member/collaborator now that The White Stripes are no more.

“The easy showbiz thing to do is you have a successful band and then you go off and make solo records and that’s all you do until the day you die,” agrees White. “What’s more challenging was to start a new band and then start another brand new band, all from scratch. I just never had it in my head until recently that I would even try to make a Jack White record.”

And just because this is his first solo outing, that doesn’t mean he’s getting all personal and confessional on us either. “I’ve never purposely sat down to write about anything that goes on with my life,” says White. “I think it’s just too boring to write about myself. But then you can’t write anything without being imbued in it in some way.”

In the course of his so-called boring life, White and model/singer Elson split on good terms last year, throwing a divorce party on their sixth anniversary and releasing a statement that they “remain dear and trusted friends and co-parents to our wonderful children Scarlett and Henry Lee”.

Do his kids like his music? “They can’t stand it!” he laughs. “No, they like it, but the great thing about children is they do not lie. If a toddler likes a song, you know it’s a hit, because there’s no social politeness going on. So they’re the best test ground for music I’m working on.”

White took a number of approaches to writing the material on Blunderbuss. “When a song starts happening the best thing for me to do is to get out of the way of it and let it happen,” he says. “But I like trying different ways to attack the music. Sometimes I would invite people in with absolutely no song written, and I would write in front of them without telling them that was what was going on. One day I said, ‘We’re going to have all female musicians come in tomorrow,’ and the day after that I had all male musicians come in and play the exact same songs, just trying to shake things up for myself.”

As a result, White is now touring with two separate backing bands, split down gender lines, who perform quite distinct versions of his songs, including a smattering of reworked White Stripes numbers. There is no way of knowing in advance which band he will play with on any given night.

“I want to be stimulated every night to do something new, and I think the crowd needs to feel that this moment did not happen last night in the last town; this is something that only happened tonight. I like to reward people for getting up out of their seat instead of rewarding people for being the fastest mouse-clicker.” When he says that rehearsing two bands simultaneously involved the most work he has ever done in his life, you’d better believe that’s a heck of a lot of work from a man who says, “I haven’t had a dry spell yet in my life and I hope I never do. I still don’t really know what that feels like to wake up and not really know what to do with myself artistically. Most of the time I’m just playing catch-up on something I wanted to do a few months ago. I just wish I had more time.”

So the most productive man in rock doesn’t have any handy time management tips? “I’m probably the worst person to ask because I don’t keep a calendar, I don’t plan anything more than a few days ahead,” says White. “I’ve never really had long-term goals. I only try to live in the moment. Some people can’t afford to live that way but as an artist I have to live in the short term. It’s the only place I can exist.” Speaking of which, those record sleeves won’t fold themselves, Jack…

• Blunderbuss is released by Third Man Records/XL Recordings on 23 April. Probably not by balloon.