Brendan Benson knows his work with The Raconteurs has linked him with Jack White.
Although Jack White formed the band as an “impulsive thing,” Benson said, making music for Benson — and of course White — continues outside the band. Still, Benson knows talk of White will come up when he talks to journalists and fans and doesn’t mind a bit.
“I understand that it is more noteworthy … because Jack White is going to be [a big part of] the story … It’s an experience and it’s been great.”
And it may well not be over, but Benson isn’t on hold musically. The Michigan-born rocker is now on a co-headlining tour with The Posies. Posies’ band mates Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer (both of Big Star and Stringfellow of R.E.M.) back Benson up during this performance. Aqueduct also joins the concert bill.
The shift back to his solo work is a comfortable place for Benson, who released his debut “One Mississippi” in 1996 and continued his solo career until joining White in forming the Raconteurs in 2005.
Benson is going all out with this tour, releasing extras — including a living recording of each night’s performance on post-show USB drives — for fans.
Although he’s not currently touring behind a new album, one is in the works. He hopes to begin recording early next year.
“I have a lot of material ready to go but it isn’t until pre-production – when I get in a room with some other musicians and we run through all the songs – that I begin to see what I’ve got and where it’s going.”
For now, Benson is concentrating on his tour and collaboration with The Posies, a band he’s long followed.
“I knew The Posies and listened to their music in the mid-’90s but had lost track of them. It was sort of out of sight, out of mind,” said Benson. “[When I] realized they were still playing … it seemed like a good idea to tour together. When we started practicing, I was amazed. They were almost made to play with me. What a pleasure it is to [play with] that band. It’s so great to play with musicians of that caliber.”
