Dan Auerbach-Led The Arcs Prepping First Album in 8 Years, ‘Electronic Chronic’

Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach‘s side project, The Arcs, will release their first album in 8 years in early 2023. Electronic Chronic — the follow-up to the band’s 2015 debut, Yours, Dreamily — is due out on Jan. 27 through Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label.

The band previewed the 12-track album on Thursday (Oct. 13) the the funky first single, “Keep on Dreamin’,” which dropped along with a psychedelic, pinball-themed animated video directed and illustrated by Robert Schober, with character design by El Oms. The collection was produced by Auerbach and bandmate guitarist/keyboardist Leon Michels and it features contributions from late drummer Richard Swift.

In a press release announcing the project, Auerbach said, “whether it was New York city or Nashville or L.A., or Swift’s hometown of Cottage Grove, Oregon, wherever we were, we would always get in the studio together. It was our favorite thing to do. It’s rare that you meet a group of people that you click with like that, who you instantly bond with. We were just having fun, making sounds, making music. It was an amazing time for me.”

Michels added that the band — which also includes bassist Nick Movshon and drummer Homer Steinweiss — laid down between 80 and 100 tracks in what he described as near-constant recording sessions after the release of Dreamily. “It was so so much fun to be in the studio once again, so we were just making music all the time,” he said. “I think there was always a plan to make a follow-up record.”

Auerbach said Chronic is “all about” honoring Swift, who died in July 2018 from complications from hepatitis and liver/kidney distress. “It’s a way for us to say goodbye to him, by revisiting him playing and laughing,” he said. “It was heavy at times, but I think it was really helpful to do it.”

Check out the “Keep on Dreamin'” video and the Electronic Chronic track list below.

Track list: