Patrick Carney

The Black Keys Drummer’s Journey Through Negative Space, Sound, and Survival in Modern Rock

De: Caius D. Merrow

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Patrick Carney is not just the drummer of The Black Keys—he is the architect of a sound that reshaped twenty-first-century rock. Patrick Carney: Negative Space in Drums, Records, and Repeatable Hits is the definitive cultural biography of a musician who turned thrift-store kits and basement studios into Grammy-winning grooves, and who continues to define sustainability in a mechanized music industry.

From his 1980 upbringing in Akron’s Rust Belt landscape to the duo’s explosive debut The Big Come Up, Carney built a drumming philosophy rooted in negative space: the art of leaving air in music so riffs could breathe and grooves could endure. The book takes readers inside the band’s whirlwind rise—Thickfreakness recorded in 14 hours, the haunting reverberations of Rubber Factory, the Muscle Shoals warmth of Brothers, and the pop velocity of El Camino. Each chapter reconstructs key moments with cinematic detail, situating Carney’s drumming within wider shifts: indie label survival, licensing battles, arena economics, the streaming era, and post-pandemic touring challenges.

Beyond performance, Carney emerges as producer, mentor, and strategist. His work with Tennis, Michelle Branch, and countless Nashville collaborators shows how he translates negative space into production. His mentoring of younger Ohio and Nashville musicians reveals his commitment to community sustainability.

This book humanizes a drummer often seen as the pragmatic counterweight to Dan Auerbach’s riffs. It shows Carney as father, husband, producer, negotiator, and cultural node—balancing artistry with logistics, fragility with discipline, chaos with architecture.

For fans of rock history, cultural anthropology, or the hidden mechanics of music, Patrick Carney offers an intimate yet authoritative narrative: the story of how grooves built in Rust Belt basements grew into global anthems, and how one drummer’s philosophy of restraint continues to shape the next generation.