The Black Keys are only halfway through their tour schedule in support of El Camino, but they will take a few weeks off to get in the studio and start crafting some new tunes. Drummer Patrick Carney says the band will hit the studio in July, but a new record won't see the light of day until 2013.
"We're going back in the studio in July. We'll have a couple weeks to start the next album then," Carney told RollingStone. "We don't know when we'll be done but we're starting it in July. We might not finish it until March since we have to tour so much, but we'll see. We don't know what's going on. After July, we'll be able to know how long it'll take."
As for the current tour, Carney added that he's looking forward to playing the new Catalpa festival in New York, the Firefly Festival in Delaware, Chicago's Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. He said that after playing the El Camino songs on the road for a few months now, the duo is quite well rehearsed.
"We're playing better than we have since 2010," he explained. "Once you get a bunch under your belt, it starts becoming more of a routine. That will start happening when you play a song 60 times a year – you f**k around with it."
After making the rounds at the summer festivals in North America, the band heads to Europe starting on August 9 in Sweden. Following that, the U.S. tour resumes on October 1 in Fresno, then heads to Australia and New Zealand before wrapping in Europe in December. When asked if the Keys are taking their big mirror ball on the road with them for the summer, Carney stated, "I think so. I don't know what we're doing, honestly. I know that we're not changing the show that much from now until [after our summer break]. But I try not to think about it. I'm not really trying to think about the second half of the tour after we've been on tour all year long."