LET'S SHOP

There's nothing more that Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and The Arcs likes more than a good few hours spent digging through the crates at his favourite UK record store. Which is why we join him by the racks at London's Stranger Than Paradise. Chris Catchpole witnesses the vinyl love.

-  Chris Catchpole

Over two decades as one half of The Black Keys, a solo artist, producer, label boss and co-leader of soul, R&B and psych-rock alchemists The Arcs, Dan Auerbach has built up a network of musical safe houses across the globe. From New York to London, Paris to Munich; wherever the plane lands, Auerbach knows who to call to find a studio, somewhere to jam and, of course, the very best record stores where he can switch off and lose himself among racks of black plastic.

Record Collector finds Auerbach on a frosty January morning browsing the shelves at East London independent Stranger Than Paradise. Just around the corner, he and Arcs bandmate Leon Michels have been laying down some tracks at Liam Watson's all-analogue mecca Toe Rag, and while they're here, why not build up that collection some more?

With a pair of Ray-Bans on and sipping from a carboard coffee cup, Auerbach's fingers skip across the spines with the swift dexterity of someone who has spent a lot of time digging through crates. Perhaps instinctively, he's found himself in front of the soul and blues sections. He pulls out a few heavyweight reissues - Aretha Franklin, Charles Stepney - puts them back, then jumps over to garage and psych where he grabs a copy of 2010 nuggets compilation, Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968-1974.

"Have you heard this?" he enthuses, flipping it over. "This is fucking amazing." Even with sunglasses on, you can see his face light up. Do trips like this inspire him as a musician and send him off on new musical journeys of his own?