Hacienda: Texas Rockers Benefit From Drinking with Black Keys' Dan Auerbach

Picture this: a family of musicians decide to start a band. They record a demo and hand it to one of today's most prolific hitmakers at a bar. He likes what he hears, produces their debut album, takes them on his solo tour across North America as his backing band, then goes on to produce their next two albums -- the last of which is set to drop later this spring.

The family of musicians in question are tex-mex rockers, Hacienda, and the prolific hitmaker is none other than Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. It's the storybook beginning that so many aspiring young artists fantasize about -- record a demo and give it to your favourite musician who ultimately loves it and launches your career. But Dan Auerbach didn't just launch Hacienda. He's been grooming the San Antonio-based retro-rockers since day one.

"At the time, the Black Keys were a busy, successful band, but they weren't anything like they have been in the last couple of years," guitarist Dante Schwebel tells Spinner of their first encounter with Auerbach. "We met them at a show hanging out at the bar."

"We weren't really a band yet when he asked if we had a CD," Schwebel confesses. "We grabbed one from the car and he was adamant that he was going to listen to it."

Nine times out of 10 that would be the end of it, but this was the jackpot encounter.

"Within a month, we got an email from Dan critiquing every song," says Dante. "He showed our demo to his record label at the time [Fat Possum Records] and they asked us to do a showcase."

Despite the seemingly smooth road laid out for the band, Hacienda hit a few potholes.

"The music industry thing took over and we lost the record deal, but Dan was always there -- we were kind of his guinea pigs," Dante says half-jokingly. The Black Keys frontman offered to take Hacienda to his home studio in Akron, Ohio to record their debut album, Loud is the Night.

"We all quit our jobs immediately."