This slow building rocker was debuted by the Arctic Monkeys at their May 2013 Ventura, California gig on the band's US Tour. It was released on iTunes on June 19, 2013.
Sonically, the song has a similar guitar riff to the Arctic Monkeys' "
R U Mine?" single but is more down tempo. The neo-psychedelia, stoner Rock groove is reminiscent of the Josh Homme-produced tracks on their
Humbug album.
The song debuted at #11 on the UK singles chart, the band's best placing since "
Fluorescent Adolescent" peaked at #5 in 2007.
Speaking with Zane Lowe on his BBC Radio 1 show, frontman Alex Turner explained that he borrowed the AM album title from another band. "I actually stole it from the Velvet Underground, I'll just confess that now and get it out of the way. The 'VU' record, obviously," he said.
"Did we cop out?," he added. "Yeah! Summat about it feels like this record is exactly where we should be right now. So it felt right to just initial it."
Turner told Zane Lowe regarding
AM's direction: "The record sort of started with '
R U Mine?' really. [We] discovered something through the recording of that tune that we thought was worth exploring. 'Do I Wanna Know' was the first thing we found along that road."
-
Co-producer James Ford told NME that his favorite moment recording AM was when this song came together. "I just remember thinking, 'This sums up what we're trying to do,'" he said. "It felt kind of heavy - and heavy in mood as well. It had a weight to it that I really like. I remember when that came together being really excited, and seeing the picture crystallise in front of me a little bit of where we going. It was one of the first ones we got done, and it was that thing of it coming together – I could see the end call from that point onwards."
The riff was written on Alex Turner's 12-string Vox guitar. "I remember it quite distinctly, because it's got these effects built into the guitar," Ford recalled to NME, "and I think he actually bought it as a bit of a joke. But I think it actually turned into a bit of an inspirational instrument! A lot of the riffs were written on that particular guitar."
Alex Turner, guitarist Jamie Cook and drummer Nick Helders did their own backing vocals for the song. Californian female trio Haim were originally asked to do it, but couldn't spare the time as they needed to finish their debut album – much to their dismay. Este Haim told
NME: "We didn't have enough time to come in and learn the harmonies. It would have taken a couple of days. That would have been our biggest dream come true – to sing on an Arctic Monkeys record. I remember when '
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' came out and Danielle and I watched the video, like, 'This is f---ing rad.' It was one of the most painful calls to say no. Maybe the worst day of my life."
The song's music video was directed by David Wilson with animation agency Blinkink and was inspired by the work of risqué cartoonist Vince Collins. Wilson told
NME: "The video's very much from inside someone's brain. From this perspective it's kind of Alex Turner's brain. A lot of my personal work is very sexually orientated – I did the video for Metronomy '
The Bay,' which has got a lady opening her legs and then there's 'Mind Mischief,' by Tame Impala, with the teenage boy and the teacher."
"I'm very conscious of female rights," he continued, "and I feel quite strongly about feminism. So I've never wanted to create a piece of work that would de-humanise females. But at the same time, there's a lot of fun with embracing the look of the human body. It's fun to animate with. I wanted to embrace that everyone is sexy in their own way, including eagles and hotrod cars."
Arctic Monkeys became the first ever independently released group to score five consecutive UK #1 albums when AM debuted at the top of the album chart.
AM came close to having a different title. Turner explained to NME: "I got this old Rickenbacker thing that we recorded a lot through. There's no knobs, just two holes. And this little black amp that became known as The New Black. Crossed my mind to call the album that."
Although this song channels late-'60s and early-'70s Psych with its guitar riffs, vintage fuzz distortion and concentrated tremolo effect, it also has modern influences like the electronic quality of the drum processing and Turner's unique, unpredictable vocal delivery.
Alex Turner told Q magazine about the song: "We had this idea for a record where you take the compositional perspective of an R&B producer and apply that to a four piece rock 'n' roll band," he said. "Manipulating our instruments to make building blocks for the song in a way I'd imagine Timberland or someone constructs music. That's one way of looking at it. The other way is we just made it up! I had this tune in my head like (sings the opening riff of 'Do I Wanna Know?,' including drums) you know what I mean? We got a good end of that bargain, I think "
This song's time management is more akin to verse-heavy Hip-Hop than chorus-centric Pop. While most of Arctic Monkeys' contemporaries in the Pop genre reserve their precious seconds for an ear-catching chorus, the longest sections of this song (45 seconds) are focused on verse to show off Alex Turner's lyrics and vocals. The chorus doesn't hit until a minute and 36 seconds into the song.
Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders recalled to NME how this song set the path for AM. "We went to Joshua Tree for a couple of weeks to do some writing and work on some ideas, and 'Do I Wanna Know?' is probably the only song that survived from that session, although not in the form it is now," he said. "It was really bassy and it didn't have that big chorus – it was basically just the drum loop. But it was the one that set the path for the rest of the album, if you like. It was the one where, after we recorded it, we knew we were really on to something."
Turner draws attention to important lyrics by pulling back on instrumentation, especially in the first half of the song, like when he asks "do you have the guts," he limits everything except the drums so the meaning won't be lost on the listener.
