Calexico - Frontier Post-Rock

interview by Giuliano Delli Paoli, Magda Di Genova

Traveling the world

We had caught up with them several years ago, and we meet them again on the occasion of the release of their ninth album, “The Thread That Keeps Us”, a work that partly reshuffles the deck but retains their gypsy spirit through a novelistic approach and a fair amount of scrutiny of the world and its usual problems. Answering our questions is singer and guitarist Joey Burns, who reveals the secrets behind this latest work and the band's endless love for the live dimension.

“The Thread That Keeps Us” will be released on January 26, 2018. What should we expect from this new record? Do you have any tantalizing secrets to reveal about it?

John and I recently talked at length about going to Europe and recording something there as well. We identify a lot with the European aesthetic; in particular, we appreciate the culture and the celebration of diversity in language and the arts in general. However, after the last American presidential election, John and I wanted to focus our attention more on North America and examine some of the issues that caught us off guard. There seems to have been a considerable step backwards after the success and the open approach of the Obama administration. Certain political divides - whether it's climate change, the treatment of minorities and immigrants, or income equality - are actually huge issues that keep surprising us, and they had a big influence on the new album. We did a fair amount of recording in Marin County, and while we were there I started developing characters and a story that wove through the various lyrics. The secret is love and hope in the face of greed and corruption, and it's up to two teenage characters to help save their town from being overrun by development and environmental ruin. By focusing on these characters, I was able to tackle all the big everyday concerns and follow their path, which runs parallel to our own.

I've always thought of your wonderful music as a crossover of dusty and equally intense sensations, something warm and “dry” at the same time. How did the idea come about of blending California's “dusty” soul, the acoustic echoes of Morricone and the old Far West, with the imagery and the decidedly more “spicy” and “caliente” music of Mexico?

We are what we listen to, and in our band there are a lot of musical influences that are somehow at odds with each other and, oddly enough, also complementary. I don't think about it much or try to plan how or why these elements come together. I suppose it somehow reflects who we are, where we live, and the world of sounds we love. We're constantly looking for new styles and instruments, or traveling all over the world meeting new musicians. We're lucky in that the physical drive helps push forward the creative writing and the music we end up producing. Collaborations happen more often than we could ever imagine, both on stage and in the studio. Technology has made it relatively easy to stay in touch or reach out to other musicians. I love the music, culture and history of the Americas, and all of this has inspired me to find different musical connections. I always approach it with the utmost respect, and I want to combine both the fragility of tradition and the experimental spirit of adventure in a contemporary vein. I want to reinvent and give new meaning to some of these voices and stories. Just like the writer Cormac McCarthy, I like to use my home in the Sonoran Desert as a symbolic backdrop for the deepest, darkest themes of man and nature. I grew up living on the Pacific coast, and I'm obsessed with the call of the ocean waves. In the silence and stillness of desert nights, it pulls me away from sleep and leads me to “walk” between consciousness and the world of dreams. The ghosts that haunt the alleys and various arroyos know no borders or differences of language - they're all unified by an eternal passion that has made them drifters for life.

In the first lead single, “End Of The World With You”, one senses a deep reflection on the chaos enveloping the contemporary world. What are the global issues that trouble you the most today?

I'm sure that, in some way, they're no different from the ones faced by those who grew up in the '70s. Every generation has its own crisis to face and react to. Today these crises just seem more intense, and the swings with which they occur more extreme. How could we ever find love, light and the right time while living under this kind of pressure? The biggest nightmare for me is the ability to doubt even basic science and common sense. Claiming the devotion of your own heart while turning a blind eye to so many misogynistic, racist and selfish ideologies is getting harder and harder. The environment is changing rapidly. For instance, a flight of mine from Tucson to San Francisco was canceled in mid-June. I was supposed to work on the new album, but there was record-breaking heat. I ask myself: when will people say that enough is truly enough, and how many more people have to die because of gun circulation in the United States before basic laws and controls are put in place? It's crazy, and it just keeps getting worse.

It's been 21 years since your debut album. How much have you changed since then, and what do you hold most dear from your early days?

I never imagined the band would still be going this strong. We knew we always wanted to work together and stay involved with music and various collaborations. We've tried to work with musicians and industry people who do this job for what we consider the right reasons, and with the utmost passion. That kind of path has always remained unchanged, consistent with a line of work that has had many highs and few lows. We're incredibly lucky, and we always feel very fortunate to still be able to play music for audiences all over the world. It's a great gift. That's why I love touring and collaborating, and it's one of the reasons we're still so close. We want to share and we want to learn. These qualities are the most important aspects of what we do and who we are.

“The Black Light” is an absolutely magnificent album. One of those undisputed masterpieces of the Nineties. On our site, we decided to glorify it a few months ago with a special review, crowning it as a milestone of rock. How attached are you to that record, and how much did it influence your subsequent path? Also: is there a moment in your career, or a particular album, that you consider a turning point?

Thank you for the kind words. I love the album “The Black Light” very much, and I poured a lot of time and love into creating it. It captures a truly magical moment in my life, when I was ready for a change and wanted to get away from Tucson. So I'm very grateful that people responded so widely to that album. I have an idea to go back into the studio with the same instruments we used back then, to recapture that same alchemy and discover where it leads us today. Another pivotal album we made was “Feast of Wire” from 2003. I remember handing the album over to the record label, and someone told me “there are no radio singles on this”. I smiled and nodded. “Do we need them?” I asked, “or do we need an album with really strong material that takes you through unexpected arrangements and moments at the heart of good music?”. Some of the stories and songs on that album are among my favorites of our output, and I still enjoy playing it live during our tours. Every album, including the latest one, takes us somewhere we've never been before. We're always chasing a discovery, and a spark is what lights our way.

Recently, you've moved from a more cinematic and purely instrumental sound to a more “linear” and “pop” structure, with excellent results, without setting aside your underlying soul. When did you decide to give even more weight to the words alongside the instrumental part?

Yes, just as the tide changes, so does our music and our writing. Diversifying our words is a natural process, because they're crucial to what we want and feel compelled to say. We've also been fortunate enough to keep writing and recording instrumentals for film and documentary soundtracks. So, if you're interested, check out these films and documentaries (which we contributed music to) to find out more about the instrumental thread we love to weave:

Circo (Aaron Schock, 2010)

The Guard (John Michael McDonagh, 2011)

The Lure ( Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015)

The Guardians (Sarik Andreasyan, 2017)

On the new album there are three instrumental tracks or sequences connected to these experiences of ours. Enjoy!

On “Edge Of The Sun” you explored the more traditional, well-worn genres of American music. You put together a tribute to the music of Central and South America (especially Mexican and Caribbean). How do your “tributes” come about? Is there a predetermined path, something deep, in short an underlying message that generates all this? Or is it purely a natural, instinctive approach?

It's all instinctive. Years ago I saw a film called “Latcho Drom (safe journey)” by Tony Gatliff. He followed gypsy musicians from the Far East through the Middle East, Europe, and ended up in Spain with flamenco. As far as I'm concerned, I'm following that blue vein that wraps around the whole world, and I'm especially intrigued by the mix of indigenous, African and European music found throughout the Americas. Jazz, folk and rock in the '70s were an incredible outlet for bringing people together. I feel like we're on a similar musical boat.

In March 2018 you'll also be playing in Italy. What connection do you have with our country? What do you like most about our land and our musical tradition?

The strongest connection we have with Italy is our love of the blues, and Italian songs tear your heart out, laying bare the full catastrophe of life. John's ancestors come from Bari. Every time we come back there seems to be a moment during the show when the audience applauds John as if to say to him and his family, “Welcome home.” We really feel it every time we tour Italy. We're always searching for the depth of human expression and its infinite connection. Otherwise why would we choose to keep traveling the world with so little, never sleeping, and performing onstage for 90 minutes a night? We love our work and we're proud of our craft as artisans. It's all heart.

How are you organizing the upcoming tour? What should we expect?

Our touring band is made up of seven people onstage. We've got trumpet and plenty of other instruments, and people really love all that instrumentation, but honestly, for me it's John's drumming that captivates and drives the shows night after night. We'll play new songs and old ones, plus some pretty unique covers. I certainly hope to pleasantly surprise the Italian audience and bring them along with us as we move along the boundary between chaos and beauty, dissonance and sweet melody, melancholy and pure joy. With open hearts and open arms we'll immerse ourselves in everything that is Italy. As one of the last lines of the album's final song, “Music Box,” puts it, we need you “now more than ever, before the music is over.”

(12/01/2018)

***

The post-rock of the Frontier

by Magda Di Genova

If we really want to think about who your influences might have been, the two names that immediately come to mind are Ennio Morricone and Lee Hazlewood. How much does their music actually influence you?

The first names that come to my mind are: Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Erik Satie, Sufjan Stevens, Taraf de Haidouks, Tom Waits, Eric Dolphy, Link Wray, Serge Gainsbourg, Amalia Rodrigues, Mano Negra, The Pogues, Gotan Project, Latin Playboys, Neil Young, Pavement, Yo La Tengo. The people you mention are fantastic, but they're not the only ones when it comes to influences.

Satisfy my curiosity: do you think Ennio Morricone has anything to do with rock?

Yes, up to a point. The Maestro's inventiveness is often unmatched. He manages to sound both electronic and rock. He's adventurous and defines descriptions and generalizations with extreme clarity.

Either way, your music reflects the moods and feelings of Mexican music over a folk-rock structure closer to American models. What does Mexican tradition represent for you, and how important is it to your musical exploration?

Yes, but not all our music represents the feelings you're describing. There are other elements you've too easily left out: John Convertino's drumming, which is so loose and creative, and the way he uses brushes, evoking the jazz spirit of Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Art Blakey. Then there's the versatility of trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Martin Wenk from Berlin and Jacob Valenzuela from Tucson. They can switch styles without any effort at all, playing horn solos à-la Miles Davis's "Sketches of Spain" one moment, or 60s pop when we do our cover of Love's "Alone Again Or" the next. From Nashville there's Paul Niehaus, who plays pedal steel guitar and draws on tradition, reconnects with it, refines it with his own touches, and gives it back to us through a more contemporary sense of space and colour, not unlike electronic groups like Oval and Tortoise. Volker Zander, from Munich, who plays upright piano and bass, is a fan of 60s soul, r'n'b and indie-rock, and has a very trained ear for sampling and for how certain sounds can be manipulated. He's our main springboard for taking the sound apart, and he digs up avant-garde components for our improvisations during live shows.

That's what comes to mind when I think about how the band sounds. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

When you started out, your music was mainly instrumental with cinematic overtones, and over time you moved towards a more song-based, singer-songwriter form. How did that shift happen?

We've always worked by moving in every direction: backwards, forwards, sideways, in circles, up and down. We started writing songs and instrumental pieces at the same time.

After "The Black Light" your music followed a more electric path, at times even brushing up against classical or jazz music. What can we expect from your latest record?

Knowing wouldn't do any good. We'll see.

Joey, you have a strictly classical musical education. How does that help you make rock music?

I started out playing garage-rock, but I grew up listening to the music made at home: piano in the living room, guitars, basses. I gravitated towards drums, but I was more drawn to bass.

A classical grounding has its merits, but originality comes from going against the rules and tradition, and that's what I wanted. I suppose education, and especially experience, is like the view you get when you look in the rearview mirror.

You have an enormous number of collaborations (Neko Case, Barbara Manning, Richard Buckner, Victoria Williams, Michael Hurley, Bill Janovitz, Vic Chesnutt, Lisa Germano, Françoiz Brut, Evan Dando). How do you decide you want to collaborate with someone, and how do you choose that person? Why do you need so many collaborations?

We listen…

You've also recently collaborated with Iron & Wine. Can you tell me about it? Are you completely satisfied with the result? Is it too early to talk about a possible follow-up?

It was one of our best collaborations. We can't wait to go on tour with them, together with Salvador Duran, in April and May. We'll definitely have a great time. The shows we played together in the United States were our best shows. There's something truly special that both the audience and the musicians can feel, it's hard to pin down exactly, but the spirit is there, and it's strong.

Will there be a video to support the album's release?

Yes, it'll be for "Cruel". We were helped by the talented people at www.loyalkasper.com, who made this beautiful, dark video for us. There are strange objects that come to life, break apart and spin around from every corner of the screen.

We filmed it at Gowanus Industrial Park, an old — and I mean really old — barn in Brooklyn, NY. Word has it that Martin Scorsese also shot some scenes there.

Joey, I can't thank you enough…

Thank you. See you in the spring.

Ride the wave of great music

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Magda Di Genova, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Calexico on OndaRock

Discography

Spoke (Quarterstick, 1997)	6
The Black Light (Quarterstick, 1998)	9
Hot Rail (Quarterstick, 2000)	7
Travelall (Our Soil, Our Strength, 2000)	6
Aerocalexico (2001)	6
Scraping (Our Soil, Our Strength, 2002)	6
Feast Of Wire (Quarterstick, 2003)	6.5
In The Reins (with Iron & Wine, Touch & Go, 2005)	5
Garden Ruin (Touch & Go, 2006)	5
Carried To Dust (Quarterstick, 2008)	5
Algiers (City Slang, 2012)	6
Edge Of The Sun (Anti Records, 2015)	7
The Thread That Keeps Us (Anti Records, 2018)	6
Years To Burn (with Iron & Wine, City Slang, 2019)	6
Seasonal Shift (City Slang, 2020)	6
El Mirador (City Slang, 2022)	6.5