As he was waking up and we at the AU were closing up shop for the night, I had the opportunity earlier this month to chat to Rodrigo Sanchez, one half of the infamous guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela. By now, you probably know their story – a couple of musicians from Mexico get discovered on the streets of Ireland. Location aside, the story of the celebrated busker is nothing new, and artists like Passenger continue the tradition.
What followed this discovery, however, is a fairly unique story in the industry. Though they’ve been a part of some of the biggest festivals in the world – including Bluesfest here at home – they’ve never gone down a route of predictability. While mostly keeping to their roots of performing instrumental music, in recent years their collaborations with groups like C.U.B.A., as well as their production of film scores, has kept everyone guessing. Their latest release, 9 Dead Alive, is in stores this week and goes back to the basics, so to speak, after years of breaking the mould and trying new things. The record’s concept? Nine originals tracks, eight of which pay homage to people who Rodrigo y Gabriela consider to be the “greats”; their inspirations.
You have a song named after Dostoyevsky, a Russian author who is known by most, but beyond this, the names are rather obscure. I asked Rodrigo why he went down that road: “(we wanted) to introduce our listeners to people who probably wouldn’t know about them. So we picked some people who aren’t well known by the average person, with the exception of Dostoyevsky of course. I think that makes it an interesting project for people to read about. The music is a bonus… if people like that too then they have it as well!”
So what comes first – the music or the name? “We write the music first. It’s like having a baby. We have the music, and then we name it. We knew the project, and we had a lot of names lined up… a lot of personalities. We wanted to have 11 songs originally, and then once the music was ready we found the ones that were suitable to name after the people.”
“We ended up with the 9 songs that are on the album because we decided to go for 8 tracks, 4 girls picked by Gabriela and 4 men picked by me, and then the song in the middle “Torito” represents animals and nature.”
I mention that the project is a return to what we have come to know from the band, so I asked what it felt like to work on it, and what he’s looking forward to about getting the album out into the world, “I’ve been excited by the whole process, and looking forward to the time that people will get to know more about the songs and the project. I hope they like it. But in general, this time for us is about being more active and going back to what we love to do. Which is playing and sharing the music.”
“Over the last few years, we’ve done a lot of projects with other musicians, like with C.U.B.A. and scoring films (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), but now after five years of that we’re going back to just being a duo on stage.”
I asked if he still liked a life on the road, and if where that road would lead in the year ahead, “We like it, but it is a really difficult lifestyle. For people it sounds great, but of course it’s not a holiday, there is a lot of pressure. It can be quite nerve wracking and complicated to be on the road all the time. We have 18 months of touring lined up. Including Australia, which is not there yet, but we will be there at the end of the year. We always really look forward to coming down there, us and the crew. ”
Even though they’ve returned to life as a duo, I wondered if collaborations are still on the cards for the future, and if he’s had any particular favourite moments from his years on the stage, “I don’t have one particular person, but i think we’re lucky to be able to get in touch with different musicians from different genres. We like metal, flamenco and jazz – even though we don’t play flamenco and we’re more in a rock field – just recently I met one of the flamenco gods, and we became friends now that I live here in Spain. And he’ll be joining us in London for a song.”
So with all with in mind, how does he classify the new record? “It’s clearly a rock album!”
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The new Rodrigo y Gabriela record 9 Dead Alive is in stores this week. As mentioned in the interview, the band are planning to tour over our Summer (Falls perhaps?) so stay tuned for announcements in the months ahead!
