There are some musical combinations that defy all explanations as to why they work. Take Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela. Growing tired of metal, they took their love of seriously heavy music and wedged it into an acoustic format replete with flamenco influences, all without vocals. Instead of finding fame in their home country of Mexico, it would be Ireland where the band first enjoyed commercial success, beating out the likes of Johnny Cash and Arctic Monkeys for the number one spot on the album charts. Musically, they have all the hallmarks of a niche band, yet Rodrigo y Gabriela have been booked everywhere from Glastonbury to their upcoming date at Bluesfest. They have bucked the trends on the way to some great achievements, and most importantly, they’ve never veered from what they do best.
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s fourth album, 9 Dead Alive, was released last year. It’s a concept album; a celebration of individuals who have passed away but whose lives still resonate with people in the 21st century, and with Rodrigo [Sanchez] and Gabriela [Quintero] in particular. When the BRAG catches up with Sanchez, he is acclimatising in Norway – not quite the perfect preparation for a trip to Australia.
“I’m working on a project. I’m not here for the purpose of working on it; I just wanted to be here,” Sanchez says with a charming chuckle. “My girlfriend lives here and I decided to begin working in the studio.”
So are Rodrigo y Gabriela getting ready for another release already? “No, we’re doing a lot of different collaborations this year; I’m all over the place,” he says. “I’m trying to concentrate on a few at the moment. We have about eight coming up. It’s interesting to be working on such different styles of music.”
Sanchez and Quintero have built an insular creative environment – they not only write and tour as just the two of them, but they often record on their own – so collaborating must be both a welcome relief and a challenge.
“It’s all a learning process, but the kinds of collaborations we’re working on aren’t usually set up via our record label,” says Sanchez. “They’re friends and musicians that we know and we respect and we like each other’s work. I call them and ask them if they want to do something. It’s a good time for a lot of musicians to be off. I got a little too excited and contacted a lot of people, but it’s great because we don’t really have any deadlines. We send the files remotely and so it’s all quite cool.”
While Sanchez is excited about all of his collaborations, he’s keeping most of the projects under wraps for now. “I don’t know if you know metal – Marty Friedman, he was part of Megadeth for a while, I’m doing some stuff with him. [Otherwise] there are a few things that we are not allowed to say – I know that is stupid, but they are big stars so we keep those quiet. We are also working on the soundtrack for a documentary [about] Jaco Pastorius that Robert Trujillo [of Metallica] is working on … There are just so many different styles of music. Some of them we are not so comfortable with – for example, we are more comfortable with the metal – but it is really great for us.”
Life onstage for Rodrigo y Gabriela began on the street, busking in Dublin, so putting on an infectious and insanely energetic live show is the ethos they follow to this day. Nonetheless, when you’re playing in excess of 100 gigs a year, it becomes important to remain spontaneous. With this the band’s sixth time in the country, I ask what they have planned for their live shows Down Under.
“It’s funny, because when we are touring through the year, we tour and then we do the festivals here [in Europe],” says Sanchez. “But when we come to Australia, it is usually only once every two years and the festivals are when it feels to us to be the off-season, and then in the middle we’re doing some [shows] of our own, so we go with the flow with it all, even though it feels all a little different. We’ve played the Byron festival before so we think we will go with the flow and feel the energy of the audience.
“We won’t write a setlist – actually, we haven’t been writing a setlist for a year. It’s cool – we invite fans to tell us what they want to hear, and we like the atmosphere; we feel more a part of the show … Having a setlist can kind of send you crazy because you can over-focus on what you’re playing. You know it so well that it’s like you cannot move and you’re not connecting with what you’re doing.”
Rodrigo Y Gabriela playBluesfest 2015 atTyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay,Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6.Also appearing at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House on Thursday April 9 and9 Dead Alive is out now through Warner.
