Erstellt am: 9. 4. 2015 - 13:43 Uhr
Sonnengrenzgänge mit Calexico
City Slang
Calexico begeben sich zur Inspiration fürs Songwriting gerne raus aus ihrer Hauptniederlassung in Tucson, Arizona. Das letzte Album der US-Country-Mariachirocker "Algiers" ist im gleichnamigen Stadtteil von New Orleans entstanden. Für das neue Werk "Edge of the sun", haben sie sich passenderweise ins sonnige Mexico City begeben. Im historischen Stadtteil Coyoacán haben Calexico kreative Anregungen gesucht, Einflüsse aufgesaugt und sich mit lokalen Musikern ausgetauscht. Eine Mariachi-Platte ist "Edge of the sun" dennoch nicht geworden. Ich hab' bei Joey und John nachgefragt.
Das Interview in voller Länge:
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Both on your last and on your new album, the places you went to don't reflect themselves as much in the sound as one might have thought. How come?
It's not really the primary goal. It's not to go and make a Disneyland-themed album. This is about writing, about being inspired, about taking influences but being yourself and being true to yourself as musicians. There are some guests that are from Mexico and there are definitely some nuances that carry over into some of the songs. Like there is an instrumental song called Coyoacán. And the first song that's being played from the album is a song called Cumbia de Donde which is most certainly inspired by Cumbias from South America and Columbia but also that kind of eclectic feeling that I get when I think about the music I like from Mexico City. So some of those influences made their way into some of the songs.
Ingo Pertramer
You have described "Edge of the sun" as your most collaborative record to date. Sam Beam of Iron and Wine, Neko Case or Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses appear on the album. Did you actually have specific people in mind when writing the songs? Or was it more like 'Hey, I'd like to work with these people, let's see where they fit in'?
A lot of the collaborative ideas were just afterthoughts. The main goal was getting a great performance, capturing some kind of vibe with the music. And that has kind of been our strong point. We are really good at just getting a unique feel and so we just captured some of these songs and as we continued on building tracks and layering vocals, the idea of asking guests then came next. And it was just a lot of fun.
You say, working with guests is part of your DNA. I like that phrase very much. But I think in order to do that, to have such a vivid exchange with other musicians, or also within the band, you need to have a very clear idea of what the core essence of your band is, so that you can confidently play around with it, give it to somebody else and get back something different. Is that the identity of Calexico?
We are very confident in knowing who we are and what we do. We feel very fortunate that we are able to continue doing this for so many years. We do it for the love of music. And just getting to play, whether it be recording in the studio or especially going on tour, getting to meet people ... the experience for us has always been one that exemplifies community, amongst ourselves, within the band itself, which has several members. And then the relationship we have with audiences both far and near have been really personal and we have been very open and the shows have a lot of personality, dynamics and energy. It is very engaging, the experience for both us and also for the audience. So we are very comfortable in who we are.