Capturing A Feeling

Arizona-based Americana exponents Calexico aren't your typical indie rock proposition. Their fluid, dusty sound is an amalgam of a raft of disparate and often exotic sounds and inspirations, nonchalantly tied together by the compositional skills and musical acumen of core players Joey Burns – vocalist and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire – and his long-term partner-in-crime, percussion virtuoso John Convertino.

The pair first joined forces way back in 1990 as the rhythm section for Howe Gelb's wonderful Giant Sand outfit, eventually becoming the go-to rhythm section for the indie rock/alt-country community – working with artists such as Richard Buckner and Victoria Williams – before finally branching out on their own and forming Calexico in 1996.

Despite becoming geographically synonymous with the desert around their home base of Tucson which partially informs their sound – as well as the border town between California and Mexico from which they took their name – in the intervening years Calexico have become globally popular, especially in Europe where they've been constant visitors. This year alone has already seen them play in excess of 80 ecstatically-received European shows in support of their seventh album, Algiers, which dropped nigh on 12 months ago.

“I think it's a timing thing – you've got to strike while the iron's hot,” Burns reflects on their popularity in the old country. “We had a record come out in '98 called The Black Light and we toured a bunch on that, and then we did Hot Rail in 2000 and we'd also just tour that consistently. I think there's got to be something in the way that all of the different cultures and countries in Europe – the UK included – just really appreciate the arts and culture, especially the stuff that's off the beaten path and evokes imagery from a faraway place, such as the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico.

“I think all those things combine; the fact that there's multicultural influences – at times there's multilingual influences going on – and we have a sophisticated thing going on with poetic elements, which I thing melds well with the European aesthetic. Those are just things that I've tried to reason with and have come up with, but I could be totally off the mark.”

When you see Calexico perform onstage the most striking aspect is how the group of musicians operate as a single entity – totally in sync with each other's rhythms – but to this day the band's core and creative heartbeat remains the founding pair of Burns and Convertino.

“We basically started the whole thing and we make all of the decisions, and then we just decided, 'Well we'll just hire people as we go', and that's continued to grow and grow until now we have seven musicians in total on the road,” Burns reflects. “But it's John and I who take the brunt of the financial responsibility as well as dealing with all of the people and their demands and their likes and dislikes, plus all of the good stuff that comes with a bunch of knuckleheads being holed up in a car for too long.

“[But playing with John] is great, and it's so much fun. It's great getting to do other projects together too – whether it be from past days or in the current days and being a rhythm section together – it's really a delight. John's a fantastic drummer and I love playing bass with him, and I love playing guitar with him too. Sometimes I don't realise it so much, but then whenever we do projects with other musicians or studio work or live work – whenever we do things stripped-down and people are able to hear how well we interplay – I get a lot of that feedback; 'Wow, you can really tell that you guys know each other's style, and know how to breathe and improvise and make things sound so fluid'. It's great, I love it.

“There's times when John's holding down the fort, and there's times when I – either with the acoustic guitar or the bass – am holding down the fort. So it's fun to mess and toy with the notion of structure, and holding a balance and breathing with whatever that main voice is. When we start off writing and recording in the studio, we just sit together – him behind a drum kit normally, or sometimes a piano – and myself behind some kind of instrument, whether it's guitar-based or keyboard-based, and we'll just kind of map out a feeling or like a vibe of a song. I usually have something in the back of my head, and then we'll just capture something live without really doing any demo or preparation or pre-production. It's about trying to capture a feeling.”

Despite this creative chemistry between the main protagonists, long-term band members such as Paul Neihaus (steel guitar) – absent from this Australian tour because of commitments with Justin Townes Earle – Jacob Valenzuela (trumpet), Martin Wenk (trumpet, guitar) and Volker Zander (bass) have become integral components of the Calexico sound, both onstage and increasingly in the studio.

“They are really important – they're great and I try to give them as much limelight exposure as I can,” Burns concurs. “They're all great guys and amazing players, and it's truly remarkable to get to play with a great group of musicians who are supremely-talented for so long. It's not easy, it's honestly hard – it's part-miracle that we've been able to maintain it, and I think part of that's just down to being open-minded and being honest and there's times when that comes out and it's really healthy to get it out.

“And there's other times when you bottle that shit up, and it eats away, and that becomes tour cancer – or band cancer – so there's got to be a little bit of give and take with everyone in their responsibilities with this kind of music, which is not AC/DC and it's not Metallica, it's got sensitivity and so do the musicians at times – it demands that. It's actually a lot harder in some ways, because you have to kind of adjust to a musical style that's about learning how to breathe with other people rather than just doing your part and playing super-loud all the time. It takes more concentration and more focus, but these guys are super-talented and they can do all that and more.”

Calexico's music has long been pigeonholed as “desert noir”, even though there's far more to their music than this somewhat restrictive identifier.

“I think that like anything there's always going to be some sort of larger description or definition that gets people to a certain location – whether it be geographically, like thinking, 'Oh yeah, they're from the desert! Not the Saharan desert, but the North American desert',” Burns smiles. “Even there there's so much room to work with, and of course a band like ours is not just about this region but it's beholden to the whole word, in terms of influences. Stylistically with what we're doing I'm sure there's a lot of similarities with certain musicians and music from around the world. I don't hold back. If anything I love listening to different artists and albums and music, and just picking up on certain tone or instrumentation or feel, regardless of whether I understand what's being said lyrically – it's more about capturing a feel and then seeing how you can incorporate that or take that idea and run with it and make it your own.

“That's really what it's all about, and it has less to do with being from the desert and more to do with just being fine-tuned to a certain set of aesthetics. There's a jazz influence, and then that '50s and '60s brushwork that John really resonates with and incorporates that in a more college punk rock or indie rock way – that's just one aspect. I could go on and on – we look universally for influences, rather than just staying close to our own backyard.”

Which may account for why Calexico's music has also resonated so well with Australian crowds, although the physical similarities between the Arizona desert and the Australian outback may also partially explain this synergy.

“I think that for sure the space of Australia matches up with the space of our music,” Burns nods. “Most people there stay near the coast, but I can identify with those people crazy enough to venture into the bush. There's a certain amount of venom and danger there and I like that. There's something crazy about Australians which suits Calexico – especially our live show. We'd be a great wedding band for all of Australia to just open up and dance.”