Calexico Indentify With 'Crazy' Aussies

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.”

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