Address Calexico c/o Our Soil, Our Strength 2509 N. Campbell Ave. #335 Tucson, Arizona 85719 USA Email:Calexico links:
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Interview mit Joey Burns, Calexico
27 April 1998/ Somewhere in Germany The first 5 answers are in German. Joey wanted to show his deep knowledge of the language. So don't be surprised. JB: Ich möchte ein mehr Spätzle essen. Ich liebe Spätzle. Mit ein bisschen Zwiebeln und vielleicht ein bisschen mehr Knoblauch. Ja, das ist sehr gemütlich für mich. Q: Wo hast du dein Deutsch gelernt? JB: Die starken Staus auf dem Superhighway. Q: Also können wir das Interview auf Deutsch machen? JB: Jo, das ist möglich. Q: You have been to the Schwabenland, Stuttgart, as well? JB: Ja, die Schwarzwald ist sehr schön. Ich habe ein paar sehr starke hallucinogenic magic cookies gegessen. Mit meinen Freunden Howe und John. Wir waren im Auto mit unserem Freund Ulli, ein guter Mann, und durch die Schwarzwald, alles become mehr und mehr total bizarre. Eine andere Welt. Dieselbe Zeit, eine andere Welt. Q: Ist das die Art und Weise, wie ihr eure Musik macht? JB: Ja, vielleicht. Aber, I stop talking German because I'm running out of my vocabulary. And I don't want to sound like a fool. It's not cool to sound like a fool. Q: Is this the way you recorded "The Black Light"? JB: No, in Tucson, Arizona you don't need drugs, because it's in the food, in the air, in the water. It's a natural high, just like John Denver wrote about Colorado. Let’s get down to business. Q: Could you sum up the story of Calexico? JB: Are you talking about the group or the town? Q: The group first. JB: We met a long time ago in 1990 with Howe and we did some Giant Sand stuff, we are still doing Giant Sand stuff. There’s a new record coming out. John Convertino and I were playing as a rhythm section for quite some time, and we have done some work with other artists, projects and bands, it’s always rewarding. But I think that over the years we naturally gravitated towards playing our own music together with the different instruments that we’ve collected. Some of them we’ve rescued from a store in Tucson called "The Chicago Store". It’s a kind of instrument graveyard. You go through these secret passages, little tunnels, and you’ll find these instruments and pieces powdered with dust from many years, and we bring them back to life, and we give them their chance to sing on record. Q: Do you regard yourselves as cultivating a musical heritage? JB: Yes, we are a kind of Frankensteins of instruments. I think we should continue on with the reinvention of different instruments or try some more combinations. I enjoy bands like Doo Rag who are also from Tucson. They are a great group. They take a vacuum cleaner and make it into a microphone. Simple things like that. Q: Do you use any "modern" instruments like, for example, PCs as well? JB: Sure. We use some of that in our recording process. And we also like to use the old PC, the message machine. Sometimes they have a perfect, fine, aged warble, just like wine. When you drink wine and you start warbling, you know that it’s a fine pour. (?) Q: Is Arizona a good area for wine? JB: Wine for the mind. No, not so much. Or for a different kind of wine. Since you don’t have grapes, the people there started turning towards cactus. They make tequila mescal, and it’s a little bit hallucinogenic sometimes. Q: There is a bit Mexican influence in Arizona... JB: Oh yeah, the Southern half of Arizona used to be Mexico one time. Around the middle of the 18th century the Americans said to the Mexicans, "Let’s make a deal". They bought this portion of land for the railroad. So the border was changed. But the people who live there have maintained there identity and there culture. Q: So you listened a lot to Mexican music when you were young? JB: Well, not so much when I was young. When we lived in Los Angeles, my mother did take my younger sister and me to the outskirts of town. She would do some social work and we were playing with the kids. Then we listened to music and tried to speak the language, but when you are a kid, there’s a universal language, just like there’s music as a universal language. Kids just play together, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. There was this influence from my mum and my dad, we travelled down to Mexico, she plays piano and sings, she would play these songs for us. And then we would go down there with them, go down, hang out and have fun. Go to the old temples, the pyramids and see the ruins and have some great Mexican food. Q: Let’s turn to your album. Is there a sort of underlying concept in The Black Light? JB: Yes, there is, kind of. You know, we live in Arizona, and we are talking about how at one point it used to be Mexico, and before that, what was it? It was just the land, and the Native Indians lived there, the Hohokam, the Peema, the Yaki. This idea of there being borders or this idea of being no borders or the juxtaposition of the two contradictions that lie as a result. I think by using some influences of some other sources, be it our neighbours and the Mariachi bands or the Latin jazz music from New York or South America, or even some of the music that we’ve made over the years, or music that we’ve listened to, the newer modern contemporary music, they all come together in this idea of combining them. Together with the idea of there being no borders, this is maybe the theme that runs through the album. Q: Is there a reason that there are only a very few songs with lyrics on the album? JB: Well, I think part of it is to give the illusion that there is a soundtrack without a movie. I’given space as well to the listener and time to leave space and time open to them for their own place in it. And also to allow for digestion with some of the lyrics and some of the stories that are going on during this album. We would love to do some soundtrack work, and maybe this will help us. Q: So there was no film up to this point? JB: Not yet, we still have to make it. Maybe we will do a cartoon instead. Q: Do you have a script already? JB: Yes, I wrote a story, the story behind the album. We first recorded some of the music in the beginning and then, as we put these things together in context, we noticed that there was this kind of natural progression of a story. In writing the lyrics I decided to tie them together, but in a very subtle way, I didn’t want it to be too overstated or too obvious, that’s why I didn’t write the story in the liner notes. I felt like if there’s a song there that people might like, let them be able to get to that song without having to weed through some kind of sick idea or concept. Q: You’ve already established a name in the States with your different side projects. How is the reaction to the new album? JB: It’s really good. By working with a great label like Touch and Go Quarterstick we’ve been very fortunate to get our music through to people in good hands. I think people really respect the label, so they take a serious look at the bands on that label. I also think that because the label is in Chicago a lot of friends of ours helped us to get in contact with people that we respect, some musicians there. It seems like this ongoing process keeps on expanding and unfolding. So this idea of working with other artists, new artists in the future, I see it possibly happening. Q: In which kind of venues do you usually play in the States? JB: Well, I feel like I could play anywhere. I like the idea of playing acoustically at the side of the street. Sometimes we play in the lobby of this old haunted hotel in Tucson, called the Hotel Congress. It’s a great place and it’s been around for a hundred years. This is the place where John Dillinger and his band of gangsters were caught, which led to Dillinger’s arrest. So it has this deep history, and we’re playing there in the lobby sometimes. But normally we play in clubs, sometimes a theatre or two. Q: You’ve just said that there’s going to be another Giant Sans record on which you played as well. How do you find the time to arrange all these different side projects? JB: Well, we make time. It’s funny, because on your end you maybe see all these recordings coming out over a big period of time, but for us it doesn’t take as much time. We get together for a couple of days, some weeks here, some weeks there, there’s always time. The fact that we are able to work in Tucson and not have to go to LA or New York makes it that much easier. It’s a labour of love, we all enjoy playing together, so for us it’s very rewarding. Q: Are you going to tour in Germany this year? JB: Yes, we’d definitely love to. And maybe we can bring some of the Mariachis over. Maybe someone out there can help us bring them over. I’d would love to give them a platform on which to do their own music. I like bringing together different styles, letting them have their chance to express their own interpretation of music. I think the people in Europe would really enjoy it, because these guys, they know how to party! It’s funny, because we did this work in the studio, and they wind up drinking all this American beer, and we drank up all their Mexican beer. Just think about all this Mexican beer you could get turned on to. And likewise they would drink all the Weissbier. Q: That’s a sort of cultural exchange: JB: Yeah, a hundred per cent. Q How many people are on stage when you are playing? JB: Well, that depends. For economical reasons we have done minimal performances with two people, but we’ve done some work with a drummer, a bass player or other musicians. So it varies, it depends on how things are going, if people are available. As we continue to grow we will perhaps be able to bring a bigger ensemble. There is also the idea of working with Vic Chestnut and Lambchop, combining some of these musicians and bands together with ours and vice versa. And even working out some of these orchestrations and arrangements. We’d like to take it further. I think people enjoy seeing music of this size. It always great if you’re part of some kind of inspirational performance, where something is happening. Like driving to the Black Forest, you’re driving through, but the same time you really feel the sense of the spirit of the area, you stop and you talk to the people, you connect. I think that’s kind of what we want to do. Q: Did you really enjoy the Black Forest? JB: Oh, of course! For us, being in Europe, this idea of being in another country is very similar to us living in Tucson. Being able to walk down an old street, a different language being spoken, a different flavour in the air, you get the sense of a different time and a different place. That’s very important. To lose yourself and be able to see another way of living or perceiving. It helps to build your own experience and your own sense of self. Top 3 records: Amelia Rodriguez: ??? Isotope 217: ~ Rainer Ptacek: Words, Spirits and Nocturnes