INTERVIEW – Rodrigo Sanchez, Rodrigo y Gabriela

INTERVIEW – Rodrigo Sanchez, Rodrigo y Gabriela
By Shane Pinnegar

We spoke to Rodrigo Sanchez of Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela down the line from Oslo, in Norway where he is recording with friends, ahead of them bringing their virtuosic New Flamenco style of playing to the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival at Fremantle Park on Sunday, 29 March.

To see Rodrigo y Gabriela live is to be swept up in the former lovers mesmerising musical connection. They also summon an electrical charge unlike any acoustic duo you’re likely to have seen before, but the sheer physicality of their performance can take its toll, with Gabriela Quintero needing some time off in 2012 after suffering muscle damage from her percussive playing.

“I don’t think she changed the way she played [afterwards],” recalls Sanchez, “but she changed the way she takes care of her body. We both ice our arms when we finish the show and all that, it’s part of that. But she didn’t do that until this happened.

“It happened to me before in a different way, in one finger, and then I started a therapy which I still do every night after the show, but she didn’t do that. She didn’t warm up properly and she didn’t cool down after the show. And after this happened the therapist told her to do that. Now she’s taking much more care about her for her own sake.”

“I think as well,” he continues, “a lot of different kind of massages and all that are taking place more often, nowadays, while on tour. So, she loosens up the muscles and starts, you know, prevents inflammation which is, pretty much, what happens in the tissue. So, yeah, I thinks she’s more aware of that but I don’t think she changed her playing itself.”

The intense energetic performance of the duo means that the damage was very much like a sports injury.

“It is, in fact,” Sanchez concurs. “Yeah, you’re right. In fact, the therapist that we normally see, [is] a sports therapist. Yeah, it’s very energetic – I mean, it’s pretty intense work. We are both are into exercising ourselves and we try to keep that going, because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do that. On top of that, we are pretty much exposed. I mean, we don’t share any responsibilities on stage with another two, or another three musicians. We have to be there and try to make two guitars sounding as a full band. And, yeah, it’s quite a job I guess.”

It’s quite a job indeed. The duo’s most recent studio album – their fifth – is titled 9 Dead Alive, and features eight tracks dedicated to late men and women whom the duo admire for their humanitarian work, and one song in honour of animals and nature. It’s rather more academic than we’d expect from the likes of Snoop Dog or Taylor Swift.

“Well, you know what,” Sanchez says with a humble laugh, “we thought it was like: we don’t sing and we don’t share – apart from music – we don’t share anything else. In the first

, we share some kind of personal experiences and in the second we dedicated 11 tracks [to] 11 musicians that we admire. And as well, we introduced these musicians to people that probably didn’t know about [them].

“So, we wanted to offer something different as well. In the end we said, ‘okay, listen, if we offer something that is definitely interesting and educational, I mean, even if they don’t like the music, the album has some kind of value you know.’

“Because there’s valuable information out there. If people don’t even care about that, well then they’re bad. At that point it’s not even only about music, a lot of people have told me, ‘you know, I didn’t know about this person, or about the other one.’ And that’s why we didn’t want to take the usual names you know, because you’re supposed to know much about Gandhi or Martin Luther King, or whatever. We all are supposed to know about them. We wanted to introduce different personalities so people would actually look for it and understand it and get, hopefully, inspired by it you know.”

I put it to Sanchez that it’s about sharing an oral history to different generations, in a way?

“Yeah, that’s exactly the plan and thank you. I’m glad you think that way,” he replies enthusiastically, before going on to explain how they selected the eight inspirational people to dedicate the album’s tracks to.

“Well, we worked two things at the same time. We were working the music and sometimes we, you probably imagine, we had a big list of names. Basically, we divided between the two of us, the girls and boys. I said [to Gabriela], ‘well, you the girls, and I take the boys.’ So, the list, you know, was kind of getting narrower. Then when I thought I had the four men that were good for the job and then Gab, kind of, reviewed that and I did the other way, the same, to her list. And then sometime we were just writing the music and when we had, finally, the last eight… well, then, the other one is dedicated to nature and animals, but with the eight, we already had the music written.

“You know, when you have a baby most of the time,” he continues, “you just pretty much [name] it after it’s born. It’s kind of the way we did it. We had the music and then we put the names on top. We had the list [of names], we had the music and then we decided, ‘okay, this feels like this is the name for this one, and this is the name for the other one.’

“In our heads there is some relationship. In our heads there is a reason why we did it, but probably, you know, people don’t understand that but that’s okay they can just find a link if they like to and decide if that’s the reason.”

It’s a very atypical approach for rock n’ roll – but Rodrigo y Gabriela are not your typical rockstars. For starters, as unknowns they moved from Mexico to Europe and ended up settling in Ireland for six or so years when they didn’t even speak English. I put it to Sanchez that they sound like born risk takers.

“Absolutely. I think both Gab and I are, pretty much…” he ponders. “I mean, most of the time it’s great but it’s a constant struggle, it’s crazy. I mean, we just cannot relax and feel that, ‘okay, now we should just chill.’ We constantly look forwards – and I’m not saying this as if was a positive thing at all. I think we should learn not to be that way that much.

“I think it’s good to take risks and to challenge yourself in many different ways everyday. But I think if you turn that into a habit, you know it could be painful. You know what I’m saying? Sometimes it could be painful.

“I think we are both now, in this stage of our life,” he says, the frown on his forehead almost audible down the phone line, “where we are trying to find a door out to this ‘thing’ because I think we already kind of pushed sometimes a little too much of ourselves. And as I said, for many people this could be a different kind of story, but you know, it’s taken a lot of work, I think now it’s time to relax a little bit more and to learn how to enjoy without thinking that, ‘okay, now I’m going to go through these and…’

“Yeah, you know, we are probably born as more a kind of warriors in different ways. But that doesn’t mean that we are all the time succeeding in a very easy way, and going through difficulties in a personal or professional level.

“I think it is a deep topic that I can talk about for hours, but basically, what I want to say, it’s a good thing but too much of a good thing could be a bad thing, you know what I’m saying?”

Without wanting to invade the ex-couple’s privacy, I am eager to know if the two were concerned their magical, unique musical connection might be endangered when they ended their romantic relationship.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s obviously something that probably crossed our minds,” Sanchez admits, “but you know this process, when we went through this process, we – even if we thought about that – we didn’t see it happening because we were so respectful to each other. Even today, we’re the best friends, honestly, and it’s very strange. It’s a very strange relationship now.

“But we respect each other even more than we used to. We are best friends. So, I don’t know. Definitely there is a very special connection, even now, still. We cannot change that, you know. We share most of our lives together. We did change our lives, we changed our families’ lives and friends’ lives in many different ways and affected a lot of people. So, we kind of just… it is something that’s there and will be there forever.”

How do the duo write a song – is it with a feeling or a vision in mind?

“Yeah, sometimes it does happen that way,” Sanchez says, “but most of the times it happens because I have more of a musical idea that I want to express, to get out there. Because normally the way we write our music is, it comes from me first of all, and then I come up with a melody or the riffs or whatever. Once I have the whole structure of that, then I can start working on the rhythm and harmonies and all that. But basically it is, yeah. Especially for Rod and Gab. Because I write stuff for myself as well, or whatever, but it’s not part of the duo. Then those things I might be more guided by, kind of, a feeling. But for Rod and Gab, yeah, it’s a feeling but it’s more of a musical thing.

“I wouldn’t write a song because I met a person,” he concludes, “you know what I’m saying? For Rod and Gab, I don’t think that would happen. I think it’s definitely much more based on a musical curiosity you know, when I work on these riffs or whatever.”

Having got a lot of attention for their intricate cover versions of songs by the likes of Metallica and Led Zeppelin, I ask Sanchez if it’s harder to adapt a song that’s already been recorded by a full band to their own style than it is to write a new piece of music that you know will fit into your strengths?

“It’s harder to write a new piece of music,” he says without hesitation, “and to adapt now, although you know, we now we are kind of working on a new project for metal. It’s a heavy metal kind of project that we are doing. Kind of going back to this Metallica cover within the first album, but now that we’ve kind of got to meet a lot of those guys and we’re friends with a lot of what used to be our heroes.

“We’re working on a project, that I don’t know where we are going to put it out there, but we are working on metal covers. And for me now, it’s super fun and it’s easy, but now I know how to do it. I know how to do it, to sound it the way I want it – to sound it as Rod and Gab cover, you know. To respect and make it sound powerful but in the Rod and Gab kind of range. And it’s difficult but I know how it’s done. But to write a new piece of music, it’s much more complicated.”

This will be the duo’s sixth tour of Australia, several of which have included playing the major blues & roots festivals around the country. Sanchez says they approach these outdoor shows differently to their own headline gigs.

“Yes, more than approach it [differently] on purpose,” he explains, “we both know it’s a different vibe. Normally, in the festivals we have to play a little bit shorter. Pretty much, that’s the only kind of change we have in our heads. But, basically, we understand, we have experienced already, of course, after many years of playing festivals, the difference. We don’t prepare anything in particular, we just know. We just put ourselves in that festival mode and we just know how it is, you know.

“Especially when we play venues that – which is probably 80 percent of the venues we play – where people are standing and some of the venues they have balconies, or whatever. Then our own shows feel like little festivals, you know what I’m saying?

“So, this time, for example, we play these festivals and then we play the Opera House in Sydney. That’s a different thing because when we play these kind of concert halls, some people feel they have to respect the place and sometimes the crowds feel [shy] to stand up and do whatever. But we try to make them feel more comfortable because, I mean, it should be the same.”

The duo draw on their early days playing in heavy metal bands for their intricate and authentic covers and the energy in their own playing, and Sanchez says he still likes to plug in and crank up the volume from time to time.

“Absolutely, yeah, I have a lot of electric guitars that great people, friends of mine have given me, and I have a great studio, so I do that. Yeah, I like doing that – it’s great.”

Sanchez goes on to describe how he likes to take a complete break from playing every now and then.

“Sometimes I do stop playing for a week because I think it’s good for the muscles, as well for the tendons. Even cutting off for ten days. But that’s probably once a year when I stop playing for ten days, it’s probably once a year. And I do it a little bit on purpose. But now when even on holidays, for me, it’s just to come up with some different ideas. Otherwise I go even crazier than I am.”

Category: Interviews