Metal-lovin’ Mexican pair Rodrigo y Gabriela have become massive stars in Ireland off the back of their astonishing prowess on a pair of acoustic guitars. The release in September of their latest album 11:11 has brought them acclaim from much further afield, and this month they return to Ireland for a series of shows. AU’s Richard W Crothers fired a few questions Rodrigo’s way.
The band has just started a huge tour that will bring you through the UK, Ireland, Australia, France and Japan. Does the fact your music is instrumental help it spread across more cultures and reach more people?
We’d like to think the music is reaching people around the world ‘cos it’s good – lyrics or no lyrics! I don’t know if instrumental music travels any easier than lyric-based music. In the UK it’s hard to get radio play for our music because most stations are playing songs, so that’s an example where being instrumental might be working against us. A lot of the bands we admire sing in English and are massive in places where English isn’t the mother tongue.
Three years on from your last, self-titled, album you have released 11:11, your third album. How much of that time has gone into developing the album? What do you feel are stand-out differences between 11:11 and previous albums?
A lot of those three years was spent on the road promoting the last album. It was a slow build around the world. We were doing well in Ireland, then the UK started to grow, so we spent more time there, Next it was Australia, then Japan and America, finally things started to happen for us in Europe, so it was crazy. I think we finally finished touring at Christmas 2008. Then we built the studio in Mexico, twice, ‘cos the first time the acoustics were fuckin’ terrible. The last album was us trying to faithfully capture our live sound in the studio as closely as possible. This time we have introduced other instruments to the mix, experimented more with the textures, and worked with Colin Richardson for the final mix, who is very much a rock guy. We also wrote everything ourselves for the new album, no covers this time.
YouTube seems to be swamped with live videos of you guys. Do you think that YouTube has helped you reach new places? From reading the comments, it’s clear that you have some really adoring fans and that you are inspiring a lot of young people to pick up guitars. Does that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?
The only time we ever see our gig is watching it on YouTube, so you end up checking these things out. I suppose it is one of the ways music travels these days, going back to your first question. I know we do get a lot of aspiring musicians coming to the gigs, and some of the covers on YouTube are very good. It’s very flattering.
You’re big fans of Irish bands – are there any bands that you feel are making a big noise that people should have a listen to?
Somebody gave me the album by a Dublin band called Adebisi Shank. They are a very powerful, dynamic, post-rock trio. Really good! [agreed. -Ed]
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA PLAY THE MANDELA HALL, BELFAST ON DECEMBER 1; THE ACADEMY, DUBLIN ON DECEMBER 11; SAVOY THEATRE, CORK ON DECEMBER 12 AND CORK OPERA HOUSE ON DECEMBER 13.
Posted on: December 1, 2009
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