Joey Burns is on a mission to rebuild the bridge between New Orleans and Havana...
“It’s all about subtlety; letting the elements work for you rather than trying to work against them” says Calexico’s front man Joey Burns offhandishly as he sips coffee in the ultra-posh bar of the Kensington Hotel. He might be talking about wine-making with the journalist sitting next to me, but I can sort of see how it would apply to his band's music.
One of the most laid back people I've ever interviewed; Burns seems to perspire easy-going charm more so than most Americans. Then again, if I’d spent the better part of the last 20 years defining country music, I’d be pretty self-assured. A Tucson-based collective of musicians focused around Burns and fellow Giant Sand member John Convertino, Calexico represent the more eclectic end of American indie music. Exploring styles as diverse as Portuguese Fado, Afro-Peruvian folk, the Californian jazz of the ‘50s and country and surf of the 1960s, they’re one of those bands who shouldn’t really work on paper, yet somehow manage to create wonderfully atmospheric jazz/folk.
Despite the disparity in their influences, there is something deeply geographical to Calexico’s sound. From the moaning strings to the mariachi flourishes, a lot of Burns’ music seems to reflect Tucson’s Mexican and Native American past and the quiet emptiness of the Arizona desert that surrounds it. For his part, Joey seems to completely love the town he comes from. “It makes me happy when we get to help out the community” smiles Burns as he talks about his home town, “Calexico keeps you busy, but we have managed to help out here and there; we help with the local radio station and we’ve worked with Gabby Giffords, the congress woman who was shot at point blank range last year and survived. I think that’s important role of a musician as a bridge between people”.
This all begs the question, why did they decide to up sticks and record their new album in New Orleans? “We’ve recorded in various places from New York to Austin, Texas, so it was no big deal for us” smiles Joey, “we find we get a lot more done when we’re not at home. We all know and love New Orleans and the time we spent there turned out to be a really productive and inspiring time”.
However as with all things Calexico, the sights and sounds of New Orleans has seeped into the band's new record, and even if the band haven’t suddenly gone all Cajun, the Big Easy does shine through the cracks via steel pan guitars and wailing horn melodies that seem to echo from a traditional jazz funeral. “We had recently been to Cuba and our of New Orleans countless times and I wanted to show the connections between the two” explains Joey “There’s a book I love that’s called The World that made New Orleans about the birth of jazz and how colonists, slaves from African and the islands of Haiti and Cuba got together in Congo Square to make music. I kind of get off on those sort of tangents, and in some way I wanted to reference that bridge between Havana and New Orleans – it might be sunken, but it’s still very much there.”
If you think that Calexico’s latest album is all sweetness and light, then you’d be wrong; ‘Algiers’ is a darker album that the one before. “It’s not like this stuff is intentional” shrugs Burns “we tried to balance it and bring in a variety of styles, but there does seem to be an overarching blue hue to this record. There was a lot of heavy stuff going on – Craig had just overcome cancer, our label had just folded, things we’re kind of in suspension, it really affects you’.
As musically adventurous as the new album is, there remains an emotional honesty that is at the heart of Calexico’s music. It’s by allowing these feelings in, that probably also results in sense of place which invariably creeps into the each one of the band’s records. For Burns, it’s all about letting go, “Some of my friends are wine-makers and I really like they way they let the wine do its thing it’s like if it’s crap, we throw it away, if there’s sediment, then who cares? It’s all about working with the elements and not forcing it; I really like that philosophy, and I like to use it when we’re making music” he says, elaborating on his earlier statement, “ I mean who cares if we speed up at the end of a song or whatever. Subtly and tone has always been the most important aspect to Calexico.”
Calexico play The Forum tonight. Their album 'Algiers' is out now on City Slang.
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