CM: Do you think it's more of
a straight ahead rock out now that you are performing without
the mariachi band who has accompanied you on previous tours?
JB: Maybe, I enjoy all the incarnations
of playing, whether it's with special guests from Tucson,
doing the mariachi thing, or playing with other musicians,
which is always kind of exciting, you know, when you try
to open the door to allow for more creative influences.
CM: Your use of trumpets really reminds
me of the band Love, are they big influences on you?
JB: They weren't but recently a friend
gave me one of their first albums and I love it, he's saying
we should cover one of their songs. More of an influence
was just the use of trumpet in songs like 'Ring of Fire'.
We are trying to achieve that mariachi thing with a kind
of western vibe, that singer song writer edge. I mean I
love orchestration, I grew up playing in jazz bands in high
school then later on I studied classical music and I just
adore that wide variety of texture and sound arrangements.
So trumpet, especially with the mariachi style has a great
sense of character whether it's kind of a Miles Davis approach
or whether it's a mariachi approach it seems to really strike
deep into the heart as far as the listeners experience,
it can be both powerful and very understated.
CM: Who impresses you musically right
now?
JB: Lots of electronic stuff, and my friend
from Tortoise, Doug McCombs, he's got a group called Broke
Back.
CM: It's interesting you mention Tortoise, because as
some of the songs off of the new album have a post rock
feel to them.
JB: Some of it has that tendency and that's
why I think we were asked to play All Tomorrows Parties,
which we were extremely excited about and honoured to do.
CM: Have you any plans to do another
film score? [The band sound tracked the 2000 movie 'Committed'
starring Heather Graham]
JB: There's nothing on the board right
now, nothing set up, there was a Norwegian film which has
just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. It's a movie,
set in the countryside amongst the mountains and it's kind
of a romantic comedy, a dark comedy that uses our music
as a soundtrack.
CM: Do you think Calexico will move
more in that direction as time goes on?
JB: Perhaps, I'd rather be more experimental,
writing something that has nothing to do with the desert.
CM: Do you feel constrained, by the
alt-country Americana tag?
JB: I just feel there's a lot more to
our music than is defined by those attachments or those
definitions. We don't focus just on American country, you
know, Bluegrass, Country and Western, it's going well outside
the boundary of those styles of music.
CM: Are you happy with the way the
new album has turned out?
JB: Very much, we took our time working
on the album, deliberately so that we would be happy with
it. If we can live with whatever tracks we wind up choosing
after years listening to them then they should be OK to
go. That's really rewarding and we hadn't really done it
in the past, the last album 'Hot Rail' we wrote and recorded
in three weeks and we were working on a soundtrack for 'Committed'
at the same time so you know we would fly to New York to
meet with the Director, Editor, and as soon as we come back
home we get called up and they are like, "So can you
send us some new music". Working with a major film
company is over the top, I'd rather work with something
more experimental.
CM: Where now for Calexico?
JB: We're going to go on tour, the States
and Europe in support of the album and in the meantime get
some people like Cinematic Orchestra to do some remixes,
then if possible get together with some of these people
when there is a break in the schedule to maybe experiment
with doing more of a collabaratorive effort, not so much
a straight up remix, but do something new. The remix we
did with Two Lone Swordsmen is one of my own personal favourites
of all the things we have ever done.
CM: Any message for the fans?
JB: Thanks for supporting us from the
beginning and check out the website, casadecalexico.com,
where you can get free tour cd's.
www.casadecalexico.com
