Rodrigo Sanchez is one-half of the Mexican instrumental guitar ensemble Rodrigo y Gabriela, with partner Gabriela Quintera. After five albums and endless critical acclaim the duo released their sixth album, 11:11, in September of last year. This album has the two as musically mind boggling as ever, with each track on the album dedicated to one of the artists that influenced them. MOKB sat down to talk with Rodrigo, over the phone, about the new record and a few other things…
MOKB : You didn’t learn to play guitar the way you do by listening to thrash metal did you?
Rodrigo Sanchez : No, no, it’s totally based on the rock thing. We never learned how to play any kind of music but rock, actually. The only (reason) we left electric guitars, is because we went to Europe and were traveling and playing in the streets – so it was just easier for us to have acoustic guitars.
It’s also important to clarify that we like flamenco, but we don’t play flamenco or classical. We didn’t go to any music school or whatever, we are rock musicians, we take music from here-and-there; and obviously our technique is pretty different to what a flamenco player does or a classical player does.
MOKB : How did two Mexican metalheads end up in Dublin?
RS : When we went to Europe in the mid-90’s – it was kind of a try anything (mindset) for a couple of middle class kids. We were tired of going to the states and the idea was to get out from Mexico; the only place left to go was Europe. We didn’t know where we wanted to be, but we didn’t want to go to the obvious places like Spain, or England, or France. Ireland was a suggestion from a friend of ours; that was the reason, we didn’t have any other particularly important reason. It was just going there to experience some new adventures, so we did.
MOKB : How special is your all’s chemistry? If it was you and another guitarist, or Gabriela with another guitarist, would a band like this have taken off?
RS : Ya know, we’ve talked about this before between ourselves. I don’t think so, I think if we were going to do some other kind of project, where I was going to play with someone else or she was, it would have to be a totally different project. We’ve been making music together for almost twenty years, so we know each other pretty well and I don’t think we could do this with other musicians.
MOKB : You call the album 11:11 because its 11 songs for 11 artists that inspired you…including Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell, and Pink Floyd. That’s a pretty eclectic mix…did you incorporate their individual sounds or technical nuances of the artists into each specific piece?
RS : You know what it was? A lot of the artists you just named are quite well-known, half of them aren’t as well known. So we had this project in mind, sort of a tribute album that would introduce this music to people that might like them as well. We thought it was a good time to say thanks the artists that have influenced our music. But also it was to divert interest, especially from the media, when the album came out and make them talk about these influences instead of talking about Rod and Gab all the time. That way we’re introducing a lot of artists to a lot of new people.
MOKB : One of the names on the list is a pianist, Michel Camilo, how did a pianist influence a couple of guitarists?
RS : A lot. This guy comes from (Dominican Republic), but he influenced a lot our melodies. The way he plays piano, he has a lot of rhythms and melodies that are syncopated. It’s full-on music. I still listen to him a lot, this morning actually, and again it’s a heavy influence on our playing, even more than a lot of guitarists. I don’t know if that’s common or not, but that’s certainly our case.
MOKB : What was it like to work with Alex Skolnik of Testament?
RS : Alex is great. Especially on the track we were working on, because he met Dimebag many times and he loved him. He was pretty emotional when we were in the studio working on this track. He wanted to be by himself for a couple of hours, so we left him with the track playing in the background, and he worked out the solo.
MOKB : You all play all over the world…do audiences respond differently in South America, as they do in Europe, as opposed to the North America?
RS : You know, our crowd is pretty diverse. You can see an eighteen year old kid wearing a Metallica t-shirt, or a sixty year old hippie who’s into veganism and whole food. And when we go to places like Japan or South America, we wonder if the crowd is going to be different, but no, it’s the same every time. It’s the same profile of people. I think it’s that people like music, and they don’t like to be told what to listen to. It’s pretty difficult to see a Britney Spears fan, I’m sure they don’t come to our concerts, but you never know, maybe they’re just dressing up different that day.
RyG Spring Tour Dates :
MAR.05 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
MAR.06 – Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
MAR.07 – Louisville, KY – Brown Theatre
MAR.09 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
MAR.10 – Cincinnati, OH – Madison Theatre
MAR.12 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
MAR.13 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
MAR.15 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
MAR.18 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
MAR.20 – Miami, FL – The Fillmore Miami Beach
MAR.21 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz
APR.29 -New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall
Related posts:
Comments on this entry are closed.