Southern comfort

These are interesting times to be an American musician touring in Europe, as Calexico’s Joey Burns is currently discovering. Sitting in a hotel room in Zurich, just down the road from where the leaders of the world are about to gather for a financial get together, Burns offers his view on international current affairs. “It’s amazing being here,” he declares jovially, “just to get a different perspective on American foreign policy.”

Burns is here in support of Calexico’s new album, the fine Feast Of Wire, the latest in a line of striking, unique recordings from Burns and his partner John Convertino. Hailing from Tucson in Arizona, Burns agrees that there is something about the region that produces a musical sound all of its own.

“San Diego is very much a conservative, middle class culture,” he explains. “Then you have Texas, which in some ways is a mixture of cultures but with the Texas mentality. That’s not to say that Arizona isn’t similar in some ways, but Arizona had been part of Mexico up until 1850. There is some historical connection.”

Calexico may be named after a town that sits on the Californian/Mexican border, but here the similarity ends. “For us it was more the idea of this hybrid formation of a name, of ideas coming together,” says Burns. “A lot of the time, because we’re playing traditional instruments it’s seen as a romantic vision of the West or continuing a tradition. For us, it’s just showing where these influences come from but at the same time that they’re changing.”

Of course, given the sheer size of the nation, an influence in one part of the US can be completely alien elsewhere. However, Joey believes that what he calls the ‘Latinisation’ of America is having some effect on the music scene.

“It’s all so diverse. The club scene is totally different to the alternative country scene or the punk scene. There are some people who are trying to blend that. Manu Chao is a good example. In places like San Francisco and Los Angeles a lot of those bands are popping up. There are also bands like Los Lobos who have been doing some weird electronic stuff with the Latin Playboys, which to me is totally inspiring.”

Much of Calexico’s own inspiration comes from collaborations with a huge range of other musicians, from the eight piece mariachi band that accompanies them live to the large number of other artists for whom they serve as a backing band. Do they see these projects as separate entities or is there some degree of crossover?

“There are similarities for sure but there are also a lot of differences. When we back up someone like Neko Case for instance, we’re playing in a different way to Howe Gelb or Richard Buckner. Everyone’s got their own personality and I think John and I are really good at going off their dynamics as people and writers.”

For the meantime, however, we can forget about those other dynamics and simply revel in the beauty that is Calexico themselves, purveyors of an intriguing, atmospheric and stirring version of the American musical dream.