{"id":16715,"date":"2019-06-20T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16715"},"modified":"2019-04-24T08:12:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T12:12:13","slug":"rodrigo-y-gabriela-echoes-of-the-past-focus-on-the-present-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/20\/rodrigo-y-gabriela-echoes-of-the-past-focus-on-the-present-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodrigo y Gabriela: Echoes of the Past, Focus on the Present (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

The ideal opportunity to perform the song live finally came a few years later, during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl where the duo was joined by an orchestra for half of the performance. During the duo-only part of the set, S\u00e1nchez and Quintero sat down on the steps of the stage and played the nearly 20-minute piece. \u201cThe audience loved it, and management loved it,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says. \u201cAnd that day, we all agreed that it had to be on the next album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pink Floyd cover isn\u2019t the first example of Rodrigo y Gabriela reinterpreting the work of other artists. Their 2006 album features a version of Metallica\u2019s \u201cOrion,\u201d one that James Hetfeld and his band mates enjoyed. \u201cWe met them and became friends,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says, \u201cand in a way we were \u2018sponsored\u2019 by Metallica for the metal fans.\u201d So far, nothing like that has happened with Pink Floyd. \u201cI don\u2019t imagine David Gilmour at this stage of his life is interested in Pink Floyd covers,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says with a good-natured laugh. \u201cBut you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mettavolution<\/i> features seven songs, and the arrangements draw from both modern and traditional. One tune, \u201cCumb\u00e9,\u201d saw an earlier single release featuring a more traditional Latin flamenco arrangement. \u201cThe version released last summer is different from the one on the album,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says. \u201cIt\u2019s still the most traditional song on the album, but we feel great about the song. We just wanted to be honest,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want to put out the best things we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although both Quintero and S\u00e1nchez are originally from Mexico City, they launched their acoustic duo format far from home. Having previously played together in a heavy metal band called Tierra \u00c1cida, they first played acoustically in the Mexican seaside resort city of Ixtapa. But they soon decided that Europe would be a better place to build a following. \u201cA friend of ours thought Ireland would be a good start,\u201d S\u00e1nchez recalls. \u201c It\u2019s small, it\u2019s a very musical country and people are so friendly; we made a connection with them somehow. We just loved it, and we stayed there for ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first two years in Ireland were spent playing on the streets, something the two didn\u2019t feel they could do in Mexico. S\u00e1nchez says that as recently as two decades ago, busking wasn\u2019t widely admired among professional musicians back in Mexico. \u201cIt was still kind of embarrassing to play on the streets. It was almost like you were homeless or begging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually Rodrigo y Gabriela began traveling to the Continent, busking across Denmark and Spain. \u201cI\u2019ve always said that busking is the best school for musicians,\u201d S\u00e1nchez enthuses. \u201cWhen you go to the national music schools in any country in Europe, they urge the musicians to go out and play in the streets; it\u2019s kind of part of their homework. It\u2019s a traditional kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duo interacted with European buskers. \u201cThey kind of embraced the fact that suddenly they had a couple of Mexicans joining them,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says. The experience showed the duo that what they were doing might have wider appeal. \u201cIt gave us a hint of knowing that we could also make it happen in normal music venues. And it gave us the confidence to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The duo signed with a management team while still in Ireland, and began performing at more traditional venues. \u201cWhen Rodrigo y Gabriela<\/i> came out, we already had been on the road for four years, really touring crazy,\u201d S\u00e1nchez says. It was February 17, 2006 when they felt that had finally broken through to the big time. \u201cI was driving in County Kilkenny,\u201d he recalls. \u201cGab was navigating, and we had our Irish front-of-house engineer in the back; he was pretty much drunk all the time.\u201d They stopped for a break and got on the phone with their managers. \u201cThey said we had hit number one on the Irish album chart the same day the album was released,\u201d S\u00e1nchez recalls, still expressing wonderment more than 13 years later. \u201cAnd then, we realized we can actually do this for real.\u201d He admits that had the duo\u2019s first major-label release not taken off in Ireland, \u201cI don\u2019t know what we would be doing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making music still feels fresh and new to S\u00e1nchez and Quintero. \u201cAfter 20 years of career, we feel like Mettavolution<\/i> is our first album,\u201d he says. \u201cWe feel the same excitement and the same willingness to go out and play. And especially because now we understand that it\u2019s not about us<\/i>. We are so thankful and grateful that we have something that we can share, that can help people to have a great hour, a great day or even a life-changing experience. So, that\u2019s what we are here for. And hopefully, it continues forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… The ideal opportunity to perform the song live finally came a few years later, during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl where the duo was joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49],"tags":[3846],"class_list":["post-16715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-rodrigo-y-gabriela","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16719,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715\/revisions\/16719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}