Rodrigo y Gabriela are a talented, GRAMMY Award-winning duo that has been touring and recording together for over 20 years. Their teamwork and wizardry on their guitars accord them cult hero status. But even geniuses get writer’s block. When it hit, it was the death of their beloved studio cat, Pelusa, that motivated Rodrigo Sanchez to write a simple melody that brought his partner to tears. It was the breakthrough they needed to write their new album, OurHome. Their physical home is Mexico, but one of the points of the title is that they are happy wherever they are, if they are together making music.
One place that they feel at home is Japan. After a tour there, they returned to their studio to write songs with a Japanese influence and decided to return to Tokyo to record the album. They enlisted former Megadeath guitarist and American ex-pat Marty Friedman to line-up a good studio with English-speaking engineers and they also enlisted Friedman and several Japanese friends to play on the tracks. Piano star Hiromi, cellist Hiyori Okuda, and guitarist Yukihiro Atsumi all joined in, but didn’t get in the way. When the powers-that-be previously suggested the duo use a name producer and musicians in Los Angeles, the first song sounded great on the surface, but didn’t really work. It lost the essence of who and what they are. The secret sauce of Rodrigo y Gabriela is the two guitars playing off each other in a swirling, smoldering hurricane that sounds like a mix of flamenco, jazz, metal, and gypsy music. Anything that gets in the way is just in the way. The two were a couple in their youth, but for many years they’ve been friends and bandmates. “We’re like brother and sister,” as Sanchez says. Whenever they are together, they’re home. They also have Pelusa to thank for providing the inspiration for one of their best albums.
Rodrigo y Gabriela will perform at Bowery Ballroom in New York on October 27 as part of their current world tour.
See the full interview with Rodrigo Sanchez HERE
