The Art of Longevity Season 4, Episode 5: Calexico, with Joey Burns

05/25/22 • 55 min

We spoke to Joey Burns on the eve of Calexico's recent European shows in Brussels and London. Calexico play bigger venues in Europe than they do on their home turf, despite inventing a sound that conveys that land so evocatively. Indeed, it was music journalist Fred Mills who captured the band’s sound so perfectly with just two words: “desert noir”. What a cool subgenre to have invented. Since most music writers lazily throw in all the various tex mex music flavours in describing Calexico’s sound, Joey is happy to clarify:

“We are connected more with mariachi and cumbia than say tex mex or tejano or norteño which has a different connection to a different tradition. For the most part we are mariachi, cumbia. I’ve never felt like I’ve mastered anything, but I’m lucky enough to play with some of those that have”.

Calexico is touring as a septet, with Burns and partner/drummer John Convertino accompanied by Sergio Mendoza, MARIACHI LUZ DE LUNA, upright bass virtuoso Scott Colberg and the brilliant guitar player and singer Brian Lopez. The set combines magical mariachi of the highest possible standard, yet when the band chooses to (as on the thrilling Then You Might See) they jam out extended plays of true sonic power in the style of Radiohead or James. In combining those elements the band’s singularity is astonishing.

I can usually pinpoint exactly how I discovered a new band of longevity and for Calexico it was a recommendation from the late, erudite Robert Sandall, BBC Radio 3 presenter of Late Junction and one time Head of PR for Virgin Records. He told me I must listen to Feast of Wire three times. He was very specific about it. I remain entirely grateful to Robert. There is nothing quite like a recommendation that sticks. Not only did that one tether me to Calexico for life, but the ‘listen three times’ rule is something I have adopted as a tactic in my own recommendations. I implore you, thrice discerning listeners. It is well-known that beautiful things often come in threes.

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Previous Episode

The Art of Longevity Season 4, Episode 4: The Divine Comedy

When your host purchased The Divine Comedy's Fin De Siècle in 1998, I couldn’t quite penetrate it at the time. Listening again to the record in preparation for this conversation with Neil Hannon I have to say, I missed out. As Hannon describes himself, the album was “a musical hallucinogen". Essentially a sombre affair in which Hannon exercises all his fascinations with troubadour influences, Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, even Charles Aznavour. Oh, and Faith No More. And why not? Despite its rather avant garde nature, the album plays host to The Divine Comedy’s biggest hit and probably best known song, The National Express. Why, I wondered, would a pop star like Neil Hannon possibly be travelling around the country by coach? (you’ll have to listen in for the answer).

The Divine Comedy perhaps never made the ‘A List’ of the 1990s British music boom. Hannon’s journey was not that of Oasis, The Stone Roses or Blur, or even more kindred spirits, Pulp. But, Hannon still had three solid years of full-on fame. As he describes it:

“The heights and the valleys are shallower in my experience than Suede or others. But, I looked through my old diaries recently and the difference between one year and the next - suddenly I didn’t have a day to myself for the next three years. It drove me mad, but I came out the other side”.

With that quote, Neil Hannon captures his very own successful recipe for longevity - namely don’t get too carried away. However, that gentle roller coaster ride has rolled on, largely down to Hannon’s ability to write very good songs. Those songs and Hannon’s independent, self-reliance has seen The Divine Comedy mature very nicely indeed. Despite the industry’s ebbs and flows since his debut album Fanfare for the Comic Muse in 1990, Hannon still gets asked to do interesting projects (writing the music for a Willie Wonka prequel), still goes on successful tours (pandemic permitting) and still gets played on the radio (now & again).

I asked Neil if that really is the secret to longevity in pop music - on top of everything else - to be able to knock out great songs?

“I feel like it might be. You never quite know. I sat in the control room in Abbey Road while the orchestra played their part on Our Mutual Friend. I remember thinking well, that’s the best thing I’ve ever done. “After Regeneration [2001] I knew I had to change things or I’m doomed. I have to make the record that makes me happy. I went back to the source - pure 60s orchestral pop with layers of golden age British pop. It got me back on course. It was easier after that. To know you don’t have to go looking - just do what you do - and an audience will come”.

The amazing thing about bands of longevity is how new audiences keep on coming. No doubt a benefit of the streaming era, always on music, playlists and discovery algorithms. But good songs are the essential ingredient and Hannon has a bounty of them. As a "musical entity, a singer-songwriter", Hannon is a rather distant pop star.
“I’m not sure I was ever really a pop star, though at one point I did read the manual, so I knew what I was doing”.Sounds like it.
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Next Episode

The Art of Longevity Season 4, Episode 6: Bruce Hornsby

Inspired by recent collaborations with some of America's coolest indie A-listers (Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Danielle Haim, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver, James Mercer, Jamila Woods)Bruce Hornsby has been prolific in recent times, making a trilogy of albums beginning with the ‘return-to-form album’ Absolute Zero (2019). This trilogy is a real display of Hornsby’s musical prowess and curiosity – a mix of progressive, avant garde pop and contemporary classical works. Completing the trio of albums, Flicted, Hornsby’s 23rd studio record, is a collection of songs built from ‘cues’ for his music to Spike Lee’s films (Bruce and Spike have been collaborating since the early 90s).
The album features some phenomenal side players including the producer Blake Mills (on guitar) and yMusic, a Brooklyn-based chamber sextet that lends lush arrangements throughout. Indeed as Bruce hints during our conversation, more is to come from his sessions with yMusic.
“I’m a lifelong student and I’m way more interested in getting better as a musician, a vocalist and especially as a writer. I’ve been getting nasty letters ever since my second record saying “how dare you change”, but my silent response is “you haven’t heard anything yet.”
Perhaps all ‘pop’ musicians of longevity should aspire to Bruce Hornsby’s musically borderless, ‘post-genre’ way of working.
“My art of longevity is not giving a rat's ass about what’s popular, or whether I’m popular but to please myself and to grow, evolve, change and expand...on and on”.
When it comes to music, and Bruce Hornsby, whatever you do, don’t call it a comeback.

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