amazing musician.
CM: Some of the percussion is unique too. Daniel was playing goat nails. They are just dried out goat nails. The cajon - I feel like every- one knows (that one) now. There’s bombo. It’s almost like a kick drum. A big bass drum made out of leather that’s old school and very traditional.
(At this point I confess that I’m going to have to Google how to spell a lot of these instruments.)
AD: Another thing is the decisions that come on the fly. “Hey, this song would sound great with a female singer. We’re friends with Megan, let’s try to get her in here.” Or “Hey, Keiffer would sound sexy on this song. Let’s get him in here.” All the little decisions that come about in the studio. Bringing in violins…cellos…I get obsessive compulsive about songwriting - all of these melodies in my head and I can’t even focus on anything else.
SM: You’ve touched on some of the assumed or more widely recognized North American instrumentation in- cluding the violin and the cello. What’s some of the more interesting instrumentation that the casual listener may not pick out?
AD: Dojo, charange. There’s the Cuban Tres that Cristian uses in the Megan Nash song. That’s a Cuban–Dominican Republic instrument. It’s a three-stringed instrument that’s doubled up to get a tropical vibe.
CM: Yea, it’s used in Afro Rumba or more traditional Cuban and Puerto Rican music.
AD: So there’s an example of how we had a Chilean-style guitar, added a tropical instrument of top, and even used a tropical style of picking. We mixed them together. One of the first comments someone wrote when we released it was a rant about how this ‘isn’t traditional Andean music.’ We were like of course, man. It’s not. Another thing we used were these massive pan flutes that were almost the size of you. A guy in Montreal laid that track. He won World Solo Recording Artist of the Year at the Folk Awards. He’s just an
28 SASKMUSIC THE SESSION - FEBRUARY 2017, VOL 30.1
AD: It’s been awesome having Cristian because it
opened up another door. It’s like having another weapon.
CM: It helps with the collective mindset the three of us have. With these guys I can bring in syncopated rhythms I’ve wanted to do forever and they just pick up on it. It’s stuff that’s hard to define unless you’re educated in it, but for me I learned on the streets in Cuba and in our kitchens and our basements. It’s easy with these guys. It’s the same story. It’s “I may not know what it is but I can do it and I recognize it.” It comes easy.
AP: It’s internalized and it’s easy to communicate amongst the three of us.
CM: We know the rhythms. We know where a kick drum should sit. We know the triplets. We know what’s supposed to be happening but sometimes it’s hard to communicate it to someone who didn’t grow up with it.
(At this point the band discloses top-secret information about an elaborate concept album they plan to work towards over the next two years. I’ve opted to remove the details so I don’t ruin the surprise, but rest assured it will be well worth the wait.)
SM: It’s apparent that your families and culture play a huge role in the band. Your heritage has been an impor- tant part of the band’s story from day one and Andres is now a father of two who often shares personal and sentimental tales as part of your stage banter. Obviously you are of Chilean descent, but there are a lot of people of different backgrounds who play very North American
WWW.SASKMUSIC.ORG
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
