Interview: Rodrigo y Gabriela
30th January 2012
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Since 2000 Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Mexican acoustic duo, have been creators of a unique upbeat and rhythmic music. Their dynamic attitude, exceptional skill and positive aura are just a few reasons for their current success worldwide, having sold 1.2 million albums last year. The duo’s new album Area 52 has been their biggest challenge yet, a collaboration of many big names and infused styles that has been a hit so far with sold out world tours in London to Los Angeles, Paris to Tokyo and Dublin to Sydney.
Charlotte Corner caught up with Rodrigo...
Congratulations, to you and Gabriela on your 1.2 million album sales last year how does that feel?
I feel happy, this is what we do, and it’s part of our life now. I mean I would be happier if I found a way to help more people or to stop suffering, but I’m far from that (laughs). As a musician I am satisfied, and having money is not everything, through my music, I am happy I can help people get along and overcome their issues. With Area 52 you have toured around to world, which country have you enjoyed most and where would you like to go next? There are so many different cultures. We seem to have an addiction to Japan and every time we go there it’s great, not only Gab and myself, but the whole crew love it. We enjoy travelling and usually it’s for touring, so every few days we will be somewhere completely different. My friends had always been a little envious; I used to think to myself, if only they knew. I love what I do but travelling does cause a lot of stress and damage to your body. There had come a point last year where we didn’t want to go out anymore, we just wanted to be back at home; no matter how beautiful the country was. How often to you manage to go home and also perform? Not that often, that is the problem. At the end of last year’s tour, we were lucky to be able to play in Mexico City; it was the first time we played in a different state in our own country. So for this year we plan to tour with the band as much as we can, luckily we have that freedom. This album was not actually planned to go on tour but it turned out to be so unique and we loved it. Touring with the band is so different for us and gives us great experience, all seven of us, we tried to reduce numbers; imagine travelling with 15 crazy Cubans. You mention how stressful touring is; do you often wish to be just at home? Yeah of course, I love being at home, but this is now part of my life. I can manage to control how I feel somehow by talking to our management, but it is difficult very difficult. Gab and I used to go out more, and if we wanted to travel to different countries, we would but now a lot of people depend on our decisions; but we manager to balance and control what we need to do and what we would like to do. We have been travelling with our crew for seven years and we are basically a family, we laugh, go out together but most importantly also share the same values on music and professionalism. Whilst Area 52 was being recorded, you had the opportunities to work with fantastic artists like Rage against the Machine, Metallica, how was it working with these people?

I feel happy, this is what we do, and it’s part of our life now. I mean I would be happier if I found a way to help more people or to stop suffering, but I’m far from that (laughs). As a musician I am satisfied, and having money is not everything, through my music, I am happy I can help people get along and overcome their issues. With Area 52 you have toured around to world, which country have you enjoyed most and where would you like to go next? There are so many different cultures. We seem to have an addiction to Japan and every time we go there it’s great, not only Gab and myself, but the whole crew love it. We enjoy travelling and usually it’s for touring, so every few days we will be somewhere completely different. My friends had always been a little envious; I used to think to myself, if only they knew. I love what I do but travelling does cause a lot of stress and damage to your body. There had come a point last year where we didn’t want to go out anymore, we just wanted to be back at home; no matter how beautiful the country was. How often to you manage to go home and also perform? Not that often, that is the problem. At the end of last year’s tour, we were lucky to be able to play in Mexico City; it was the first time we played in a different state in our own country. So for this year we plan to tour with the band as much as we can, luckily we have that freedom. This album was not actually planned to go on tour but it turned out to be so unique and we loved it. Touring with the band is so different for us and gives us great experience, all seven of us, we tried to reduce numbers; imagine travelling with 15 crazy Cubans. You mention how stressful touring is; do you often wish to be just at home? Yeah of course, I love being at home, but this is now part of my life. I can manage to control how I feel somehow by talking to our management, but it is difficult very difficult. Gab and I used to go out more, and if we wanted to travel to different countries, we would but now a lot of people depend on our decisions; but we manager to balance and control what we need to do and what we would like to do. We have been travelling with our crew for seven years and we are basically a family, we laugh, go out together but most importantly also share the same values on music and professionalism. Whilst Area 52 was being recorded, you had the opportunities to work with fantastic artists like Rage against the Machine, Metallica, how was it working with these people?
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