News

CALEXICO share new track

• 18th Jan 2018

With their new album ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ out next Friday, January 26th on City Slang, Calexico have shared a third track from the record, along with an accompanying lyric video.

“Under The Wheels” seems destined to become a Calexico classic, with the key elements of a latin-infused rhythm section courtesy of John Convertino and Sergio Mendoza, and hook laden melodies by vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns.

“When coming up with the material for the new album we pushed ourselves to reinvent and discover new musical expressions” Burns explains. “One of the more upbeat songs that came about was the track “Under The Wheels”. Sergio Mendoza our keyboardist who wrote the music felt like it touched on a bit of the Latin and indie rock elements of artists like Los Fabulousos Cadillacs and The Clash, and it reminded me of the vibe from David Bowie’s album “Let’s Dance”.

“Lyrically I imagined following a character wandering city streets on their skateboard with earbuds blasting while swerving in and around themes of anxiety and worldly pressures. The weight that the words convey ultimately gives way to the light and optimism of the rhythms and melody. It’s a sign of peace in this era of war machines, a path that brings us closer together to find resolve and solutions, “from the core to the seams the threads that we seek.”

In bringing ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ to life, Joey Burns and John Convertino found a spiritual home in unusual surroundings—not in Arizona, but on the Northern California coast in a home-turned-studio called the Panoramic House. Built from debris and shipyard-salvaged timber—and dubbed “The Phantom Ship” by the band—the grandiose house and its edge-of-the-world-like ambience soon made their way into the songs. The spectre of California also had a powerful effect: as both dream state and nightmare, its infinite duality is mirrored in the music, giving Calexico a new direction and new edge

Working with their longtime engineer Craig Schumacher, Calexico co-produced ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’, gathering musicians from across the globe to dream up an earthy yet expansive sound spiked with jagged guitar tones and flashes of distortion. “There’s a little more chaos and noise in the mix than what we’ve done in the past,” Burns points out. Although that chaos has much to do with “where we’re at right now as a planet,” it also echoes Calexico’s dedication to constant experimentation. “Whenever we’re writing and we come up with something that feels too familiar, someone will end up saying, ‘That feels good, but let’s keep going and see what else we can uncover,’” Burns says. “It’s been really important to the arc of this band’s evolution for us to always keep on trying new things.”

‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ captures the anxieties and unease of living in tumultuous times. But while the album draws a kinetic energy from all that uncertainty, its lyrics unfold with a literary nuance and sense of setting and character. “Instead of writing straight-up protest songs, I want to tell stories,” Burns says. Largely inspired by his wanderings around Northern California during the album’s production, the narratives embedded in the record reflect on displacement, transitory existence, and—in Burns’s words—“returning to your home after being gone for some time and seeing how things have changed, and maybe not in the best way.”

Calexico 2018 UK live dates:
Mar 28 Bristol, UK @ Trinity Centre
Mar 29 London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire