Production Notes: Calexico

(Above [L-R]: Joey Burns and John Convertino. Photo by Chod McClintock.)

Calexico co-leaders Joey Burns and John Convertino are sipping espresso at an upscale Italian restaurant. The place is attached to the L.A. hotel the band is staying at in the middle of a quick swing up the West Coast to introduce songs from its latest, Garden Ruin. The two bandmates, who’ve known each other since 1990, have a way of alternating comments on any given subject, like a married couple—which, in a way, they are.

“The problem with major labels is that it’s not about music, unfortunately,” says singer/guitarist Burns, explaining why the group he formed in 1995 with drummer Convertino—even with its typically hefty recording budgets—would rather live without the trappings of a big-time record deal.

“The majors are working with so much overhead that they need things that will bring in money right away, rather than allowing an artist time to develop,” adds Convertino.

“Whereas in the old days there was such a thing as A&R and artist development,” says Burns. “Over the years we’ve been doing that ourselves—developing as writers and performers, touring, getting better and more comfortable with singing.”

“So for us, that was the contrast,” Convertino explains. “It felt like, OK, we can start with a cassette and sell them for five bucks, and then the next step is a vinyl—only through a small independent label. And if people are liking the music, then we’re growing with them. That’s what we’re working for.”

With Calexico, record-making is the fulcrum of artistic expression, and the “studio” is any locale where the canvas is painted, whether a state-of-the-art facility or a living room. As an indie band, Burns says, “You have to be creative in dealing with any aspect of the music business. Being more inventive in how you record your music and your sounds inevitably shows how unique you are in the final result.”

These two veterans have experienced the recording process at both extremes. In ’94, while working with Howe Gelb in Giant Sand, they spent weeks in New Orleans’ posh Kingsway Studios cutting big-budget album Glum for Imago Records. But soon after releasing the LP, the label was shut down by parent company BMG, rendering the album dead in the water. A year later Burns and Convertino were in Tucson, capturing songs played on their newly acquired thrift-shop instruments [see sidebar] using an answering machine in the latter’s barrio apartment—their first recordings as Calexico.

“I used to leave drum riffs for my outgoing message,” Convertino explains, “and I thought the drums sounded amazing through the little condenser mic. And then Joey would start playing along, and that was our recording machine.”

Says Burns, “It was the most creative way to put music out there at the time, not thinking we were gonna do a project but just sitting at home, having some coffee.”

‘AN AMERICAN RECORD’
A decade later, Calexico, now a sextet, has grown into a distinctive, formidable entity that—having established itself on the outer fringes of the underground as an arty instrumental unit composing themes for imaginary Westerns—has moved ever closer to the conventions of pop, with no loss to the band’s accumulated indie cred. A previously unstressed reverence for traditional songcraft came sharply into focus on the band’s 2003 breakout album, Feast of Wire, on songs like “Quattro (World Drifts In)” and “Not Even Stevie Nicks.” The group followed those revelations by collaborating on an EP with singer/songwriter Sam Beam (a.k.a. Iron & Wine), as well as cutting a series of cover tunes from sources as diverse as Nick Drake and Tom T. Hall, the crowning touch being a breathtaking rendition of Love’s “Alone Again Or” that made the 1967 classic seem like the very template for Calexico’s sound.

All this set the stage for Garden Ruin, the band’s first album to focus exclusively on songs, bearing distinct echoes of influences like Neil Young, Gram Parsons and Lindsey Buckingham. “Here in the States we’ve just never really seemed to get off the ground as fast as we had over in Europe, and I was wondering why that was,” says Burns, recounting the album’s genesis. “Maybe our music was too eclectic or too diverse. And having toured with Wilco and Iron & Wine, I thought, let’s do an American record for America, and see where America is at.”

To do it right, the partners set another precedent, for the first time working with an outside producer on their own music. They went with onetime Dwight Yoakam bassist JD Foster, whose motivational production approach they’d experienced firsthand while playing on Foster-helmed projects for Richard Buckner and Laura Cantrell. They chose him, says Burns, for “the feel. It’s all about the feel and dynamics. He directs—he gets involved. With JD, you get decisions made and you move on. His line was always, ‘It’s about the process; it’s about how you get there.’ That became my mantra.”

Since 1997, Calexico has been signed to Chicago indie Touch & Go (whose founder, Corey Rusk, is no neophyte, having put out his first seven-inch 25 years ago), and the relationship is basic indeed: 50/50 after expenses and sealed with a handshake. “We’ve done it long enough that they can trust us, and we can trust them,” says Burns. So they upped the ante, not only hiring Foster but laying out for extended studio time at Tucson’s Wavelab (where they tracked and overdubbed), and then headed east to mix at world-class Brooklyn Recording. While Garden Ruin is the most expensive album Calexico has ever made, it cost just a fraction of a typical major-label project.

“We’re smart about how we spend money,” says Burns. “We try to be realistic.”

Convertino seizes the moment. “As much as you’d love to have a big bus and the cocaine and the girls and stuff”—he pauses for effect—“you’re not gonna make any money that way.”

“And no one will take you seriously,” says Burns.

(To read about Calexico's favorite musical thrift-store finds, click here.)