Episode 6: Rodrigo y Gabriela - “Electric Soul”
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s music is entirely instrumental, but you can be sure of two things: they allow their guitars to do all the talking, and they will also leave you speechless.
Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero have been performing together for over two decades, first meeting as teenagers at a community theater in Mexico City where they bonded over their love of music, and soon began dating (they have since ended their romantic relationship, but continue to be close friends and even neighbors.)
After playing guitar together for several years, Sánchez and Quintero moved to Ixtapa - one of Mexico’s resort towns - to perform for vacationers in the local hotels and venues.
Eventually, the duo relocated to Ireland, where they further honed their skills by performing in pubs and busking on the streets of Dublin. There, they began to build a following, and greater opportunities soon followed.
Since 2002, the duo has released three live albums and five studio albums. Their most recent record, 2019’s Mettavolution, earned them their first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2020.
When Rod y Gab recorded their episodes of The District Sessions, Mettavolution had just been released, and was warmly received by their avid fans, who had been anxiously awaiting a new album for five years.
While speaking with Rob Reinhart on an episode of Acoustic Cafe, they explained why they spent so much time perfecting Mettavolution.
“To start with, we wrote like 30 songs. It was like a three-year process,” Sánchez explained. “A lot of them, we played them live and obviously they didn’t make it to the album. And then toward the end of that process, we came up with these songs.”
“The tweaking comes from where the melody fits, [whether it should be an] octave lower or higher, all the way to the structure,” he continued. “Like ‘Maybe it’s too long? Maybe this part has to repeat?’ So it was very important for us to go out and play it live because then you have a different perspective.”
With a unique blend of nuevo flamenco, rock and even heavy metal (they’re big Metallica fans), there’s truly nothing that sounds quite like Rodrigo y Gabriela, and you’d be hard-pressed to find better live performers.
Making the most of their down time over the past year, Rod y Gab recently finished recording a new project called the JAZZ EP, which offers up their unique renditions of songs from artists such as Kamasi Washington, Astor Piazzolla, and Snarky Puppy.
The EP is set for release on May 14, and will coincide with a special live stream event from the duo.
Preorder the JAZZ EP here, and check out Rodrigo y Gabriela’s performance of their Mettavalution track “Electric Soul” on Episode 6 of The District Sessions above!