Rodrigo y Gabriela’s career story and musical influences make interesting reading. We love the album and were fortunate enough to cover the duo’s recent wondrous Manchester performance. This piece completes the coverage triangle by reprising the stories behind each song, as described on the album’s sleeve notes. There’s something very inspirational about Rodrigo y Gabriela, and these stories confirm it.

Diablo Rojo

Red Devil. The name of a rollercoaster in Copenhagen, Denmark. After three rides in a row, we got some blood back in our hands, and came up with this…

Viking Man

Picture a busy shopping area in Denmark, it’s Christmas. time and minus three degrees. We had plans to busk, but on this day we were sat down in the street, our hands numb from cold, feeling really sorry for ourselves. When all of a sudden this huge, strong-looking, blue eyed homeless man, who was shouting and waving his hands around, ran up to us yelling, “Hey you two, shut up and play.” “But it’s fucking freezing,“ we answered. “Well, stand up and hit your back with your hand - that will help. This is the Viking way to get warm.” There was no messing around with that guy so we did it. “Now play!” he said. We busked for the next three months until we got enough money to go to some place warmer. Spain was that place, but that’s another story. That Viking man was always there, encouraging people to give us money, and keep an eye on the street Danish police who were a fucking pain in the arse every time we played. He became homeless when his mother committed suicide in the autumn of 1990. We used to talk about music during our breaks. He told us that one of his favourite albums was Friday Night In San Francisco (Al De Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia), and one day he wanted us to see the Sweet Silent Studios, where Metallica had recorded Ride The Lightning and the classic Master Of Puppets albums. We never knew his name but this song is a tribute to him.

Satori

April 1999, only one week has passed since we arrived in Ireland from Mexico, and we had run out of money. Our English was crap, and circumstances forced us to get rid of our beloved egos so we could play on the streets (before long we had got our egos back, no worries). We experienced terrible feelings of uncertainty and we couldn’t see how the decision we made of leaving lovely, sunny Mexico was a good one. We needed faith and although that sounds cheesy and bullshit, that’s how it felt. Satori is a word that Zen monks use to describe an enlightening moment, and when we think back, we feel like we’ve experienced it, although we didn’t know it at the time.

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Ixtapa

The story behind this is a simple one. Located on the west coast of Mexico, Ixtapa became the first place we went when we left Mexico City, our band and everything else. There we decided to play acoustic guitars so all our gear from our band had to be sold to get some cash for the non-return ticket trip to survive as long as we could. A few months later, we got tired of great food, great looking chicks and lads, so we left for Europe. Something very special about the recording of this track happened when our manager rang to tell us that Roby Lakatos liked our music and that he would be happy to appear as a special guest on the album. He is one of our favourite musicians.

Stairway To Heaven

One night off touring somewhere, we got the chance to watch a TV performance by Stanley Jordan, amazing as usual. It was old footage, maybe late 80s, but what attracted us most, apart from his unique way of playing guitar, was his version of Stairway To Heaven; very jazzy indeed, but fantastically played. Next day we had to play somewhere and we decided to throw a little bit of that classic song in our set. People loved it, but they expected us to play it all. So our Stairway To Heaven started there. This version was developed during that tour, the same way we did with Metallica’s One for our live album, LIVE IN MANCHESTER AND DUBLIN.

Orion

In the early 90s we got a metal band in Mexico City. We played our own material, and were influenced by our favourite bands, like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer Testament, Overkill etc. The idea was to make our living out of music in order to quit our jobs, which we hated. But what happened was exactly the opposite, we were losing money and getting sicker every day of this crazy city with a population of twenty-five million. This version of Metallica’s Orion is a tribute to the style of music we love and it’s what kept us playing the guitar, even after being rejected from the Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, and for all those Spinal Tap years.

Juan Loco

We planned to record this album back in June in Ixtapa, Mexico, and in a very relaxing way. In fact, it was so relaxing that we didn’t record anything. The required break, we needed to do it, mixed with some Irish friends coming over for a visit, resulted in tons of beer and a pain in the hole for the record label. But good news was on the way. Legendary producer John Leckie showed an interest in working on the album. At first we didn’t like the idea of working with a producer, and we were ready to say no in case he wanted to make a few changes on our music. But he is a clever, crazy man and of course, he respected it all. One day we started calling him Juan Loco, our Mexican nickname for John Leckie.

PPA

The first P of PPA stands for ‘pinche,’ a Mexican term meaning fucking asshole. So Pinche Personal Assistant is dedicated to all those people in ‘certain’ areas of the music industry, that we had to put up with, who believe they know and understand what’s going on, but actually don’t have a fucking clue.