Fifteen years later, two indie-rock stalwarts renew their collaboration for a new album and tour
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:00:15 +0000
When: Aug. 24, 7 p.m.
Where: Vogue Theatre
Tickets: $44.50 at eventbrite.ca
Fifteen years ago, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino teamed up for an EP and a tour. With many more miles under their feet, the three musicians have reunited once again. Years to Burn, the new record, shows what happens when the three bandleaders and several copacetic musicians blend Iron & Wine’s Americana/folk and Calexico’s adventurous instrumentation and genre explorations. We talked to Burns about the collaboration.
Q: Is there a lot of overlap between your respective bands’ audiences?
A: For the most part. It’s hard for me to really tell. Maybe those who don’t get to see Iron & Wine that much are excited to see them and vice versa.
Q: So it’s you and John with Sam, and members of each other’s respective bands?
A: Yeah. The last time we did this, it was all Calexico with Sam Beam in the studio. On tour, we had both bands. This time around, it’s just three Calexico members and three and Iron & Wine members. The reason why is just to make it a different experience, both in the studio and on tour.
Q: Besides the new album, you’re performing songs from each other’s catalogues on this tour. Were there any Iron & Wine songs that you wanted to do but Sam Beam didn’t?
A: Originally, the idea was that I would sing three or four Iron & Wine songs, and he would sing three or four Calexico songs. But when we got together he realized, “Oh yeah, that might take a bit more time than I thought.” We only had two days to rehearse all of the material and play a show earlier this summer. So what we’ve done is, in the middle of the show, break things down to just him and I on acoustic guitar, and we back each other up on a couple of songs of our own. But with a whole bunch of touring before us, who knows what will happen?
Q: There’s one track in particular on Years to Burn that sounds like something neither Calexico or Iron & Wine would’ve come up with on its own, The Bitter Suite. It draws on elements of both.
A: We didn’t know each other going into the studio 15 years ago and we got to know each other and become really good friends while on tour. And I think having that trust is super important. That’s one of the themes behind this collaboration. Sometimes you just have to let go.
Q: Do you see this tour and album as just a stopgap between Calexico albums or is it bigger than that?
A: It’s a full commitment. And that’s part of the reason why it’s taken awhile to coordinate our calendars. It’s nice to change it up, and I think audiences so far have really enjoyed it. They know it’s kind of a once-in-15-years kind of thing. I’m not sure we’d planned to do any more touring and recording way back when, and it wasn’t until around 2015, 2016 that the idea surfaced.
Q: It would be nice to have a live document of this tour.
A: It’s funny you should say that. I was just emailing with a friend of mine here in Tucson (where Burns lives), and he wrote, “Hey, I guess you don’t want me to record that show in Tucson this week.” And I was like, “Oh, shoot. I forgot to ask everybody.” It might be too late now. But there are some friends of mine in Europe who recorded a couple of shows.
Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino and Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam (centre) have joined forces for a new album.
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