ThatвЂ™s something I wanted to ask about-IвЂ™d read in another interview that this album is sort of a loosely connected song cycle built around two unnamed characters.

You can imagine these characters there, and I just followed those characters and started writing about them, or where their paths might lead.

I felt like I was looking through the lens of a Wes Anderson film. It opened things up musically, thematically, even visually. So there was just this fresh, spring feeling in the air. And it was spring in Northern California we were there in May of 2017. Environmental concerns, sociopolitical concerns, thereвЂ™s just a lot going on. Some of those similar themes from my childhood that were happening in California-nationally and internationally-kind of felt like they were recycled. While we were there, it reminded me of growing up on the coast as a child. So that kind of creativity in the place and the fact that itвЂ™s surrounded by so much beauty, so much natural beauty, made for a great window for us to step through. ItвЂ™s called the Panoramic House, which is built using a lot of found and salvaged pieces. Going to Northern California and finding this beautiful location North of San Francisco in Marin, overlooking both the Pacific Ocean and the Muir Woods National Forest, it was just kind of a dream. And that catalyst in the last couple of projects has come from going somewhere, going to a place we want to travel to and experience. For us, in the creative process, we need a catalyst. We were a little overwhelmed with what to do, what to write about. Especially nowadays, in the wake of this last presidential election in 2016. Every night, we try to shape the show differently, so that openness in the way that we play factors through a lot, so it makes sense to bring that back to the recording aspect of what we do. When we tour and travel, thereвЂ™s a lot of information that weвЂ™re exposed to and that influences us. One of the things we really enjoy is getting to leave our bubble to get another perspective. We travel a lot as a band-South America, Australia, Europe, North America, Mexico. WeвЂ™ve recorded a lot of our music in Tucson, Arizona, and then we tour a lot. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Д¬an we start by talking about how Northern California was integral to how this album came together? We talked to frontman Joey Burns this week as the bandВ prepared to head out on the second leg of The Thread That Keeps Us tour, including a stop Sunday night at the Duck Room. The Independent predicts that it's going to beВ the record 'that finally hoists this most undervalued of American bands to their rightful place alongside the likes of R.E.M. And though it definitely sounds likeВ Calexico, the band, as always, the band is trying new things-in this case, writing songs that are more raw, chaotic, fuzzy, and cosmic. Tucked into the wilderness and constructed of natural materials, it hearkens back to theВ quirkyВ Bucky Fuller utopianism of the Bay Area in the 1960s, an atmosphere that was held in high relief last summer with California's constant wildfires, not to mention our current American political weirdness.В As several critics have noted, The Thread That Keeps Us is completely tuned into that zeitgeist, but even in songs that reference the end of the world, there's a fragile optimism shining through. For 2015's Edge of the Sun (which featured tons of cameos, including fromВ Gaby Moreno,В Neko Case, and Takim), they laid down tracks inВ CoyoacГЎn, a borough of Mexico City.Д¬alexico's new record, The Thread That Keeps Us, was recordedВ in Northern California, at a place called Panoramic House. Part of how they've done that more recently is byВ wresting themselves out of Tuscon and dropping into new environments Algiers was recorded in in a church in New Orleans. Since then, Calexico has made a name for itself as the band that can brag about any release in its discography each record has, as they say, 'the click of a well-made box.'В At the same time, it's clear the band is always pushing itself conceptually, lyrically, and musically.

Plenty of musicians dabble in hybrid forms, butВ Calexcio'sВ combination ofВ American rock, Tex-Mex, and traditional Mexican forms like tejano felt less like genre-blending andВ more like aВ vivid translation ofВ a specific geographic region-the band's hometown ofВ Tucson, Arizona-into sound. Twenty years ago Calexico released its breakout album, The Black Light.В And it dazzled. John Convertino and Joey Burns of Calexico

Calexico ryley walker