GW Eventually, you went to Ireland. How did you choose Ireland?
RODRIGO We met this girl who was Mexican but had lived in Ireland for a few years. She told us it was a cool place, full of friendly people and very musical. She said, “I’m sure that you’ll be able to play in the pubs.” And so we went there. We didn’t know anyone, and we couldn’t play in the pubs because it was all traditional Irish music. That’s when we started busking. It was tough at first, but it turned out to be a great experience.
GW And it eventually led to you busking through Europe. During all your travels, did you ever find yourself thinking you should just go back home?
RODRIGO No, that was the last thing we wanted to do. We didn’t go back home for five years. We met so many people while we were busking, and I’ll always remember that great feeling we’d have when we’d finally make enough money to get ourselves a beer or a coffee.
GW You’d know that you had really earned that money.
RODRIGO Exactly. Life was simple. Once you sign a record deal, things get better because you’re not playing on the streets anymore, but sometimes you miss that different kind of satisfaction in life that you had before.
GABRIELA The first time we played on the street in Ireland was on a Saturday morning. We played about 45 minutes, and we made enough money to keep going through the week. At that point, we didn’t want to do any cover versions; we’d done that already in Ixtapa. And people gave us more money when we played our own stuff. They actually stopped on the street to listen to us, which we weren’t used to at all.
GW As you said earlier, switching from electric to acoustic meant that you both had to change your playing styles. You must have put in a lot of long hours practicing.
RODRIGO Oh yes. That started when we were still in Mexico, playing in the hotels, because we had to come up with a lot of new material. We started to learn some bossa nova tunes, which for us was a new thing, but that wasn’t enough so we tried doing acoustic versions of the metal songs we knew. The customers didn’t really notice that we were playing fuckin’ Slayer. [laughs] And when we went to Europe, all we did was play guitar, whether we were out on the street or at home.
GABRIELA In Dublin, we’d busk on Saturday and Sunday, and for the rest of the week we’d stay in the house we were sharing with some other people and just play. We’d start at about eleven in the morning, take a break from two to three in the afternoon, and then play some more till about nine o’clock at night. I’d never played so much in my life, and it was just fantastic. That’s where I came up with the rhythm techniques I do now.
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