1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:04,280
Speaker 1: So we both have a struggle with anxiety for all

2
00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:09,480
Speaker 1: these years. We found a way in a great tool

3
00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,799
Speaker 1: to cope with that anxiety tool. Look at it as

4
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,600
Speaker 1: a friend and accept it. It's also good for creativity.

5
00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:26,560
Speaker 2: From Futuro Media, It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Josa today,

6
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 2: heavy metal on acoustic guitars. In the late nineteen nineties,

7
00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 2: after they'd played in a lot of different heavy metal

8
00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 2: bands for many years, Rodrigo Igabriella best friends decided to

9
00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,680
Speaker 2: ditch their native Mexico and embarked on a European journey.

10
00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,240
Speaker 2: They settled in Dublin, Ireland, where they swapped out their

11
00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:05,160
Speaker 2: electric guitars for acoustic ones and they became street performers.

12
00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,520
Speaker 2: The band has come a long way since. In two

13
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:14,200
Speaker 2: thousand and six, their self titled album Rodrigo Gabriella debuted

14
00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,920
Speaker 2: at number one on the Irish album chart. Their work

15
00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:22,120
Speaker 2: has appeared on Hollywood films and television shows, from AMC's

16
00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:31,840
Speaker 2: Breaking Band to DreamWorks Put Some Boots and Disney's Pirates

17
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:38,600
Speaker 2: of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides. In this How I

18
00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,479
Speaker 2: Made It segment, Rodrigo Igabriella take us back to their

19
00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:46,640
Speaker 2: band's origins and tell us how heavy metal influenced their

20
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:47,639
Speaker 2: acoustic sound.

21
00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,400
Speaker 1: My name is Gabriella. I'm a musician. I would play

22
00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,120
Speaker 1: guitar and I play in a Bandgo Gabriella.

23
00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,600
Speaker 3: My name is Rodrigo, and I am a musician, a composer,

24
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,680
Speaker 3: and I played guitar as well for Rodrio and Gabriela.

25
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,800
Speaker 1: I grew up listening to all sorts of music, but

26
00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:16,440
Speaker 1: not Mexican music. At home, my mom used to listen

27
00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:20,680
Speaker 1: to sixties rocks from Beatles to Rolling Stones.

28
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:24,480
Speaker 4: Gat wrote it.

29
00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:36,000
Speaker 1: And also she was a big fan of boleros. I

30
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 1: like most Mexican families, especially all generations, they love bolero music,

31
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:48,800
Speaker 1: which is actually as guitar based. I was exposed to

32
00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:54,799
Speaker 1: great music since I was very young. Bodies, rutos, dam

33
00:02:55,840 --> 00:03:01,400
Speaker 1: but then eventually for me was loose also and rock.

34
00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,800
Speaker 1: I was more attracted musically to play. I was very

35
00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,720
Speaker 1: excited to learn how to play those things when I.

36
00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:14,440
Speaker 3: Was very young. I was introduced to heavy metal back

37
00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 3: in the day, in the early eighties, it was more

38
00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:17,480
Speaker 3: like a glam road.

39
00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:22,239
Speaker 2: New sold.

40
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,480
Speaker 3: In the eighty to eighty three changed and my taste

41
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:35,680
Speaker 3: moved towards more thrash metal area and heavy metal, and

42
00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,560
Speaker 3: then I stayed there for many years.

43
00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 1: What was that made me attracted to the instrument? I

44
00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,160
Speaker 1: think for me in general was music by the guitar.

45
00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:55,600
Speaker 1: It seemed like a more easy instrument to access because

46
00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:58,920
Speaker 1: you can get cheap guitars somewhere.

47
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,360
Speaker 3: The reason I was attracted to the instrument is because

48
00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,440
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a drummer, but I never got

49
00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,360
Speaker 3: any from my parents and I was a kid, and

50
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,280
Speaker 3: so I couldn't buy one myself. And I had the

51
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,080
Speaker 3: two guitars at home and I was I was playing

52
00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:18,560
Speaker 3: with my brother, which is five years older than me,

53
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:21,160
Speaker 3: and you know, after a couple of years of playing

54
00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:23,560
Speaker 3: with him, then I was glad that I picked it

55
00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 3: up instead of the drums. I loved drumming, but I

56
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:28,799
Speaker 3: guess I love more guitar nowadays.

57
00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,960
Speaker 1: Where we met and Rodrigo was back in Mexico City

58
00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:48,280
Speaker 1: in a cultural house like we call de Ladura, usually

59
00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,719
Speaker 1: in those places that have like drama lessons and some

60
00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:56,520
Speaker 1: like arts, you know, activities and community activities. And so

61
00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,440
Speaker 1: then I saw Rodrigo play in the drums and he

62
00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:03,560
Speaker 1: was playing with the girl was playing the bass and

63
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: his brother was playing the other guitar and they were

64
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:14,320
Speaker 1: jamming one from Metallica the World. He was playing the drums,

65
00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,400
Speaker 1: and I was like, whoa, there is a metal band

66
00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,039
Speaker 1: and they have a girl playing the bass. So I

67
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:23,479
Speaker 1: was very excited. So somehow we met each other. We

68
00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,760
Speaker 1: talked about the guitar and all of that, and so

69
00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:30,159
Speaker 1: we were a fifteen year old and we went very

70
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:35,400
Speaker 1: into sepultura and all the usual suspects of metal music.

71
00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,520
Speaker 3: Gall and I we spent years playing a metal band,

72
00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:47,240
Speaker 3: and in nineteen ninety eight we decided to leave the

73
00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 3: band because we had already spent like seven years and

74
00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,520
Speaker 3: we wanted to travel and we were tired of trying

75
00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:55,800
Speaker 3: to make it big.

76
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,760
Speaker 1: The reason we decided not to stay in Mexico City

77
00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:06,680
Speaker 1: was because, at least personally, I wanted to travel the

78
00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:10,680
Speaker 1: world so badly since I was a little girl, and

79
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,520
Speaker 1: I think for Rodrigo was the same.

80
00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,880
Speaker 3: We just went to Europe. That was in nineteen ninety nine.

81
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,920
Speaker 3: We started playing on the streets and the duo just

82
00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:28,600
Speaker 3: suddenly started without planning, you know, to become a duo.

83
00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,159
Speaker 3: We just needed to have some money to pay the rent,

84
00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,520
Speaker 3: and we traded the electric guitars for the acoustics, and

85
00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:37,799
Speaker 3: that's when the duo really started.

86
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:49,480
Speaker 1: We reset our definition of success, so for all success

87
00:06:50,040 --> 00:07:04,279
Speaker 1: at that time was travel and play.

88
00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,880
Speaker 3: Metabolution is an effort that we just wanted to portray

89
00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:12,240
Speaker 3: something different. We wanted to have a kind of a

90
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:16,080
Speaker 3: concept that kept the original sound of the two guitars

91
00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,640
Speaker 3: but adding something new, and in order to achieve that,

92
00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:24,440
Speaker 3: we had to write an approach the composition part of

93
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:29,480
Speaker 3: the process differently, and we wrote the songs in a

94
00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:34,080
Speaker 3: form of a regular song with vocals and writing songs

95
00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,400
Speaker 3: with lyrics as an instrumentalist. That changes the whole game

96
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:43,440
Speaker 3: because it gives you like a clear map of a melody,

97
00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 3: which is in a way much more simpler than a

98
00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:52,400
Speaker 3: melody you would write without any limitations of singing it.

99
00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:04,800
Speaker 1: Music is healing, not just for musicians. Just music heals,

100
00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,280
Speaker 1: and so we need more music for the world.

101
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:17,320
Speaker 3: What keeps us going after twenty years and more is

102
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:20,840
Speaker 3: to know that what we do is a service. I mean,

103
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:27,240
Speaker 3: music is so powerful and has healed us continuously the

104
00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 3: way I was inspired by musicians back in the day.

105
00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,640
Speaker 3: I hope we do that every night we play. That's

106
00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 3: our intention, if we keep the intention of being present

107
00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:46,200
Speaker 3: and giving, especially that giving something like knowing that we

108
00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,839
Speaker 3: are there to give, not to receive. The only reason

109
00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:51,520
Speaker 3: we are out there is just to bring some good,

110
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,080
Speaker 3: and we know music has that power and we are

111
00:08:55,200 --> 00:09:07,160
Speaker 3: just the instruments.

112
00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,440
Speaker 2: Rodrigo I Gabriella's latest album, Metalvolution, won the Grammy for

113
00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:31,680
Speaker 2: Best Contemporary Instrumental Album last year. This episode was produced

114
00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:35,520
Speaker 2: by Juandego Ramirez and Gini Montalbo and edited by Fernando

115
00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,960
Speaker 2: ca Marena. The Latino USA team includes Miguel Macias, Andrea

116
00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:45,960
Speaker 2: Lopez Cruzado, Marta Martinez, Julieta Martinelli, Alejandra salasad Renaldo Leanos

117
00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,079
Speaker 2: Junior and Julia Rocha with help from Raul Prees. Our

118
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:52,720
Speaker 2: engineers are Stephanie Lebau, Julia Caruso and Lia Shaw, with

119
00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:56,480
Speaker 2: help from Elishiba YouTube and Gabriela Baez. Our digital editor

120
00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:59,760
Speaker 2: is Louis Luna. Our intern is Samantha Friedman. Our them

121
00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:03,040
Speaker 2: is was composed by Sanguinos. If you like the music

122
00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:05,960
Speaker 2: you heard on this episode, stop by Latinousa dot orgon

123
00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,120
Speaker 2: check out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your host and

124
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:13,120
Speaker 2: executive producer Marieno Hosa. Join us again on our next episode,

125
00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,960
Speaker 2: and in the meantime look for us on social media.

126
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:17,040
Speaker 2: I'll see you there.

127
00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:27,400
Speaker 4: Joe Latino USA is made possible in part by the

128
00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:33,880
Speaker 4: Heising Simons Foundation. Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. More at

129
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:40,200
Speaker 4: hsfoundation dot org, the wind Coat Foundation, and the John D.

130
00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:42,240
Speaker 4: And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

131
00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:48,280
Speaker 3: Bye Bye, Bye Choo.