The Antithesis of Chillout
By Andrew Clayman
Published in Chicago Innerview, February 2009
Amidst the build-up to Barack Obama’s historic inauguration, it feels like a mighty opportune time to be chatting with DJ/producer Rob Garza—one half of Washington, D.C.’s most fervently political music act, Thievery Corporation. Who better, after all, than a socially-conscious, native-son of Washington to communicate on the current vibe in our nation’s capital?
“The energy’s definitely pretty crazy in DC right now,” Garza confirms. He then pauses for a moment, and I swear I hear some sort of tropical bird shrieking in the background. “But I’m actually in Mexico at the moment.”
Well, so much for the insider perspective.
“I kind of planned it this way, really,” Garza explains. “You know, the population of DC is usually about 600,000 people, and on a normal work day it goes to about a million. Well, they’re expecting about three times that many people for the inauguration. So, Eric and I both are going to be out of DC that day.”
In a perfect world, perhaps, Garza and his longtime collaborator Eric Hilton would be DJing the big Obamabration in their hometown. But then again, groups like Thievery Corporation aren’t exactly created for perfect worlds. More accurately, the “Outernational Sound,” as their music has been dubbed, is the ideal soundtrack for a society that’s lost track of its ideals. It’s a reminder of mankind’s diplomatic potential—music that knows no culture or influence it doesn’t embrace, and that preaches revolution with atmosphere rather than power chords. You might call it trip-hop or acid jazz; electronica or dub reggae. You might even be right to call it “world music.” But if you’ve ever really listened to Thievery Corporation over the past 12 years, the last thing you’ll call it is “chillout music.”
“Yeah, ‘chillout’ and ‘down-tempo’—those are words that we actually despise,” Garza says with a chuckle. “I think a lot of people have the idea that when they come to a Thievery concert, they might get that kind of thing-- a chill-out experience. But our show is actually very energetic. We have a lot of dynamic musicians and singers from Brazil, Jamaica, Iran, Columbia, Guyana—it’s a lot more explosive than people imagine.”
It’s easy to understand Garza and Hilton’s occasional frustration with certain adjectives, considering their connotations. While “chillout” often equates to background mood music, Thievery Corporation uses some of the electronic production and international flavors of that template to create a backdrop for something far more cerebral.
“Sometimes, I think people have gotten confused, maybe, by the image,” Garza says. “You know, they might assume, ‘Oh, that’s music made for sushi bars or hotels.’ And I think that’s kind of a consequence of the genre, such as it were. But if you really sit down and listen to it, it hits you on a totally different level. You’ll realize that a song like ‘Richest Man in Babylon’ is a lot more socially conscious and political than the soundtrack in a hotel lobby.”
If this generation is more accustomed to getting its political music in the form of fiery punk rock anthems, the connection is not lost on Garza. He and Hilton both grew up in DC, idolizing pioneering punk groups like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, and absorbing their anti-establishment credos into a somewhat groovier carrying case.
“Both of us were really into the whole Dischord scene,” Garza says, “and it really impacted us. We were very influenced by the music-- how it was about having an open mind and exploring the counterculture. Another thing is just the whole do-it-yourself ethic, which I think for us, was a real inspiration. We have our own record label, ESL Music, and in a lot of ways, it’s modeled after the Dischord label. There’s a lot of other great DC music, too—Chuck Brown and Go-Go, for example. We got to work with Chuck on the new record, and that was definitely a huge highlight for us.”
Thievery Corporation’s fifth LP, Radio Retaliation, was released to much acclaim last September. Along with the aforementioned DC hero Chuck Brown, the album includes a truly international line-up of guest performers, as has become the norm for most of Garza and Hilton’s work. Notable cameos this time around include Brazilian singer/guitarist Seu Jorge, Nigerian Afro-Beat star Femi Kuti, and Indian sitarist Anushka Shankar.
“It’s nice, because we’re not a traditional rock band, where we’re glued to the same four people,” Garza says. “There’s two of us, and we can work with whomever we want. So it’s great to have Chuck Brown in your band for a moment, or Seu Jorge, or David Byrne, or the Flaming Lips. For us, it makes it really exciting producing music.”
Despite working with artists from all over the map, both sonically and geographically speaking, Garza sees certain consistencies in almost every Thievery Corporation collaborator.
“Well, we’re really fond of their music, for one thing. But I also think they’re people who are not part of mainstream, commercial radio. And they’re people who are doing very unique, interesting, and creative art. It’s just wild to be able to pull all these different artists on to one album.”
More times than not, Garza and Hilton are also on the same political page as the artists who lend their talents to a Thievery Corporation album. Whether the lyrics are sung in English, Spanish, French or any other tongue, the themes of a record like Radio Retaliation tend to reach across cultural divides. In this case, it’s about good, old-fashioned peaceful resistance to the restrictive influences of the media, commercial enterprises, and government bodies. And yes, that even includes a government with Mr. Obama at the helm.
“There’s a lot of problems in the U.S. right now,” says Garza, “and we’re kind of skeptical, to be honest—maybe because we’ve grown up in Washington, D.C. and we’ve seen what the political system is about. It doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s Democrat or Republican. With the state of things at the moment, picking a President is kind of like picking Coke or Pepsi when you’re on the deck of the Titanic. I mean, all of these guys are connected—the Clintons and the Bushes. There’s no way you can be involved in that world and not rub shoulders with all of these people and be part of it. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Just in terms of a cultural event, Obama’s victory was definitely an amazing thing for the United States.”
Musically speaking, Thievery Corporation’s outlook for 2009 looks rosy. They’re playing an unprecedented five consecutive nights at the famed 9:30 Club in DC before heading to Chicago to play the Riviera on February 20th. In the grander scheme of things, though, Garza is looking at the year with harsh realism, and just a wee bit of cautious optimism.
“Things will probably get a lot worse first,” he says. “I think people are excited about a new President, but there are fundamental issues that will affect everybody. But hopefully these things will bring new opportunities in terms of thinking, seeing the world, and solving problems. So, it’s pessimistic in one sense, but you know, I hope that it will open all our eyes a little bit toward the future.”
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