I think Thievery Corporation is one of the most interesting acts on this year’s Coachella. Rob Garza and I talked for a bit about music in schools, the United Nations (not kidding) and other things when we did the interview. He lived in Maryland, too.
He actually got into electronic music after moving to Connecticut when he was a teenager. He had a synthesizer and his school was like one of the only ones that offered this class. He was instantly hooked on creating the sounds.
Check out the story on Thievery Corporation that ran in this week’s Guide section. They’re on the main stage tonight.
By VANESSA FRANKO
The Press-Enterprise
In a world where technology is constantly evolving, a balance between the human and the synthetic sets Thievery Corporation, one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival’s top DJ-inspired acts, above and beyond the electronica genre.
Started in 1995 by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, two Washington, D.C., disc jockeys, the group has dabbled in trip-hop, world beats, jazz and rock.
“Our roots are very organic,” Garza said in a recent telephone interview. “When we met and started doing music, Eric and myself were just big fans of going to small bars and checking out music from all around the world.”
In D.C., they’d troll around, absorbing West African music, Argentinean music, Jamaican music and more in small bars around the city.
“It stems from that, but we’re doing something that’s more modern and electronic and incorporating all of that into our sound,” he said.
Hilton, Garza and what Garza described as a “crazy cast of characters” from around the globe perform as a live band that includes six singers, two percussionists, a horn section, a guitarist and a bassist.
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Special to The Press-Enterprise
Electronica group Thievery Corporation is one of the Saturday night headliners at the Coachella Festival in Indio.
“It’s hard for that human element not to come through,” Garza said.
Thievery Corporation performed Coachella’s debut in 1999 as well as in 2003. This year, the group takes its act to the main stage Saturday.
“You kind of feel like you’re not at the kiddy table anymore,” Garza said, laughing.
The duo started out spinning at D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge, which Hilton co-owns. Across their albums, Thievery Corporation has worked with Perry Farrell, David Byrne and other acts.
They are also ambassadors for the World Food Programme, the food aid branch of the United Nations. The group was approached around the end of 2004 and did a tsunami benefit. They’ve done site visits in Nepal and Sudan.
“When you go to these places, you’re just in awe of how something we take for granted, you just can’t get food,” Garza said.
The band released its fifth studio album, “Radio Retaliation,” in September, with guest spots from sitar player Anoushka Shankar and Nigerian musician Femi Kuti. Garza said he hopes people can take an open-mindedness away from the record.
“That’s kind of what our music is about. It transcends one particular place or being from anywhere. It can be from all of these places at one time,” he said.
Reach Vanessa Franko at 951-368-9575, vfranko@PE.com, www.myspace.com/Audio_File or PE.com/blogs/music
THIEVERY CORPORATION
From: Washington, D.C.
Debut: 1996
Genre: Eclectic, trip-hop
Required Listening: “Radio Retaliation,” “Originality”
On the Web: www.thieverycorporation.com
Sample the music: www.myspace.com/thieverycorporation
See it live at Coachella: 7:40p.m. Saturday, Coachella stage