We waited about shuffling our feet and talking about nothing, trying to avoid looking like unwanted groupies loitering backstage for a glimpse of someone famous. Tuesday night it was Federico Aubele, the Argentine singer/songwriter who was headlining the 930 Club (along with Dawn Landes, and his wife and labelmate Natalia Clavier whom we’ve featured before-ed). Aubele has released two albums under Thievery Corporation’s ESL Music Label, Gran Hotel Buenos Aires and his latest PanAmericana – Washington being the first on this promotion tour.

After a few minutes Aubele emerged from backstage with a bushy fro and a big grin on his face. He vigorously shook our hands and ushered us in. His accent was faint but distinguishable as he murmured, “Thanks so much for sitting down with me.” We instantly felt relaxed, comfortable. Aubele led us into a room and slouched into a chair. He smiled and proceeded to unassumingly invite us in to share a few moments together discussing his musical influences, where he came from, and his views on the upcoming election.

I’ve read that your mother played guitar when you were growing up and that you started playing shows at the age of 12. Where did your musical influences come from?
FA: Many different places of course. I think that there are some basic influences from the music that my mother was listening to at home. That is the more Latin side of it. Mostly like the Boleros, she liked them a lot… bossa nova from Brazil or Samba from Brazil; tango a lot. That were most of the records I would play at home.

Then, of course, I discovered my own music. When I was a kid I discovered rock n’ roll like most kids. It started with Beatles and the 60’s stuff, which I liked a lot and then I started listening to punk rock, you know… the foundation. Eventually I got into classical music, which I listened to for a long time and then jazz. It was at that point I started incorporating all those things together. A musician is basically what he hears or what he listens to and those influences come over a lifetime.

What is the sound of Argentina today? How does your music add to that sound?
FA: The sound of Buenos Aires is modern tango, what you would call electronic tango. More and more musicians are adding to that. My music connects with that in some cases and in other cases in doesn’t. I add my own personal view to it. No one can totally call me a strictly tango musician because I play my own stuff too but I definitely enjoy the new tango.

At what point did the worlds of electronica begin to mesh with your background on guitar– explain how you went from learning Beatles songs and playing guitar to fusing that with the electronic elements?
FA: I was playing with a band and in the band we had a guy who did all the electronic stuff… and I was fascinated with what he was creating. I came strictly from guitar. I was more of an orthodox guitar player. At some point I left the band but I wanted to explore that electronic side of it. I was DJing too so I knew the records but I didn’t know how to do it [dub music]. So what happened was, I didn’t have a sound card in my computer; I had a really shitty computer back then so I didn’t have a sound card and I was really broke so I didn’t have the money to buy one… so what I did was sample from my records everything I needed. I had a huge record collection so I could basically edit everything I needed, chop it up, twist it around the way I wanted it to sound and I would create a whole thing with just sampling records. After I had all these songs that were made entirely by samples, I wanted to add my guitar to it because I felt that it needed it. It all started with the limitation of not having a sound card.

How did the process go from you creating your own music with some friends to getting signed by ESL Music ?
FA: I did all of that with the guitar and the samples and once I felt like I had eight songs that were sounding good… I had a list of ten record labels that I really liked. Some in Europe, some in the US and I just sent them to all these record labels- I sent them a demo tape. First I sent an email saying, “Hi, I have this music. Would you guys be interested?” Most of the record labels answered “Yes” so I sent the tapes. So… I felt like that was a good vibe. So, of the ten I sent out two answered positively. One was in Germany, some guy that wanted to put out a single. And then there was ESL Music. They said, “Yeah, we really like your demos. Can you send us more?” They sounded more interested in the whole thing, just not the single. They said, “Send us whatever you have. Don’t rush, take your time. We’re interested, we’re here. Just feel free to write us any emails you want.”
I sent maybe four demos. The first time around was all instrumental. The second time I added some vocals and they were like, “The vocals are really good. We’re really interested in that. Do you have more of that?” So I kept working, it was like four demos that I sent total and then they said, “We would like to have you on the label, produce a record and everything else.”

How has working with Eric Hilton and Rob Garza [from Thievery Corporation] helped you grow as a musician?
FA: In the studio I learned how to produce a track, how to make it sound good and how to, you know, work with the right elements to focus on what’s important and to discard what isn’t important. They helped me a lot to discover my real self, which was something that I was looking for—they were like, “I think this is where you should go. Keep digging on this. This is good. This isn’t going to happen.” They helped me connect the Spanish guitar with the electronica aspect in a much more refined way than what I was doing before.

You scaled back a lot of the electronic elements in your latest album PanAmericana. What was the direction you were trying to go with this album?
FA: What I focused on in PanAmericana was the song-writing. So I wanted to have more stronger songs, more well balanced… and the song being an independent entity. You can play the song on the guitar or with a big orchestra or a small combo. It’s all going to be the same—it’s always that song. When you have a strong song you really don’t need many arrangements on top of it… There is already a lot there. On top of that I am not an orthodox electronic musician. I like electronica as a novel element and not that I have to have it all on every song.

The upcoming election here in the US has created quite a buzz. What are your thoughts on the upcoming election and how it might affect the Americas as a whole? Do you get the sense that there excitement around the world?
FA: Absolutely. I was just in Spain and I was reading the German news… and while Obama was there in Berlin he had like two hundred thousand people cheering for him. There was a lot of excitement in Europe in general and they all go for Obama. The way Europe sees America generally speaking, and I felt this way in Argentina too really, is that Obama can bring about real change and bring America back towards what people actually think about America. People actually relate America to certain ideals… and they see that America has moved away from those ideals. When you think about America you think about democracy, you know, rights… the land where people can do whatever they want… there is a respect for humanity. And suddenly you see the war and everything else and of course people say, “What’s up, what’s going on there?”

Want more:
http://www.eslmusic.com/artist/federico_aubele + previous live coverage

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