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It’s been more than two decades since Joey Burns met up with John Convertino. It was 1990 in Los Angeles, and the two were playing in Howe Gelb’s seminal alt-rock band Giant Sand. There, the guitarist and drummer bonded over their mutual love for eclectic instrumentation and sounds rooted in desert twang, mariachi, jazz and indie rock.

Eventually the friends relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and, after a six-year layover with Friends of Dean Martinez—an updated take on swanky lounge music—finally settled into their own band, Calexico.

In the years since, Calexico has recorded more than a half-dozen albums, logged countless tour miles and endured as a critic’s favorite, revered for a sprawling mix of music that draws on everything from Latin and Tex-Mex influences to big-band orchestras and laid-back 1970s-era country rock.

Now, on the eve of the band’s next U.S. tour and the search for a new record label, Burns says he’s found that the more things change, the more they really do stay the same.

In recent years, Calexico’s musical direction has shifted in small, subtle ways, and the tour van’s been parked for longer and longer stretches of time as band members settle into lives stabilized by different pursuits, marriage and children.

The changes reflect personal adjustment—but also ever-mutating cultural perspectives and expectations, Burns says.

“We’ve definitely changed on a more personal level, and we’ve also seen this arc of time—how music played by humans has changed in its acceptance in popular culture,” he explained during a recent phone interview from his Tucson home. “Before Guitar Hero , more people were turning to groove boxes and samples and deejays—which I actually like also.”

Despite—or perhaps because of—fluctuating tastes, “There’s an aesthetic [to Calexico] that hasn’t changed significantly,” he said.

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