We love Calexico’s music here at KCRW so when I heard they were behind the soundtrack for Circo, we were intrigued. The music is a mix of Mexican and American pop music and Calexico’s Joey Burns tells us what it was like to work on the film:
From Joey Burns:
“When director Aaron Schock sent us an email describing his documentary film about three generations of a Mexican family circus, it peaked both John Convertino’s and my curiosity.
What angle would he take with the story, where would it lead, and how would it look and feel?
What we were subsequently sent, was an amazing close up on the Ponce family who we instantly fell in love with. Seeing the amount of work the whole family and animals had to deal with was astonishing. The children really are at the heart of it all and anyone who has seen it is touched in a very special way.
Aaron sent us a version of the film with mostly Calexico material temporarily placed to give us an idea of what he wanted musically and he encouraged us to get as creative as we wanted.
He wound up working very closely with us, which eventually led us all to become good friends. However, we had never met in person due to the low budget nature of the film.
So we sent musical sketches and shared ideas through emails and phone calls relating to the score. I must say I was pleasantly surprised when we finished the project at how much music we made in a very short period of time and how effective it felt in its relationship to the Ponce family’s adventures.”
–Joey Burns
A true tale of creativity in 2011! Circo opens in LA on April 8. Find out more about where the movie is screening in LA here