After the show I was led down a questionable stairwell, and into a room with one of the beautiful and talented members of one of the best new music acts around. Here is what Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation had to say about his music, pop culture and the business....

Tara: What kind of influences did you have; what kind of stuff did you listen to as a kid?

Rob Garza: Everything from...The Beatles..that red record... and around my house there was a lot of Roy Orbison, Simon and Garfunkel, The Drifters,..a lot of soul music and stuff like that. When I was about fifteen, I started getting into a lot of electronica, I took an electronic music class, started working with sequences, drum machines, reel to reel tape decks, and I really got into it.

Tara: I suppose music is inspiration for a lot of people... what is music to you?

RG: I think for both of us, for me and Eric (Hilton) it's something that speaks to us and the things that speak to us are very subtle, you know,..I think people the way (most) view music and entertainment is something that really catches your attention, but sometimes it can be something really beautiful that really does'nt grab your attention at first but just has a nice atmosphere (of space and beauty) about it. Part of the reason we work a lot in down tempo formats is that it creates enough space for us to sort of weave textures in between beats.

Tara: Where do you see music going, and how do you feel about the way that music seems to be going?

RG: I think right now is a very interesting tim, because everybody in the western world is looking towards the future at the moment...it's sort of similar to the late sixties. I think at that period they had the same kinds of ideas (as we do at present), everyone was just sort of "wow, the future, what's gonna happen?". I think that now, there is that tone, just everywhere, "what's music going to be like, what is art going to be like, how will technology going to change things?". I think its very positive, because people are looking ahead. One of the things that we do is draw from the past, and take elements from the music that we like, like dub or bossa nova, and add these sort of futuristic elements to it, to try to create something new.

Tara: How do you feel you fit into the mainstream music scene?

RG: People often say "oh, your sound is very European, do you intentionally try to sound European?". I think that the reason people may percieve our sound (this way) is because in The United States, its this huge territory with one culture. The machinery exists to sell one form of entertainment on a large scale. Over in Europe, (this) doesn't exist...you have all sorts of sub-genres of music and sub-cultures of music, and we sort of fit into these little sub-cultures of music that aren't apparent when we're in the United States. The new record or movie is being sold to everybody, right now. What's a group like Thievery Corporation in the grand scheme of mass marketing. It's a very word of mouth thing.

Tara: What is your favorite kind of stuff to play?

RG: I really like the kind of stuff that we played earlier. A lot of the old "easy listening", but very up-beat, so it makes people dance. I think one of the things to do as an artist or entertainer is to grab what you know from the past that's really excellent and makes people move and share that with people. I love to do that more than anything else.

Tara: Where do you see yourself and your music going in five years from now?

RG: Music is a strange thing. When we put out our first ablum, we thought, "If we sell a thousand copies, we'll be the luckiest guys in the world", but now we've sold a hundred thousand copies. We're doing it as a hobby, and as a love. I would be happy to be doing music a year from now, that would be great for me, so I can't speculate about five years.