And the Grammy award-winning musicians will share new pieces they’ve created since their last visit!

Before getting onto all things music and life during my pleasant chat with Gabriela, we had to sort through the important matters first.

Her favourite drinks? “Oh, I love green tea and, like, oolongs. I also love Japanese green tea, like Sencha…But I also like kombucha”.

Her morning routine? “I love getting up early to do yoga and running in nature.”

Her favourite way to relax? “I love cartoons and anime, and I practise playing while watching. I love Avatar, the Airbender… and I watched all of Attack on Titans. But I watched very many Full Metal Alchemist.”

Her favourite dinosaur? “The Brachiosaurus, but I also like the Triceratops and T-Rex.”

But most of all, she’s excited to tour Australia!

“I love our fans there,” she says. “They’re so happy. I love nature, and the trees are absolutely remarkable.

“We’ve been vegan for many years now,” she adds. “When we started going to Australia, a long time ago now, we noticed how good the coffee was. And it was one of the first countries to offer veggie milk!”

Veganism is a significant part of Gabriela’s life, teaming up with her sister to create an organisation in her hometown called Cooperativa EcoVegana (Eco Vegan Cooperative).

“We organise cooking classes and use traditional foods like coconut and tamarind,” she enthuses. We love to make tacos. It’s very yummy, delicious and affordable.

“We always talk about animals, wonderful, beautiful creatures that they are.”

From one passion to another, Gabriela shares how she met Rodrigo.

“Oh, that was like past life!” she recalls fondly. “We were very young, maybe 15 or so. He was in a cultural house community centre in Mexico City, where it was all about kids playing metal.”

Gabriela joined Rodrigo’s metal band, but they left due to musical differences.

“We decided to quit trying to be famous and say goodbye to the idea of trying to promote ourselves. Rodrigo and Gabriela were attracted to metal music because “thrash metal is super rhythmic. It has a lot of drumming and a lot of riffs. But we were always attracted to guitar music. Even back then, Rodrigo was an exceptional guitarist who knew exactly what he wanted. The guitar is such a universal instrument; you can play every genre of music on it.”

They busked their way through Europe, soon discovering their original music was catching. “People were stopping to intently listen to what we were doing,” she recalls. “During this process, we started to create a new sound, and that’s how Rodrigo y Gabriela, as we’re known today, began.

“We didn’t think about the future and had a lot of fun.”

“Busking is magical,” Gabriela says of her roots. “When you hear somebody playing, no matter what it is… it’s like a window to another world.” Nowadays, the duo has been writing with electric guitars and a full orchestra. This new album is undoubtedly shaping up to be something big.

“It’s absolutely crazy, but we love it,” she beams. “We already want to share another album because we have so much material. I don’t play with the pick and do some of the things I do on the acoustic, but it sounds completely different on the electric. It’s gonna be for edgy and crazy people.”

On the writing process, Gabriela says, “The music we do is very visual and also has a story. Our musical methods balance each other like Yin and Yang when we write.”

The creativity further blossoms outside of the duo, with Gabriela sharing some exclusive news for the future.

“I have a little project that I haven’t launched yet. I’ve always wanted to be a vegan activist, but I’m too consumed by music to find the time to be one.

“So… I’ve decided to merge them! My project is called Music For Animals, and I have songs with lyrics in Spanish and English.”

But before she delights the world with that animal-loving act, there’s the imminent Australia tour and Canberra show to enjoy.

“We’ll play old classics, songs from Metabolism which haven’t been played here before, and some new unreleased music. We’re really looking forward to it.”

As are we! You can catch Rodrigo y Garbiela at the Canberra Theatre on Thursday, 17 April at 7:30pm. Tickets are $75 – $95 + bf via Canberra Ticketing. They will be joined by special guests Apricot Ink.