(Photo courtesy of Daniel Martin Diaz)

Tucson band XIXA

KJZZ’s Sarah Ventre is in Austin at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival and has been following bands from Arizona who are performing there.

Thursday she caught up with two members of the Tucson band XIXA - Brian Lopez and Gabriel Sullivan. They are both veteran musicians and have played with well-known acts including Giant Sand.

She met them at their hotel to talk about their unique hybrid style of music, sometimes referred to as southwestern psych rock with a cumbia influence. They also discussed sharing a stage at the festival with Bombino, a guitarist from the West African country Niger, whose music is often referred to as desert rock.