Ever heard of "Dancemenco"?
This novel subgenre is the calling card of Paco Versailles, a musical act composed of songwriter/producer Ryan Merchant and Spanish-trained flamenco guitarist Vahagni Aryan. They met in the mid-2010s on tour with Merchant's other band, Capital Cities, and became fast friends with a desire to collaborate. Merchant has a background in French pop and dance music production, and he thought it would be interesting to marry that style with Aryan's approach to flamenco.
To understand the fruits of their labour, it is helpful to grasp what flamenco actually is.
"In a nutshell: it's gypsy music indigenous to the Andalusian province of Spain, the southern province," Aryan explains. "When the gypsies migrated into Spain [and joined] with the Moorish culture that was there already, it created this little brew of musical culture which became known as flamenco. Typically people think it's Spanish folk music, but it's absolutely not … there's a totally different northern Spanish influence that is very different from the southern influence.
"[Flamenco] is based around the guitar being the accompaniment and harmonic instrument. My interpretation is a little different … growing up in Los Angeles, I was constantly influenced by so many other genres of music, so I kind of interpret it in my own way. I don't really know how to describe that, but I try to be as creative as I can."
Merchant elaborates that Dancemenco is a version of disco dance music being rhythmically driven by the flamenco guitar whilst featuring pop songwriting sensibilities. The name "Paco Versailles" is derived from iconic Spanish guitar player Paco de Lucía and the Parisian suburb of Versailles, where French electronic maestros Daft Punk and Air originated.
"When we make music, we have a sound and we have these core elements, but I think it manifests in different ways," remarks Merchant. "We have one song from our last album that has more of a salsa influence, so we don't necessarily confine ourselves to having every song be totally on the nose. We have a cover of a Highwaymen song called 'Silver Stallion.' We just put out a cover of a Genesis song. A lot of influences find their way into our recordings and then into the live set."
Preaching the gospel of Paco
Early versions of Dancemenco were featured at Los Angeles parties Merchant organized in 2019 as a testbed for musical experiments. He and Aryan started with three tracks, which evidently met with a positive-enough reception so they forged on.
Friends of Paco Versailles have reported their music is beginning to seep into the global consciousness: from restaurants in Boston and casinos in Las Vegas to bars in Ibiza. Whistler represents fresh territory, but Merchant expects to feel right at home: he loves mountains no matter what time of year it is.
Aryan is likewise excited for the show. He feels the duo has barely scratched the surface of their potential audience base and will jump at every chance to "preach the gospel of Paco" to new listeners.
"What we're starting to embrace right now is the notion of not overthinking the music-making process," says Merchant. "We're in this very free-flowing state of our career … and I think we've been making some of [our best music] maybe since the beginning. You don't really have a lot of control over how the world interprets your music, how they accept you.
"All you have control over is just making stuff that feels inspired and getting out of your own way. If you commit to that ethos and continue to put out good music, it's like the universe starts to reward you over time."
From his perspective, Aryan would add: "The best thing you can do for yourself is be as honest as possible. There's so much going on in this industry where you have to have your social media game up, you have to post content and you have to do X, Y and Z. Sometimes you stop and think to yourself: 'is this what I want to be doing, or do I just want to make really good music and play really good shows, putting a majority of my effort and time into things that make me happy?'"
On July 24, DJ Olly Watt sets the table at 6:30 p.m. for Paco Versailles at 7:30 p.m. Find details at whistler.com/events/concerts.
