Your upcoming album ‘RIP Latin Core 2K24’ has themes around censorship in music, can you tell us more around it?
Rip Latincore 2k24 is a compilation of all my work over the last few years where I basically resample and reinterpret Latin American and pop music in a DIY format, giving life to a new genre such as Latin Core and Latin Tek, as a pioneer of these genres what has always been sought is to make music in a free and untethered way for raves and underground parties. A few months ago I had the opportunity that one of my tracks had an appearance in a Netflix series and since I didn’t know I had used a vocal fragment of a sample of a mainstream song as the vocal sample was literally from a sound library a friend of mine shared to me, well they took the track down from all platforms just for that vocal chop repeating the whole song.
So when I tried to negotiate and conciliate with the artist and his team to be able to use the sample and have this track on all platforms they were asking me for an absurd amount of money, being that this particular music is basically made by home producers, independent and emerging artists, I think the way the rules work around sampling and licensing should be rethought to the post-pandemic reality and especially to emerging artists who sample from others, because in the end sampling is something that has always been and has been part of electronic music, I think in this new reality is necessary to rethink how sampling and licensing can be accessible to artists and can create music freely and without strings attached.
So under this album I simply want to show how DIY music should be, and basically tell the old rules of the music industry, that there really are new proposals that we are changing the rules and the game.
You’ve toured extensively across Argentina, Mexico, Chile and more. What more shows do you have planned?
Right now I plan to play in December in Toronto and in February of next year to tour Brazil, as well as in March I will be moving to Berlin where I plan to tour Europe again.
What were your early inspirations that helped you decide to make electronic music?
I have always loved music, since I was 15 years old when I listened to Dubstep and Drum and Bass for me they were genres that basically changed my life, in the beginning when I tried to produce it was no good. So I gave myself some time to rethink if I should really make music or not. But once the pandemic started for me it was a breaking point to say, I should learn how to make music and do it just for fun until I see where it all goes. So I started making Hip Hop beats and then I started making a little more experimental fusion of genres, until I got to what I show today as Latin Core and Latin Tek.
What are your musical influences from childhood?
I’ve always liked Hip Hop and electronic music, I think I could say that my influences are J Dilla, Skrillex, Hudson Mohawke, they are artists that made me rethink electronic music and sampling, as well as I like latin artists such as Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, Tainy, Tego Calderon, Dj Playero, among others.
What do you do when equipment goes on strike?
When this happens I never stress, as it is always something that can happen in any place, stage or party, only when the equipment fails I first try to solve it on my own by restarting the cdj and pretending nothing happened, you know, the show must go on.
How do you handle music requests?
The first time I experienced this it gave me a lot of anxiety because I didn’t know what to do and luckily I had the song, but once it started to become repetitive and I was asked for songs that had nothing to do with what I was doing I started to simply ignore people who asked for songs at the club or parties, as well as just saying yes later or not at all.
This is one of the worst practices people can do, please don’t do it! enjoy the music and the party, get to know new genres and open your ears.
Is it even possible to argue about musical tastes?
For me it is absurd to purism in music and also to fight for genres, art has to be free and being a human creation should simply be understood as such, I think that people who fight for musical tastes and what is or should be music, should rethink and understand that music is simply made to entertain and be enjoyed.
Which track would run when you moved into your boxing match?
A while ago I used to enjoy watching boxing and wrestling, I also liked to imagine myself entering the ring with an epic or super hardcore song, now I think I would enter with a song of my own like Tra Vi Esa or Bby on Fire.
Describes your sound to someone who has never heard it before.
Basically it is accelerated latin music, reggaeton, dembow, cumbia, guaracha made electronic over 150 bpms with strong kicks and enveloping bass. That would be literally Latin Core in a nutshell.
Do you have any good tour stories from clubs or festivals?
During the last years I have lived too many parties, I think it has been too crazy for me to know the world thanks to electronic music and being a dj, especially for me after having spent time working in things I really hated, and betting everything on my music career has been too rewarding to make my own music and play it in Latin America and Europe and make people dance and give it all on the dance floor.
One of my favourite moments I think was to have made my recent tour of Europe since I met and played in places too iconic, like the Moulin Rouge in Paris, also one of my favourite clubs was in Poland which was called K-Bar where basically the club was built inside a bridge, also in Prague where I played in a club on a boat. I think they were places where I never expected to play in my life.
For me on that tour I experienced many beautiful things, meeting people from different parts of the world and making friends thanks to music. I think it is the most special thing I have ever experienced.
What would you do if you weren’t a musician?
If I wasn’t a music producer I would still like to do creative things, like visual arts or clothing, currently in my project I develop everything from music, to visuals and even merchandising, so I think I would dedicate myself to do things around art.
Which style of music should have the most followers? And why?
I think people should focus on listening to the music and not put labels of genres or popularity, but understand music as an expression made for enjoyment, for that very reason.
What is the most important musical equipment invention of all time – and why?
I consider the sound systems because without them we would not be able to listen to music anywhere.
What would you advise to become a professional?
I think the most important thing is to be all in on the music or any art, if you really want to be an artist, producer, dj or whatever, the first most important decision is to get fully into this and never hesitate. I think that once the decision is made, the next thing to do is to collaborate, fulfil your commitments and work every day to make music, discover new genres, find artists and do everything with love and dedication.
