Grupo Frontera’s hybrid Mexican music went world. On a brand new album, their genre-melding has no limits
NEW YORK — Rather a lot can occur in two years. Simply ask Grupo Frontera, who launched their extremely anticipated sophomore album, “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada,” Friday.
The sextet started as an area band in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, enjoying occasions like quinceañeras — a interest for its members who held very totally different jobs: marriage ceremony photographer, automobile dealership supervisor, gate repairer and so forth. Then, viral fame arrived in 2022 when their spirited cowl of “No Se Va” by the Colombian pop-rock band Morat made the rounds on TikTok and later, the Billboard Scorching 100.
Ultimately, they give up their jobs, and the hits — and accolades — saved coming. They linked up with famous person producer Édgar Barrera, who hails from their nook of Texas and labored on each their albums. Final 12 months, Grupo Frontera launched their largest observe so far, “Un x100to,” a collaboration with Puerto Rican reggaetón famous person Dangerous Bunny, peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s all-genre Scorching 100. That tune earned them a Latin Grammy.
They’ve offered out arenas and by the point their debut album, “El Comienzo,” was launched final August, they’d already established themselves some of the thrilling new voices in Latin music.
On the 12-track “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada,” they’ve continued to push boundaries.
“Each album, each tune that we launch, is like ‘Man, we gotta make a tune higher than the final one,’” says Julian Peña Jr., the band’s percussionist and hype man. “We have now loads of issues that we’re exploring with, and we all know lots of people are going to love it.”
“We’re making an attempt to stress ourselves into increasing our horizons a bit of bit,” provides bassist Brian Ortega. “We have now a bit of little bit of every part.”
Ortega hopes that folks join with the range of sounds. And there’s a lot to dig into.
Songs transfer from digital music to R&B to bachata to George Strait-inspired nation, with Grupo Frontera’s attribute cumbias norteñas nonetheless very a lot on the middle of all that they do, amplified by the distinction in tastes throughout this band. Singer Adelaido Solís III, whom they name “Payo,” is the youngest, and loves tumbados. Older members love cumbia, a method of dance music from Colombia, says Juan Javier Cantu, accordion participant and vocalist.
“It is a combination of recent and old skool. So we’re, like, in between,” he says. “That is why you have got loads of versatility on the album.”
That makes for an fascinating combine, as does the collaborators they introduced forth. Featured are Maluma and Morat — a full circle second if there ever was one — from Colombia. There’s additionally Christian Nodal from Mexico and a very wild minimize that includes Nicki Nicole from Argentina.
On the club-ready “Desquite” with Nicole, Grupo Frontera discovered inspiration in late ’00s, early ’10s music, particularly the Mexican pop DJ group 3BallMTY. Cantu says they wished to deliver again that sound — however “make it recent with the music we’re doing,” he says, and with “the lyrics of in the present day.”
Thematically, “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada” is a romantic journey: From the kiss-off opener “F——— Amor,” which Peña Jr. describes as being from the attitude of, effectively, somebody fed up with love — to “Ibiza,” which “tells you the story a couple of man saying, ‘You realize what? I already purchased all of the vehicles that I would like. I purchased my mother a home. I received every part I would like, however I additionally received sufficient for you. So come on over,’” he says.
In cultural dialog, Grupo Frontera is commonly seen as frontrunners of the rising world curiosity in regional Mexican music — a catchall time period that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norteño, sierreño and different genres — alongside their buddies and collaborators Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida, Carín León and so forth. And they’re. However it’s not solely as a result of they play music true to their geography — it’s as a result of they’ve modernized their genres, typically weaving into different musical types. And since folks all around the world are listening.
“We’re regional Mexicans as a result of our devices are conventional and the vibe we give,” says Cantu.
“It is regional to us, however the folks made it world,” Peña Jr. jumps in. “We’re enjoying our music, however now it is world. And it is an incredible feeling.”
That exchanging of concepts and cultures is on the coronary heart of “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada.”
“This album is form of like a buffet,” jokes Ortega. “There’s the pizza, there’s the fish sticks, there’s the hen wings. However you already know what? It is a bit of little bit of every part. … However what ties all of it collectively is that we do not go away the essence of the cumbia.”
For a band that is managed to take deeply beloved music, modernize it and current it to the world — what’s subsequent? They are saying they’d like to tour in Europe, headline Coachella and Madison Sq. Backyard, go to the “gringo Grammys,” says Cantu.
However greater than that, they need their followers to take heed to this album and “really feel their feelings, the devices,” he says.
