And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan - Ep. 208: Edgar Barrera | The Max Martin of Latin Music

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Today’s guest is a Latin music powerhouse whose pen has changed the game globally. With a genre-defying catalog that spans regional Mexican, reggaeton, pop, and bachata, he’s crafted chart-topping hits that cross borders and break records. His work has earned him 26 Grammy wins, making him one of the most decorated writers in the industry today. But beyond the accolades, he’s a true musical chameleon—effortlessly fusing cultural roots with modern sounds to create melodies that resonate worldwide. He brings heart, hustle, and authenticity to everything he touches.And the writer is… Edgar Barrera!Timestamp | Chapter Title00:00 | Intro and Sponsor00:45 | Meet Your Host: Ross Golan01:08 | Follow @AndTheWriterIs01:17 | Presented by NMPA02:09 | Guest Introduction: Edgar Barrera03:00 | How Edgar Became a Hitmaker06:30 | Global Success and Crossover Hits10:00 | Writing for Regional Mexican Artists15:00 | Secrets Behind Chart-Topping Songs19:00 | Challenges and Pressure of Success23:00 | Building a Cross-Cultural Career28:00 | The Power of Simplicity in Songwriting32:00 | Lessons from Collaborating with Legends37:00 | How Edgar Approaches Artist Development42:00 | Staying Grounded Amid Global Fame47:00 | Behind The Scenes of Major Hits52:00 | Edgar’s Advice to the Next Generation57:00 | Wrapping Up: Gratitude and Staying Inspired Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Welcome to And The Writer is. I am your host, Ross Golland. There are millions of singers and thousands of artists, but only 40 songs per genre at a time. This podcast aims to shed a light on those creators who make those songs. I produce this with my friend Joe London in association with mega house music group. Special shoutout, Charlotte Isidore, Jad, and Michael White. And you can follow us at And The Writer Is on all your socials. We'll see you there.

Now, this week's episode. Welcome to And The Writer is. I'm your host, Ross Golan. Today's Latin legend has quite literally changed the music business, With an ear for timeless melodies and a deep understanding of rhythms that make people dance, this pensmith has crafted hits that transcend borders and break records. From regional Mexican to reggatone, pop to Bacchata, his versatility has made him one of the most in-demand collaborators in the game.

Oh, maybe it's because he has like 26 or 27 Grammys. His ability to blend tradition and innovation made three of the first. my top artist on Spotify rap last year. All the way from Miami and Texas, this new father is a real family man. And the writer is

Edgar Barreira. Oh, man. What an introduction, man. Thank you so much for that. Legend. I don't say that legend. No, no, no. The thing is like, you're so, but we'll get into your story, but you're so humble.

It doesn't, like, what's the number Grammys where you stop being humble? I mean, you asked me earlier, how many Grammys were they? And I actually don't keep track of stuff like that, nor like number ones and stuff like that. It's just like, I feel like the reasons why I'm into music or writing songs is not for, like, a recognition of an award. And for me, like, if you go to my place, like, I have no plaques on my walls. I have no Grammys on my wall.

on my, yeah, like in my studio, it's just like music and just like my spot, you know what I mean? And it's, I try not to get that over my head. And it's, it's something that I leave that, like, you know, for my family. Like I gave the Grammys to my mom, my dad, and the plaques are all like at my parents' house too. And, yeah, so it's a thing. Do you celebrate? I, I'm always. working. That's a really

interesting question because the other day I was in the studio and this artist asked me a question and told me like, what do you do for fun? I'm like, music. Writing songs. In doing producing stuff. And she was like yeah, yeah, but I mean, aside of music, like

what do you do? More music? I'm like, no, just music. And that's when I realized like wow, like I have no like I don't do any other other thing than this. And I usually like I try, yes, I mean I probably like a celebrate i i don't have too many friends i'm like a very like uh very like a small circle i do go out with my family a lot with my my wife and and and family but yeah maybe

yeah that's a that's an interesting question yeah when you're younger and i want to get to the beginning what what do you do it for like who do you listen to your own music When it goes out, I don't listen to the music, but I'm listening to the music while I'm making the music. And that's another thing that stuff that I listen to, I'm very like, when I, like, hop into my car and drive somewhere, I'm listening or finishing a song or just like listening to the demo of the song that we just wrote to trying to make it better or what can I do for this song to be bigger or. And, and yeah, like, it's, I listen to a lot of old stuff. Like, I have a huge vinyl collection at my house that I do have. Like, if you go to my house in Miami, like, there's, like, the dining room is just, like, a huge wall of just, like, old records. What is to you?

I'm going to preface this. My Spanish is so bad. But, like, is it like Vicente? Like, when I, when you think of old, is it? especially when you talk about regional Mexican music, are you listening to old regional Mexican music? Everything. Or are you listening to Motown?

Yeah, because I just buy lots of vinyl boxes from just like eBay or I just go to offer. And whatever's in it is whatever. It's in it. I just explore it. And like every morning I wake up in the first thing that I do, like I, well, I'm making coffee. I'll just go to the collection and just like dig into it and grab whatever album I just like find. And if it's the less popular, the artist, the better for me.

Because I like to kind of like discover new stuff. Or discover old stuff. Or discover old stuff. Correct. Discover old stuff. And it's usually like a lot. Yeah, like you say like Vicente Fernandez is, I have a huge. like a lot of those records.

Jose Alfredo Jimenez is another, like he's one of the best songwriters in Mexican history. And a lot of his stuff, a lot of Juan Gabriel stuff, which is another, he's a legend. Like, I think Netflix is just doing like a documentary on his life. And he's like all of that stuff. And even like Miles Davis stuff is just maybe just like a trumpet playing. You know, in the background of whatever I'm doing,

like answering emails or doing stuff. because my day also I try to start off my day like trying to get rid of all my label stuff because I have a label and a publishing company too and it's like taking care of my people my artists my writers to be doing whatever they want to be doing and then the rest of the day I try to focus on

my stuff like writing and producing stuff I think I have the same problem where my hobbies are more music and I think part of it is because different kind of music opens up a different thing. It's not like you're writing for the same artist, the same song over and over again. You're writing for vastly different kinds of artists

and different genres, almost different era sounding. And when you start doing that, it feels like a hobby because the other song that's in your brain and working through that tomorrow is so different than the one you worked on today. You know, and I think a lot of people are, think of, when you think of somebody who's addicted to their profession, most of the time you're thinking of them in like a cubicle, you know, grinding through numbers. And that's just not what we do. So it's exciting every day, you know?

And I feel, I think that's the reason why artists come up to me trying to, you know, make like the next song. Because I don't follow trends. that's a thing that I kind of not do. Since I'm not listening to what's going on out there in the world, I mean, I do listen to what's going on out there in the world. I do go into the charts and see what's popping and see, you know, what's going on. But I try not to, if I'm going to have a session with an artist, I try not to do something that the artist already did,

and I try to maybe take him out of its comfort zone and try to do like another style of a rhythm. And it's worked with me a lot of, you know, when, you know, going in with first time I went in with Carl G. Instead of doing like a reggaeton track or stuff that she already does, we did like a regional Mexican, yeah, or some cumbia stuff or some si anto-evera-conocido, which is like a merengue. You know, I try to find like different angles to try to, you know, do something different with

the artist because at the end of the day for me, it's about making a song that feels natural and different than to just make another record for a big artist. Yeah, but there are a lot of people who say they don't follow trends and aren't, and don't sound relevant. They sound like they're off on an island. You know, how do you not follow trends and still sound relevant? I mean, there's a trend, obviously, like we were talking before the interview, you know, like Pesso Pluma

which is the style of Corridos Tumbados and I'm into that and if I go with an artist like Pesso I want to do that with him I want to try to get that because for me that's something different but it's also interesting

trying to you know trying to understand that world and that's when I think magic happens when you do stuff not knowing the rules of the genre. And like breaking the rules or not doing like the norm of what you're supposed to do in a Batchata song or the norm that you're supposed to do in a Merenge song.

Like I'll give you an example. Like Batchata. Merenge has like a saxophone playing all the time. Like very, very like musical. And when we did this record with Carl, we didn't put a saxophone. Not because we didn't want to do it that way, but because we weren't feeling it. that way. No, we're not trying to to follow something that's already been done.

We're trying to do maybe like a different style of, like a modern way of interpreting that same genre. Do you, in a general genre of Latin music where tradition is a huge part of it, do you get pushback when you choose

to break rules like that? Oh, a lot. A lot. The first time I experienced that, it actually, like, hit me really hard because I didn't, I wasn't familiar with, with that, those type of comments, you know, and the first artist that I started working was, uh, on that style was like Christian O'Dal, who's a mariachi artist. He's, uh, at the time when we started working, it was like 18 years old or 19, 18, and I think it was like 17 or 18 years old. It's a really young kid. We were writing like urban songs and then turning them to mariachi.

Cool. So the melodies were different. The lyrics were completely different. And I remember the first song that we put out that the song went viral and it did great. And a lot of people of the OGs were saying like, this is like disrespecting the genre. You know, this is not the way we write songs for Mariachi. Mariachi music is supposed to be poetry, supposed to be this. And you're talking about, you know, banging the girl or whatever.

And you know what I mean? like the different styles of writing and the melodies are are completely different to what they were used to. And I kind of was like a little bit, you know, like concern that I might be doing something wrong for the genre or that I must be, I might have been like disrespecting somebody or something or at the end of the day, it's just like, you know, we were just, we are just trying to do music for the newer generation to listen. to it, not for the old generation to continue to listening to this artist. You know what I mean?

Like it's, we're aiming for a new audience. And I want, at the time I wanted mariachi music to be like the cool stuff that the kids are listening to and not like the old stuff that my grandpa was listening to. You know? So it's, it's a little bit of that. So let's start from the beginning. You're, you were born in McAllen? I was born in McAllen, Texas.

Okay, so McAllen's a border, it's a border town, uh, ish, isn't it? It is, yes. Shout out to my friend Brian who was in the FBI there. Oh, shout out to Brian. Okay, so, FBI in McAllen? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, he has stories.

Okay, that's totally besides the point. But that's my, my connection to McCallin. McCallons is an interesting place because it really is a melting pot. You know, it's a lot of Mexican tradition, a lot of, you know, it's a lot of immigration, and it's also a lot of Americana and it's Texas. You know, tell me about being raised there and, you know, tell me from the beginning. Yeah, I mean, I was born in McAllen, but raised. in Mexico.

Okay. It's very common to be born in the U.S. and kind of live in Mexico. A first generation? I'm a second generation. Uh-huh. My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. My grandfather was like a construction worker and my mom would work on the fields

like during summers with my grandpa and everything. So I'm a second generation, my mom's first generation. But my dad is, he's Mexican. He was born in Mexico and then the other side of the border. So when my parents get married, they lived in Mexico. But since my mom was a U.S. citizen, I was, my whole family, my brothers and my brother and sister were born all in the U.S. And then we kind of like migrated to Mexico, which is like five minutes away. It's not that big of a deal.

And we would go every day because my. My grandparents who moved to the U.S., they were living in the U.S. side of the border. So for me, it was just like going back and forth every day to the U.S. in Mexico, U.S., Mexico. Wow. Yeah. So. What kind of music were you listening to growing up? What did your parents play in the house?

My dad is a musician. He's part of a band. And I will listen to a lot of his records. It's a lot of Colombian music. My dad will listen to a lot of stuff like boleros or bayonatos and it's a lot of stuff. Then I realized that it was the best schooling for me because when I first got to Miami, I had a lot of knowledge that I didn't know it was in me. You know, and when I was in the studio working with, when I was in the studio working with artists from Colombia or from other parts of the world,

they would talk about artists and I would be like, oh yes, yes. they'll go, oh, yes, yes, and this record that this artist did, and they were like, how do you know this artist? It's like, oh, my dad will listen to a lot of that stuff, because my dad would kind of like do the same thing as I do. You know, he, I think I inherit that passion for music and record collection because my dad had a huge record collection too. And it was just like my dad, I would, the memories that I have is just like every night, my dad was just like in this, in his home studio, just like, listening to music. You would just go in there and listen to music. When did you write your first song?

Professionally or just like writing your first song? Yeah, just like when you're younger. I think it was like six years, six years old. Do you know what the song was? Yes, and I still remember the song and it's like, yeah, no, it's... How does it go? No, no, I don't want to do this. No, but it's a...

I would play along because I would see my dad. record and do you know all this stuff so I had like a little record player and like a recorder my body with a small microphone karaoke kind of stuff and I had like a like a Tom like a little snare

and I would just like hit hit it and write us write songs and I've been looking for that tape for for so long I haven't been able to find it but I remember the songs that I would write and like sing there and be like but there were just like songs that have they make no sense. But you were six. Yeah. Of course they don't make sense. You were

six years old. About a teddy bear that I had and a hamburger that, you know, making France and stuff like that. I remember the lyrics were something like that. Did you play those songs? You know, from even that age, were you starting to play songs for your family? Was it like a, I imagine growing up where your dad is a musician recording that it was encouraged for you to write your own and show people the songs?

or did you write it and not show? No, I mean, I kind of, yeah, I kind of wrote them and kept them for myself. Really? Yeah. When did you start playing for people? Well, actually, like, when I was like 10, we had a band. But it was just like we would play covers for like Green Day and so the Stadio, which is a Mexican, Argentinian band.

and and uh or mana covers from for you know and and i do have that cd and it's me singing horrible and that's i i think that's one of the reasons why i don't sing my demos nowadays and i don't sing because uh i was trying to sing when i was like 10 years old and i remember playing that over and over and i didn't like my voice at the time and that kind of like created maybe like some insecurities in me and and trying to be like an artist or trying to be like an artist or to be like a frontman. So I was always like, if I ever do music, it'll be like writing songs or doing it for other people, but not for myself.

Like, I would never be singing. Like, it's not something that I'm into it. There's a long history of A-list writers who are not good singers. And that seems really hard to fathom for me. How does somebody who doesn't sing well, how can someone who can't sing well, write a good song. I mean, I can sing. It's just that I don't like my voice.

Oh, so it's a preference. It's not a matter of being saying. I mean, it's like I can record a song on my phone and I can write a song myself. Like I have 100%ers that I kind of just like it grabbed the guitar and write a song and send it to it. It has to be an artist that I have a lot of confidence sending my voice, my vocal thing. And it will be probably just like on my phone. but I usually try to have an artist I usually try to have a writer

that can sing in the room whenever I'm like co-writing like prefer I prefer to have a writer that can sing the demo for me yeah interesting when you go through high school I know you played a few instruments

and guitar was your main instrument right guitar was the main one yes I know you were looking at at Berkeley and whatnot. Was there a desire to do specifically Latin music, or were you just looking to do music at that point? It was just music. It was, yeah, I think I was just trying to figure it out.

I was in the marching band when I was in high school. I played the saxophone and I would compete. I was like one of the best saxophone players in Texas, auto sax. So I know how to read music. I know how to do, you know, I used to play jazz with when I was in school. And when I was in college, in order to, for me not to lose like a scholarship that I was getting, I was supposed to be putting in more than 20 hours a semester in school.

And I remember I had like, I was going for electrical engineering and I had like 19 hours. And I needed one more hour to kind of like fill it in so I wouldn't lose my scholarship. and I saw what, you know, what could be something that wasn't too time-consuming or difficult. And I saw, like, classical guitar. I was like, you know what, I'll just put classic guitar in there. So I just went into the guitar classes. And I kind of realized that that was more like my passion instead of electrical engineering. Like I wasn't enjoying studying electrical engineer.

Was that hard for your parents? I mean, were they encouraging you to do, to be in the music? Or were they encouraging you to be an engineer? No, because since my dad is in the music business, so he was so encouraging. Yeah, he kind of like supported me a lot on that. And my guitar teacher was the one that told me, you know, you should, you know, do music. Yeah, you're good at playing classical guitar and everything. and you should go.

I remember he used to be a university of Miami, but over there in Texas, he had moved to Texas because he was from Texas. And he told me, like, why do you audition to UM or Berkeley or Julia or whatever it is? Like, I was like trying to go to Julia, trying to go to Berkeley, like, trying to make it like up there. And that was actually like the first time I ever hopped myself on a plane

was when I was like 19 years old. it was the first time me being in a plane flying to Boston and auditioning for Berkeley. And I remember doing the audition. Were you playing? You were playing guitar. Yeah. I was playing some classical stuff with guitar and some box stuff. And so I went there.

I auditioned. And the week later, I remember the response was supposed to come in like three months after the audition. and it came like a week after. And I was like so excited that, oh my God, I got into Berkeley. And then I was like, maybe this is a mistake because they were supposed to notify me three months after the audition. So I called Berkeley and everything. And they were like, no, no, no, they usually do this so that you won't go to another school. And that way you don't audition to like, I don't know, like Miami.

You am or Julia or whatever it is. So they really want you to come over and they're accepting you like right away so that you can make plans for. Wow. For school, yeah. So I never, I ended up not going because it was too expensive. It's way too expensive. It was cool. You need to be enriched to go to Berkeley or get a full right scholarship.

There's a difference between, hey, you should go and study guitar, you know, or, you know, being the next cold train or whatever, you know. And, and then you, you know, there's a huge difference between that. and I'm now going to write music and then that path. How do you get to, I'm not going to Berkeley because that's too expensive to Miami where you're starting to like pursue the business. My parents were the ones that told me like it's so different to study music than to actually be in the studio. It's like two different stuff.

Yeah. And I decided to do an internship before going to Berkeley so that I would kind of of get the experience of what it would be to be in the studio 24-7. And I just called, emailed a producer that I saw in the credits of an album that I was currently listening to. I found them on Facebook and I DM to him and everything. And I asked him if I could go to his studio. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do it because he wasn't doing like anything specific

at the time. But he recommended me to another producer that actually got me to Miami to do an internship with him. When people hit you up and they send you cold emails or DMs, do you respond? Yeah. I mean, if I have

if there's like an interest or something that I see, like if I hear something that catches my attention, I do respond. Yeah, yeah. I mean, not to jump ahead, but you're a real record exact. You know? You have your own label and publishing company, you know, do you find those people or do those people find you?

It works a little bit both ways. The people that I have right now, one of them, yeah, one of them kind of like was looking for a place to be, like, he wanted to find like a producer or a writer that can probably help. help them out with. Because the thing is, I don't actually like sign people. I don't, I don't try to do that. I try to teach them how to do their own business and own their, their own stuff. And I make a business for a certain period of time with the publisher that they end up signing with. It's a really weird structure that I figured out that it's been working for me because I, I try to respect writers and instead of

signing them for a certain period of time and owning their copyright for their publishing song or the publisher I help them out build their own publisher and if I take them to

Sony or to Universal to Warner or Colbert whatever it is like I'll make my business with Sony or Universal cobalts or whatever it is like I try to make the business

with them and not the writer you know what I mean like it's yeah yeah yeah I found To keep them safe. To keep them safe and to have them building, to have them build their own publishing company and own whatever they're writing. Because I don't, I don't, this is something weird that I've been seeing a lot. I mean, I'm 34 right now and I don't have maybe like a huge, like a lot of ears in the music industry.

But I've seen that a lot of writers don't understand what they sign when they sign what they sign. Of course. And you can make their careers for them, and then they'll be like five years ahead. Or after five years, they'll be like, man, this guy, you know, he fucked me over. He has all the rights to my publisher. And it's like, yeah, well, that's what we agreed at the time. Yeah, but I didn't know what I was signing. So I tried to teach them how to avoid that because I don't want to have that reputation of,

oh, this guy, he tried to, you know. he tried to steal from me or he tried to keep my publisher or whatever. So I'm very open to the writers and teach them like, well, you have to build your own publishing company. We do this. Okay, so probably nowadays writers go looking for an admin deal, but they don't have nothing to administer. So they're looking for like an advance, a huge advance.

Everybody's looking for a huge advance. And then they're like, what songs do you have? And they're like, well, I don't have any songs. So it's like, well, what can I admin if you do? don't have any songs. So the way I've taught them how to do is like, well, do a co-publishing deal with the majors instead of doing an admov because you have nothing to admin. So co-publish, they'll own a portion.

I'll get into that side of the business with the majors. You keep your portion of the publisher. I don't touch your portion, but I do touch whatever major is. dealing or whatever the deal is. So I try to, you know, teach them how to do that. I don't know if that's the right thing to do. That's, that's, it's been working for me. It makes me sleep at night. So this is the, I say this on this a lot that, you know, I use Nashville as an example where I always say that in Nashville, all the songwriters have children and then LA all the songwriters are children. And it's our responsibility to teach them how this works.

So they know in the same way, like the funny way to say it is like so they know how they're getting screwed, how not to get screwed. You know, if you go into it and you're really educated about it, then you can, in the future, when you're upset, at least you were taught. I try to draw out, you know, maps of this is what a song looks like. That makes sense. Yeah. And try to really help educate that. So they're in on the game from the beginning. So I think that's, I hope that's what our generation is doing.

Because that's the difference. When you talk to some of these people who did deals previous to 1971 when the laws were changed, all those people have no publishing. They never had any of it. Like they just didn't. And they never got it back unless they were, you know, have savvy people who can get into reversion clauses and all these things that we don't have to get into right now. But it's fascinating how the classic writers that you're talking about from, you know, a different era on those vinyl records, they don't own their publishing. Somebody else owns it, you know? And they never got an opportunity because a lot of them passed.

Yeah. You know, it's just like that's just what's that was the business. Yeah. And for me, I try to do the right thing because when I started off my writing career, they taught me how to do it this way. So, I mean, the person who kind of like brought me into writing and everything, like the writer, he was a, he's a big writer. And instead of him signing me to his publishing company,

he taught me how to do my own publishing company. So, you know, it's paying back. I've never been signed to any, any other writer or producer. Or like, I've always been like the type of writer that, you know and and I try to I try to give back what I was given if that's that makes sense totally all right so you know in 2011 you start getting your cuts and you're starting to get a lot of cuts and it seems like when you work in a project you dive in and all of us have the you know we always talk about how we want to be in with the artist because that's when you can really dive in

But usually, you know, you go in and you do, you do two days here, two days there. There's no way you're doing 10 songs on multiple albums if you're doing two days here, two days there. At that point, in the beginning of your career, are you choosing your sessions or did it just work out that way? No, at the beginning, I was actually doing a lot of stuff that was just like coming in through the door. You know, 2011 was when I got to Miami. I was interning. I was just doing everything that was just like coming in. Everything, every single thing.

Even stuff that I didn't want to do, I was doing. I was doing all the work that maybe that, you know, a producer didn't want to do maybe or stuff. Like, I don't know, remixes for radio stuff. Like, oh, there's this song that's popping right now. They want us to do like three versions. of the song because the radio needs a cumbia version, they need a pop version, they need a reggaeton version. So I was the guy doing all those versions in the studio, which it helped me, you know, find my sound and my producer sound.

But I was just trying to survive in Miami. I was just trying to make a buck over there. And it's Miami is expensive. It is. I mean, but you, you know, one year later, you're working on, like, legends, like, even though she had passed already, but, like, the Selena stuff, you know, it's like, I don't know. I'm assuming your parents were involved in as knowing that they understood the industry. But there's one thing when you're working with, you know, decent size artists. And then there's one when you're working with, like, the artist of all time kind of thing. Working on Selena, even if it's after she passed. What did that mean to the family? That was the first plaque that I ever got. And that's like one of the plaques that my parents have in their house.

Because Selena is from Texas and, you know, we grew up listening to her music. And the way that came, I was just being an intern in the studio and trying to, you know, trying to do everything. And for me, that was probably like at the moment, I was so young that maybe I didn't realize, you know, the impact of, what I was doing at the time maybe. Like I was working with people like Juan Luis Guerra or Alejandro Sands and just like being there in the studio, being an intern or doing, because I started off also as being an engineer,

being the runner, being the guy that does everything in the studio. And it also, nowadays it makes me realize that, you value everything that comes nowadays. You start to value everything that comes to you because you've done all that hard work in the past of, you know, serving coffee, bringing the food, being this. Totally. We have to talk about Prince Royce because that is the...

That's the first Latin album I'm on. You were there. That's true. You were in that album. I'm on Swayal Mismo and I'm on Double Vision. I wrote Double Vision and I wrote Stuck on a Feeling and Stuck on a Feeling might be my first pop top 40 song. I'm pretty sure it was because I had a couple songs that like had glimpses of radio, but that song I think went to top 15.

And I just remember looking at, you know, what the other people are doing in this world. And, you know, when we taught in the beginning, I listened to. mostly Spanish music. It makes me feel at home. My family moved from, my grandparents moved from Hungary and Romania to Nicaragua. And over summers, we used to listen to Gypsy Kings. And in,

and something about that in my head is my comfort place. And so it was like, it's one of those things where I'm writing, you just walk through open doors. Wherever the doors are, you just walk through it. And so to end up on Prince Roy's who, you know, is getting nominated all the time, you just, you know, at that time, you just, you learn who, you kind of learn who everybody is in the thing. So it's kind of early on in your career, too.

Obviously, like, we have very different paths. I mean, I didn't have a, the single, I didn't do the single that album. I didn't either. I had an album. I had it. Yeah, that was, for me, that was one of the first songs that I have, you know, pitch to an artist or getting recorded, you know, and it's, that was, that was huge for me at, at the moment.

And it's, that was, it was during the CD era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there were still, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there were still moments. But anyway, it was just like, I just like that we have like these degrees of separation that are closer. than we think. Anyway, so going after that,

because also there's this Latin music then versus Latin music now is so different. You know, Latin artists at the time we're trying to cut songs that are in English. And one of the things that you've done really well, timing-wise, whatever it is, is that now radio, American radio, plays songs in Spanish. In the beginning of your career, when American radio is super separate from Latin radio, did you feel obligated to write songs in both English and Spanish? I remember during that era, there were a lot of camps going on, and I remember writing a lot of Spanglish songs.

like Spanglish songs that we didn't even know who the audience for the songs were. And this was before Despacito and all that stuff. This was before that huge hit kind of like kind of like tweaked a lot of what the music is doing right now. And none of those songs, the Spanglish songs that we were doing at the moment would connect with the audience for some reason. Like it was like who's your target audience. Like it's too, it's maybe like it's having a Spanish record is different. For me it's harder to kind of connect than having like a full Spanish or a full English song. Yeah, it ends up in no man's land.

Yeah, exactly. Anybody speaks Spanish doesn't want to listen to the Spanish. And anybody speaks English. They don't want to listen to Spanish in that way. That makes sense. But you even worked with legends like Tony Bennett. Oh, yeah. How?

I don't know. I don't know how that came to me. I just, I don't know. It's just God putting me stuff in front. Tapping into your, you know, your jazz background and being a saxophone player, do you immediately, when you have names like that, does your head just snap into like some, you know, a different mindset than when you're working with, you know, Carol G later?

Yeah. It's a whole other way. world it feels like i didn't i didn't i didn't know that that's like the innocence of of when i started off working like i the person that called me for this was actually like uh this is this was the label is uh hitting me up to do this spanish versions of tony bennett because he was going to do an album with latin artist where romeo santos was going to be there like chayan was there Mark Anthony was there, Vicente Fernandez was there. Like, it was a really big album and I was just an intern and I don't know how I even got that job.

You know, and I... I mean, maybe, I mean, I'm going to say this, but maybe it was because it was just like a work for hire kind of thing. A lot of the big writers at the moment didn't want to do it. And maybe they were like, oh, we need to find like the next writer that can... Might be willing to do this for a work for hire thing. And because that's, yeah, that's a work for hire thing, by the way. No, but this is a big, a truth that people don't want to really talk about, which is that, you know, some writers I know, when I started working with bigger artists, some writers I know that couldn't get in with those bigger artists could work with these other projects that I wouldn't have been able to do because I was like, well, I could be in this room with this guy. going to go in there.

And those writers got to work with those artists that blew up and far surpassed some of the writers and artists I was with. And you just never know. It could be that you're at the intern that's like, oh, will you work on this Tony Bennett album? Yeah. And it's like, well, yeah, I guess because sure, I'll take the check in Miami's an inexpensive place.

And then it opens up the door. I'm going to skip forward to Maluma. Yes. Like, biggest. artist on the planet at that time. It's like, I don't know, how do you get introduced to Maluma? Because I was working in this studio with Andres, who's a very big Colombian producer. And at the time, he was producing for Carlos Vives. And Carlos Vives manager, Walter, was about to sign a new act from Colombia, like a young act. And I remember he came to the studio. And I remember he came to the

and ask Andres if he was willing to do a session with Maluma, with, you know, this new artist that was coming from Colombia. And he was like, yeah, sure, like come bring him over. And the sessions were supposed to be with other writers. He actually had two sessions with two other writers at the moment because I was still being an intern at the time. I spent like three, four years being an intern, three years maybe. It was a long time. And I was still there, like trying, learning and trying to meet a lot of people and people. that came to the studio.

And that was an opportunity that came to my attention because he was downstairs writing with two other big writers and the producer who I was working with. And I was upstairs making some ideas just to pitch, just to see if something happens. And I remember he, when Maluma left the studio that night, I went downstairs with the producer and I told him, well, I was working on this while you guys were. writing. Do you want to listen to it? He's like, yeah, yeah, show it to me. And I had the hook written down and the production of the song. Played it for him. I told him, this can be a good idea for something, you know. This sounds like Colombian, like Juanis type of stuff. Juanis is

another artist from Colombia. And he would do stuff that sounded like Waska, which is like a certain style in Medellín, where Colombia, like Maluma is from. So, I was a lot of, was trying to get a little bit of the culture vibes into the reggaeton track. And so I came up with this idea, this track and this hook that I played for the producer that night. And he actually liked it. He's like, well, that sounds interesting. Let me send this to Maluma.

He sent it over to Maluma that night. And Maluma was like, I love it. I want to record it and finish this track whenever I go back to Miami. And he was back in Miami like a week after. and when he came back, we did the song. Him and I had a lot of chemistry in the studio. And also, like, we went out there to play soccer and do stuff, like, not only just like music. And he came back, we did that record.

Two days later, it comes back. We do another record. So the records that he ended up going to Miami for with other writers never came out. And the record that I did with him, the two records that I did were the ones that came out. That was actually like one of my first radio singles that actually like made me feel like, well, shit, like I think I'm doing something, you know, like it's happening now. You know, I have a radio single with a new artist that's popping, that's actually like becoming something big. being a part of something like this,

for me, that was, that was huge at the moment. And then years after, like, him and I reconnect in a session here in L.A. with Timbaland. So weird. Timbaland, his camp calls me over to a session here in L.A. I didn't know who the session was for. They just told me it was a session with Timbaland. And when I come into the session,

five minutes after Maluma walks in and this, what are you doing here? It's like, what are you doing here? It's like, oh, no, they called me to a session with Tim. Yeah. And and that's where we reconnected like a year later

because I was just an intern. Like I said in the studio where I was working, that was just a cut that I got luckily as luck or whatever it is. And I wasn't supposed to have like the number, the artist number. I wasn't allowed to kind of have communication directly with the artist unless the producer who I was working with

brought him back to the studio and had the opportunity. So in that session where I was with Tim here in LA, we reconnected. And that's where he tells me like, yo, like, you want to hop over on tour with me and just like make music? I'm like, dude, yes, please. It's like, are you still working as an intern? Like, no, like I stopped doing that. You know, I moved on. You know, I'm doing my own thing right now.

He's like, perfect. Come over with me and let's just like write and make stuff. And then like months later, I'm in the room with Madonna and Maluma. and it's, yeah, it's just crazy. That is wild. Yeah. Writing in Miami versus Texas versus L.A., how does that influence writing Latin music?

It influences a lot because in Miami, 90% of the people speak Spanish. And I feel that it's perfect to do Spanish. When I come here to LA, you just like said something very interested because I'm always here trying to do cuts in English or something like is not Latin for some reason. In my head, it's just like the switch kind of like does that. Do you think in English when you're in L.A.? I never think in English at all. No, not at all.

Spanish is my first language. It's just like, I don't talk English like at my house nor anything. just like whenever I'm doing stuff like this with you. But why is your, how is your English so good? Because I went to school in the U.S. Because it's, it's the border. I did elementary and intermediate and high school in the U.S. But I mean, also being at the border, like in school, it would be like Spanish.

It's just that teacher would talk to you in Spanish. Right. It's like kind of like being in Mexico, but being in the U.S. side. Yeah, yeah. And, but I don't know. I think my mom, she's really fluent in English, though. My sister, actually, my sister, I think my sister, I had this conversation with my family the other day, and my sister was saying that she talks in English in her house with her

husband. And it's like weird because I don't. You know, I just, Spanish is my first language. But when I'm here in L.A., I'm always trying to do stuff like for pop or for something in English for some reason. Through, you know, 2017, I mean, you've so many cuts that it'll take, it takes six years to go through the amount of cuts you have. But you work at like Cinco right when they're doing their, or CNCO, whatever.

You know, like, there's all this hype around that being the next crossover kind of thing. At that point, you had had hits in Latin. but you were so close to having a hit in pop. Do you feel like you need to have hits in both? At that time, yes, I was feeling like I need to do this crossover. And I was actually during that time, I was coming over to L.A. a lot, a lot. That's where I met Joe and Ricky Reed. Yeah, Boma.

Back in 2016, yeah, I was just like doing stuff because I was trying to, I met Rick. at the Latin Grammys. And it was really weird because the story is super weird because I didn't know who Ricky was and he didn't know who I was, obviously. But he was at the red carpet and he was just like standing there, like being there. And I just won like a Grammy for this song that I had written.

And I don't like to do interviews or be like doing red carpets or stuff like that. And so I tried, you know, I saw this guy like just standing there. there and it was Ricky Reed and we just kicked it off and he's like, what's like, what are you doing here? I'm like, well, I'm a writer. I just got this Grammy for this song. It's like, what about you? It's like, oh, I'm a producer, but nobody like knows who I'm here in the Latin music and this and that. And it's like, oh, what have you done?

It's like, oh, I'm Ricky Reed. I'm like, what? You're, oh, shit. Like, you know, and it's like, then he was like, we went into the award show. He was sitting like right next to me, like right next to me. And then we, that the day after, we were. heading out, I was flying out back to Miami and I, we bumped to each other at the, at the airport again. And he's like, dude, like, it's, this is, this is not a coincidence.

Yeah. Dude, like, let's exchange numbers and you want to come to my studio in LA. I'm like, yeah, sure, of course. That's where I met Joe and, and I've been hearing a lot from you, like, since, since then, you know, everybody, you know, and it's just like being here with you guys again. It's just like, it's special for me. Let's go to Shakira real quick. I did a session with her.

She showed up in pajamas or like a sweatsuit thing. You're like, this is Shakira. She's the most stunningly beautiful human on the planet. You know, how did you, you know, at this point, you've made superstars with Maluma and some of these other people. And you've worked with Madonna and all this. But Shakira is like the, she seems like the pinnacle, at least from an American who knows who Shakira is and has worked with her. You know, what's the difference of working with a superstar versus somebody who's unknown?

I was, I was introduced to her by Maluma, actually. And that's where, you know, I go on tour with him. And one of the sessions was like, we're going to have a session with Shakira. and I was supposed to go in with Maluma, do this song with her, and I've always been a fan of her music. Like, for me, it was like, the day I work with Shakira,

the day I do something with Shakira, it's going to be insane. Like, for me, it's going to be like that, you know, cherry on the top. So I was supposed to do a couple of days with Maluma and Shakira, and then Maluma left me in Spain, because that was when she was living over there in Barcelona. and we got in together

and Maluma was like, okay, so I recorded my vocals for the song that we're doing together. I got to go. You got to stay. And I was supposed to stay for like a couple of days. I ended up staying for like a whole month over there, like maybe three weeks or a month.

It was just like, for me, it was like living the dream, working with Shakira. Because I got to do that record and then we started to do more music and more music and more and more. And I got to sit down and write with this huge legend, you know, who I'm a big fan of.

And she's taught me a lot. She's taught me a lot on the producer and my producer hat, whatever it is, that she is so good at what she does that she knows exactly what she wants and what she doesn't want. And if she tells you to lower a kick 2 dBs, and if you send your the track without doing that, she'll notice it. That's amazing. She's a genius. For me, she's a complete genius.

I think people don't realize that they want to believe that the narrative that pop musicians are somehow given the opportunity and that it's not earned. And especially the women in pop had to fight through so much more. Like, you worked with Ari. We'll get to the Ariana Grande stuff. She edits her own vocals. She does. You know, like, I don't think people realize how good the female pop stars are.

And especially compared to the male pop stars where somehow the narrative is that they're more hands-on. And my experience is that a lot of those are less skilled. I don't want to name names, but you work with Madonna and Ari and to go through that, like what's it like working with pop versus Latin superstars? You know, I learned something here in L.A. that the culture here in L.A. is different. And I learned it very early in my career, and I'm happy that I did learn that,

is that the sessions here in L.A. are people going in the room to actually do a song and do music. Over there in Miami, whenever you go to a session, you see writers taking pictures and, you know, like posting that, you know, I'm here in the studio and it's, or writers that are just like texting while you're writing a song and for me that's super disrespectful, you know, and when I came over here to LA working with, you know, this big legends, I realized that producers go in there and do their job and they don't they don't they don't they're not on their phone they're not taking

calls they're not doing anything and and it's i i learned that very early in my career and it helped me you know being in a session with madonna for example that you know learning how to behave in the studio because nobody teaches you how to how to be the producer in the studio how to read the room not not everybody knows how to how to read a room and that's that's that's tough and and like With Ari, it was, for me, it was an experience because that's shout out to Tommy Brown that brought me into that session. I'm eternally grateful with Tommy for that. Because I wasn't supposed to do a session with Ari.

It was me and Tommy working on stuff for Maluma because Tommy wanted to do stuff in Latin. And he wanted to bring in Maluma to L.A. Maluma was so busy with touring that Maluma was like, yo, you go ahead and do this session with Tommy. whatever you guys do, you send it over to me and if I like it, I'll cut it. So I come over to LA for two days, a two day session thing. It was like a Thursday and Friday thing. And we vibes so well in the studio.

Tommy and I in Franks was another producer that's part of his team. And that we were just like doing a bunch of stuff. We were doing tracks and tracks and tracks and doing, I was top lining to a lot of them. and sending him over to Maluma when Maluma was liking most of the stuff. And then Tommy was like, whenever, when the session finished that Friday, he was like, what are you going to do this weekend? I'm like, no, I'm flying back to Miami back home, you know. It's like, well, do you want to stay?

Like, to do what? She's like, well, Ari's going to come to the studio tomorrow and to do some stuff that she needs to do. Just so that you can meet her and whatever and it's not to work with her. We're not going to do any music. She's just going to cut something that she needs to do for her album. and you can just be here chilling I'm like, please,

yes, what am I doing tomorrow? Being with you? Here. I'm going to be here. I'm an intern. I'm an intern. I'm an intern.

That's what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. So yeah, I mean, I'm super grateful with Tommy because nobody does that to somebody that they just met two days ago. Yeah.

And I stayed there. She came over to the studio. I met her. It was at Tommy's place. Tommy's house and I was just, you know, like I said, it's important to know how to read the room. I stepped out of the room when I felt I needed to step out of the room. I just went upstairs and waited for them to finish the session to just kind of like chill and be there and let them work, let them do their thing and not be so invasive or so, you know,

trying to get something, trying to get a cut out of something. I wasn't there for that reason, you know, I was just there because Tommy invited me to kind of just chill and vibe in and that's what I was going to do, just chill and vibe. And we started doing like this sessions back to back with Tommy and Franks. We did a bunch of stuff together that one of them ended up being a boyfriend, which was the track that she cut. And I remember the day we were there in the studio when Tommy played her the beat, she she wasn't supposed to be there for this session.

She was supposed to be, she was, she was, she was in the studio doing an interview for Vogue or I don't know what it was. And it so happened that I was there earlier working on this track with Franks and Tommy. And she heard it and she, she came up with the, with the hook, like in two minutes. And she cut it right away. She wrote the whole thing by herself. Like, she wrote the lyrics. I was just doing the track with Tommy and Franks.

I didn't work on anything. And when I saw that happening, her writing and cutting, I just stepped out of the room because I wanted her to feel comfortable and not mess anything up. But I was hearing from the outside that she was cutting all the vocals and she was editing all the vocals and everything. And you start to realize, you know, that's the reason why she's a superstar. And that's the reason why she's where she's at because she puts. in the work. And she's actually, she's, she's, she's actually passionate about what she's doing.

And she's, she's not in here for the wrong reasons, you know. She's not just showing up to this session. She is the session. She is the session. You, you, bam, bam, speaking of Ricky Reed. Yeah. Featuring Ed Shearne, Camilla Cabo, former and the writer is guest. That's, that song is like the, one of those songs.

that really crosses over. Is there a moment for you where you feel like, have you scratched that itch yet? Is that the thing that scratches the itch? Yeah, that's one of them. Yeah. That was one of them for sure. That was a fun session.

That was Ricky calling me up for that and just jamming in the studio. It was just Ricky has this way of working that for me was a new way of doing music. It's just jamming. Yeah, it's making music of friends. And then that's a whole like it's a different vibe. It's a different vibe.

Yeah. We have so much to go through. I'm going to just bolt through some more. But Grupo Frontera. The first time I heard it was probably around 22, like during, we were still kind of in quarantine because we had a newborn. And I just remember hearing that and loving it. And you signed them, right? Are they signed to you?

No, they're not signed to me. No. Or you just are close to them. How did you get involved in that? I'm kind of like their mentor. Got it. And like the first records that we put out, I was trying to sign them. But then the guys, this is coming, going back to what we were talking earlier about signing people and being like, I don't like to feel like I own their own somebody.

It's not the way I want to do business as. So they treat me very well. That's all I can say. They treat me very well. They're not signed to my label. The first records that we put out, I did put them out through my label. Got it. Because there was like the first records that we did.

And they ended up making the decision that they want to stay independent. They don't want to sign to a label. And I respect that a lot because I wasn't trying to work with them or work with an artist from my hometown to own it or to own their their assets. I'm trying to, I was trying to do something for the culture, for my people, for my people in my hometown, you know, to try to make them feel that if I can do it, you can do it. You know, if it's, it's, you just got to put in the work and just got to, got to be passionate about it.

And the first records that we put out, we put them out through my label. And then the rest of them, I've been kind of like serving as a mentor, as a consultant, as their executive producer, 100%. And as their main songwriter and main producer. So I'm kind of like, yeah, it's like a project that I feel like it's very like my own project, maybe, I don't know. And working with all this artist, you know, who we've been collaborating. has been just like insane, you know,

like Shakira jumping on a record, Bad Bunny jumping in a regular way. That's wild, man. But it's also, this is, you know, going back to the Prince Royce era again where it's like you're, we're aiming for this middle ground. I'm writing the all English songs on the same album, you know?

And in this era, you know, it's, you know, an artist at that time was like Becky G. who was, you know, in the system here that's like, we're going to have you doing Spanglish or English. And by the time you're working with these, you know, fast forward 10 years and you're working with these artists where it feels so authentic. And authenticity in this era is everything, you know.

And you're bringing that out. Working with Becky G. And helping her kind of, I mean, you're really working with her at the pinnacle or working with Carol G. You know, how does seeing them being their authentic selves, you know, be successful as them? How gratifying is that? Very gratifying.

I mean, and that's something that I, now that you say all this stuff, I'm kind of like getting like a flashback of when I was trying to find myself as a producer too. Because at the beginning, you know, we all start off trying to be somebody else. And when all this stuff starts to happen with the group of Frontera stuff and, you know, doing, I stopped trying to be a producer that I wasn't. I was trying to be like trying to do urban music. And I'm not, this is not who I am. I wasn't raised or born in Puerto Rico or I'm not Colombian. I'm not, you know, I'm Mexican and I got to be proud of where I come from.

I got to be proud of my roots and this is who I am as a producer. And when I kind of realized the value that I had without trying to be somebody that I wasn't was when I kind of like did, you know, like boom, like it nailed. And that's where a group of frontera stuff happens, you know, where we, at the beginning, I tried helping them out because, you know, everybody dreams of being signed to a major and all this stuff. We pitched it to a lot of majors and most people before they blew up, they didn't see it. They were like, this is too raw.

You know, this is too raw. This is too, I don't know, I don't want to say like to Mexican or whatever it is. It's too regional. It's like, what, how does it feel modern? It's like, well, the lyrics, the lyrics and the melodies. And that's the modern part of it. It's like, yeah, yeah, but Sonic-wise, it feels like the same thing that they were doing in the 90s or the early 2000s. I'm like, yeah, yeah, but you're not getting it.

It's like, the way we're writing songs. It's like, yeah, it's just a song. The people were like, yeah, but it doesn't sound like something fresh. It sounds like something that's already been done. And I was like, a lot of people try to convince me to kind of move on and don't do the group of stuff. but then and for a while we lost communication

early in the career because the story is that the band played for a tire inauguration for my brother-in-law in Texas so the band wasn't famous they didn't have any hits or anything it was this local

band that my brother-in-law hired for this inauguration and there were like 15 people in the party. And nobody was listening to them, and I have this video of one of the guys telling, because, you know, I'm like the family member

that is in the music industry, and they were like, oh, man, tell your brother-in-law to listen to this band, to sign them and to help them out. They're going to be huge. And I have like this policy, not policy, but whenever I'm at home with my family, I don't like to talk about music. because I just want to feel like at home

and I don't want to be like the producer or the writer at home. It's just, I'm just a regular person. I take out the trash. I wash dishes. You know, I do what all of us do. And so we don't talk about music. And my brother-in-law is like,

I know you don't like to hear this, but I need to tell you that this band that I hired for my inauguration, you know, they want to meet you. It's like, man, like I don't, I don't want to do this. Like, no, no. But then, parallel to that, my wife had to get a surgery, like a major surgery at the time.

And I was going to be spending some more time in Texas. So my wife was like, well, maybe you have an excuse to be in Texas. Why don't you give it a shot? Give it a shot. And that way, you have an excuse to be here. I take care of my recovery from the surgery. And in the meantime, you can be doing something here. that way you're not bored and feeling like you're missing out something in Miami.

It's like, you know what? Yeah. So the day of the surgery before going to the hospital, I stopped at a Starbucks to have a meeting with the guys. That's where I met them. I do this meeting for like an hour. I met the guys. And I like them.

It was like, yeah, you guys are authentic. You guys are, I like you guys. Yeah, let's do this. Yeah. and yeah my wife did the surgery a week later i'm trying to figure out what songs i was going to give to them uh and that's where i started that's that's where everything started and and that's when i realized you know like we need to you know i needed to be authentic and needed to be proud of who i am as you know my roots and my culture and everything so uh peso and

Ivan are, we're my number one and number two, most listened to artists last year. It's just, it takes you somewhere. I think this is the whole thing about being authentic to a region that's also not where you're at. You know, you have an opportunity as a listener right now to be anywhere in the world. You don't have to listen to the music that is popular where you are. It's, you know, the vinyl that's in your dining room is on your phone for most people. And whatever it is with both those albums, like, just, like, it's, they're incredible. They just bring you somewhere.

But there's nuances and difference. Well, also Paiso's voice is just like, his voice. It's so unique. It's so unique. But, you know, everything you've done. up until now, like we were saying, it's like it all leads to this current moment

where you're nominated for songwriter the year this year because of the fact that everyone in the world listens to these albums. Seeing the rise of your genre,

your authenticity from that kind of Starbucks meeting, but kind of Like from that to the biggest artist in the world, what's it like to see your art be the biggest art in the world? It's crazy. Like it's, I'm just trying to be the guy that helps connect thoughts at the end of the day. And it's so exciting to see that, you know, people are connecting with what you are doing,

especially like an artist like Bezo, who is so. unique. And I met Pesso way before like it actually blew up, which also helps, it helped a lot in, and, you know, understanding him as an artist. I had a session with him before a lot of the songs that, you know, became huge hits, actually became like big records. And being with him at the studio, that's where I realized, like, this kid is different, you know, and this is, this is going to be huge. When I saw him, I told everybody that was who I was with, and I keep on saying it, like, you've got to be different.

And you got to be, being different makes you do stuff that, you know, and the way he's doing the, the, it's because whenever you're in the studio with the band, it's not only him, it's like the whole band, because he has a band. Pesso Pluma is like a band. It's just that he's the singer of the band. And the guys are so talented. The way the guy, Parca plays the upright bass, the Tololoche, and the Requinto and the Charchetas.

And when you see that, you're like, this is like progressive rock music. Like, it's actually people that know a lot about music. And they have a lot of experience playing on shows, on, you know, playing live. And he was, his success came at his perfect moment because he, he's an artist that it doesn't happen overnight success. Like, he actually has been working this sound for a while, you know, and that's something that it's very important for artists to understand that they just want to become viral and get this. 10 seconds on TikTok and become the next big thing. And they don't understand that there's a lot of work put, you know,

behind an artist like Bezos. And the way he resonates and connects with artists like Travis Scott, you know, or artists like Drake or, you know, whatever it is, you know, that you see. And it makes me proud as a Mexican, you know, to have somebody to have an artist from my country represents us as Latinos, you know, and we've, I've always,

I've always told him this and he's, for me, he's like my, my brother. And I'm proud of him. I'm really proud of him. Really proud of what he's doing. And the way he's putting it out there in Coachella, that moment stage in Coachella,

it's like, it's very important for us Latinos, especially nowadays, you know, with everything that's going on to have an artist like him being representing us. I'm going to go to the next, the next segment.

I'm going to just mention five things. Just tell me what comes out of the top of your head. Okay. All right. We're going to start with Maluma. Brother. Miami. Second home.

Oh, so McCallon being first. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. We're going to go with pop music. My dream. Really? Yeah.

I mean, here you are in L.A. And you have the craziest discography in the world. I mean, we have, it's, um, yeah, it's like the Latin version of Max or Ashley Gourley or whatever it is. It's crazy. Why is pop music your dream? It's something that, uh, I probably grew up listening to a lot of, pop records by Max Martin.

I'm a huge fan at Max Martin. And I worked with him before, and I just couldn't be myself. When I worked with him, I was just so starstruck with him. He's so sweet. No, he's amazing. He's amazing. He was joking because somebody introduced me to him. And he's like, oh, he has all these Grammys and stuff.

He's like, oh, I mean, at least you have more Grammys than me. I'm like, that's not about the Grammys, bro. Like, I admire him so much in the way he's done. that impact in pop music. And he's been like one of the writers that I look up to a lot. I mean, Quincy Jones is another producer that, you know, everything that he's done in the past. And I just, it's a, it's a big list of writers and producers that I admire a lot.

And, but pop music has always been this thing that, that I've always been chasing. I don't know why. I don't know why. Even this past week, you know, being back in the studio with, I don't want to say the artist, but there's certain artists that I work with, we're trying to chase this pop record for some reason. I don't know why. And maybe the pop records that I've had are the ones that I've had with, you know, Frontera and Bunny or Carl G.

Because at the end of the day, what's pop music? It's music that's popular, you know, and we're actually making music that's being popular at the moment. But for me, I still have that in me that I want to work with an artist like, I don't know, like Sabrina Carpenter maybe, you know, an artist like that just like being in the room. Because I want to have that experience of what it is to make a record like that. I've done all this. Yes, I've done this, but I haven't done this. Yeah. Latin music.

Oh, my passion. And then last. Your daughter. Oh, love of my life, man. You know, one, I appreciate you doing this. The podcast, I know you're a busy guy, and this has been a crazy couple weeks for you. But it's great having you on. It's great seeing people, you know, there's a reason why, you know, I think people assume that the ego of the people who are in the studio who are

on their phone taking the picture that annoy you because they're disrespectful in the session. Those people will struggle to survive in this industry longer than two years. And the people who succeed in this business are respectful of each other. They listen to other people. They ask questions. They're not there to talk only about themselves. And you are a humble person who doesn't always talk about himself. and I just appreciate you being so open

and I'm excited to have this be the first of many interviews. No, thank you for having me. You are a legend, man. I'm really appreciate you. No, and I mean, I'm excited. I kind of don't do a lot of interviews, but I'm very proud to represent

like the hardworking Latinos here in the U.S. And that it's possible, you know, to accomplish a dream. This is my dream and I'm living the dream, the American dream. it's possible. So yeah, I'm just proud to be here with you guys. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed this episode.

It was produced by me and Joe London in association with Mega House Music Group. If you like this episode, go give us a rating at wherever you listen to your podcast. And make sure to follow us at And The Writer is on all your socials. We'll see you next week.