NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Every El Tiny song has a secret

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

The Tiny Desk’s magnetism is its intimacy. We strip back lights and a big stage and get to see artists speak honestly about who they are directly to an audience around the world.This becomes all the more profound during our El Tiny takeover of Latin Music Month, where artists whisper truths and share secrets about community, country, pain and family. Often on production days, artists share with us the importance of each individual song — the stories behind them and why they needed to be played in such an honest space.So, this week on Alt.Latino we wanted to let you all in on the secrets. Alex Ferreira, Draco Rosa and Los Tigres del Norte shared in their own words, what their Tiny Desk songs meant to them. Hopefully, learning what’s behind the songs will help each show mean a little bit more for all of you, too.Artists and songs featured in this episode:Mon Laferte, "No Le Regales Tu Corazón"Alex Ferreira, "Monte Adentro"Draco Rosa, "Vagabundo"Los Tigres del Norte, "Somos Más Americanos"You can watch the Tiny Desk Concerts featured in this episode here.This podcast was produced by Noah Caldwell. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the chisemes begin. And Felix. Yes. Boy, do we have some chisemet this week. Oh, my God. This week, the chisemet is the fact that we're closing out our sixth annual takeover of the Tiny Desk for Latin Music Month, which we call it El Tiny. And we want to celebrate in a way, Anna, that we've never done before. I love when we do things differently, Felix.

We're always doing things differently. We like to keep people on their toes. It's only they do, man. God. So, okay, before we get into it, Felix, I really like not only this idea, but where it came from, so I'm going to give a little bit of context.

With Mon Lafertes, no le regales your core son. So Mon was the artist we had kick off the month this year, and is one of those artists that I love to talk about the fact that she made a big because she is a big artist, not because of her.

radio plays or TikTok popularity or catchy melodies even, but because she really has this great emotional significance to what she does that actually touches a lot of people in this very profound and intimate way. And so this song in particular, when I heard it Felix off of her new album, it was like my tipping point moment. I heard it. I cried and I was like this absolutely has to be at the desk. I think when you I think when you there's no

the really intense emotional energy of the room and the thing is Felix is when I initially heard this song I couldn't completely understand why I was so emotionally impacted by it Because if you hear the lyrics, just the lyrics, it could sound like a really beautiful love song to her husband and the father of her child, which it is. But musically, there's some resistance there. There's some tension.

That guitar sounds like it's weeping. And so once I heard the story behind the song, it made a lot more sense to me. It is a love song, a love letter, rather, for her husband that she wrote for him shortly after their son was born. It addresses the fact that he at the time was struggling with some pretty. severe depression around the birth of their child. This was something that had a history in his family. His family had actually suffered a family tragedy around his birth. And so he was afraid that he would experience the same levels of depression and sadness when their son was born.

That is exactly what happened to him. And so Mon wrote him this story. No le reales tu corazon. Don't give your heart away. At one point in the song, she does go on to say, I continue to believe that my love can save us. It was this knowledge of this story that made me realize, Felix. One of the biggest things I've learned about this job, bringing artists to the tiny desk,

is that each individual song has an extremely important connection to an artist's personal lives. I mean, as we're talking about artists who come and bring their entire careers, their entire legacy, they're trying to think about what to perform that will really sum up, not just their careers, but really who they are. That's the benefit of an intimate strip-down space. they bring these songs that really mean something for them. So I thought it might be interesting to highlight a few different artists and the importance of a particular song that they brought to the tiny desk. Alex Ferreira, Draco Rosa, and Los Tigres del Norte.

They're each going to share with us in their own words what one song from their tiny desk meant to them. We're going to kick things off with Alex Ferreira and his song, Monte Adentro. Monte adentro with the ramas of olivar Mountie adenra is a song of my new record, The Arte de Esperar and Montaedentros means in English, How would you say this? The mountain inside.

Yeah, I mean, like in the DR, in El Campo, people say, yeah, he went Monte de-dro. It's like really deep into, like, away from the city, in a sense. This song for me is like a trip inside of oneself, finding resilience in a relationship, finding a way to make it work. Relationships change with time. Every relationship has like different stages and you get like a test in every stage. And sometimes you got to go really deep inside the woods

to find the answer of how to make something work for a long time because we change in this journey inside. And we got to learn from each. other and make it work. I'm vireto in the waters of manantiales corriente rota for

bordo the cause a raudal that a count got I know I know when when the

the records and the details not perdures that this encounter You mentioned that it's off your record, El Arte Esperar, which is the art of waiting or to wait.

The whole record has themes kind of about introspection or waiting or spending time with something. I mean, how does that particular lesson of the way that you have to think or spend time really going into yourself to dig something out to understand how to sit in a relationship, how does that fit into the album as well? whole, that idea that you had and how you're making music today. In this album, when I speak about love, obviously there's another angle you could talk about this.

That's more of the passion or love at first sight or loving that sense of immediacy in a way. And in this record, I'm trying to talk of love and the love that you work with time. I've noticed that I've been obsessed. with time for a long time. I've been writing songs. The word time comes up a lot or something that has to do with the passing of time. And when you get older, you have a different relationship with time.

It goes at a different speed, I believe. And in this record, I'm talking about the one that needs to be more taken care of or the ones that change, how I was saying about the song, that kind of love. So it fits perfectly in the record. There's a song that called Precisa Tiempo, which says it really up front, like love needs time to grow, to change.

So yeah, that's like the whole thing about the album. Patience. And when I talk about this in the record, I'm not trying to say, like, I know how to do it. This is more of something I do when I write songs to remind myself that you, You need, sometimes you need time to develop an emotion or a bond. When or what made you decide you wanted to interrogate that idea of time in your life or the speed of time in your life?

Yeah, like I said, it's been like an obsession of mine. Because I've written songs that contradict completely this album, you know, about, you know, grabbing things before they leave, you know, about, you know, about, you know, there's another angle you can look at this where where time is not good you need to you need to go now or it goes away you know so i've i've always been obsessed in these you know angles where you could look at this and right now this is the one that that i've been working on time as as something that you need to understand it with the passing of time it's interesting yeah that is really interesting. And when you get older, it goes faster because the logic behind this is that when you're a little boy, a little kid, a little girl, you know, like a summer, is eternal, you know,

or the school year. It's like, wow, this school year is forever. Or you remember these summers as being like decades. And now, you know, years go by really quick. And we live in this era of immediacy. and yeah, it's funny how it expands the older you get. You have a daughter. Do you feel a difference every day or frequently in the way that you perceive time and how she perceives time? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, having a kid reproducing yourself is probably the number one reminder of time going by really fast, especially when they're this age she's four now so every week you see her change in a very dramatic way

and and that at the same time is as a clock in front of you like telling you like time is passing she's growing up like now when i see pictures of her when she was born i don't recognize her that much it's like wow she was like that i don't remember that so yeah like having a child is a way of having, you know, this reminder every day that life goes by really quick. The songs that you mentioned were you're grabbing at time, do you have a specific example of one? They're mostly, you know, passionate songs about love. When I was playing at Tiny Days, like images of went flashing by in my head of my whole career, in a sense.

Venka de Kirober, for instance, is a very special song for me. And yeah, that one is more about passion about now. I want to see you now, you know. Does it. Does it feel like you To be To see From there

In cancions No see what I'm To see Be, That I want to Be Be That I want to

Do you feel weird To play songs like that Where you felt differently About time Next to each other At the beginning I thought it was going to be Weirder actually

But when we played them side by side is just, you know, like a photo of myself. I like to think as songs as something that also change with you. I don't play this song as I played it when I wrote it. And I think that's cool, you know? Why of all your newest songs did you pick Montaedentro?

I've been playing the songs of this new album for a while and I've been playing all of them, the 10 songs of the new album. album. And I've felt something with Monte de Dentro live that I don't feel with other songs. There's just something that gives me goosebumps when we play it live. And other songs that I thought were going to be even more important, I don't feel that. So I went with my feeling in this one. I'm happy

that I got to play the 10th 10th 10th and it kind of lives there in a sense. Alex Federo's word and then we're going to come back with Dracquess in your life an error. Alex Federo's words are just as profound as his music. We're going to take a short break and then we're going to come back with Draco Rosa and Los Tegres in North. Okay. Okay, we're back in, we're going to spend a little bit of time with Draco Rosa. He's one of the most fascinating guys in music in general, any language, I think. He was a member of Menudo in the 1980s with Ricky Martin. Then he became this pop writer.

He wrote for Ricky, including his biggest hits, Living La Vida Loca, She Bangs, La Copa de la Vida. And he started taking his own personal journeys. He did some rock. He did some Puerto Rico folk music. He was also producing and songwriting for others. Then in 1996, he released the album Vagabundo, which I think broke everyone's expectations of who he was and what he was doing with his music. I personally think that's one of the best rock and Hispaniol records of all time.

And he created a whole sound based on his own music. musical adventure. One of the things I love about Draco Rosa, Felix, is he is an artist you know, even if you don't know him. I think that's super crucial to know as part of this story, because really, his experience and his music actually impacts many of us. Completely agree, Diana. Let's hear a little bit of him playing vagabundo at the tiny desk.

So I had a chance to talk to him when he made him when he made that record, emotionally, physically, all of the above. Vagabundo summed up a few years prior to recording that were There was a lot going on. I was in a certain headspace, you know. When I talk about spiritually, I think I had hit a certain place, but I was living somewhat of adventurous life. You know, I was traveling a lot.

I spent time in Spain. I went out to the U.K. And then in Spain, I traveled within Spain. And then in that particular song, it summed up a certain lifestyle. that I no longer live, right? It was a moment that I was trying to figure some things out, you know, like most human beings,

just kind of trying to find my way. So I'm still trying to find my way, but I'm just a little more relaxed about it, that's all. You know, when I first heard Vagabundo the song and the rest of the record, I didn't really get it at first, but then as I started to understand my own personal journey in life, then these messages started to resonate, and it really is about the spiritual journey of life.

Yeah, the journey, yeah. The hero's journey, right? Joseph Campbell. You know, finding out, you know, how, you know, as a kid, like in the 70s year, watch Star Wars and finding out later on about Joseph Campbell and George Lucas, all the inspiration, all these Jedi's and all the yogis right there. It's a beautiful, a manna dao muy way, right? And, you know, you don't want to lean too hard on anything because it's a strange world

to commit to any one thing. but I think that that path is beautiful. And in the Buddhist path, in particular, I always remember I was one of my significant others, used to, once upon a time, used to tell me she trusts no one. And I used to have, the Buddhist way, was like, well, you don't trust anyone, then you can't be trusted. And I always remember that. He created such a definitive statement of the self with that track, and yet it's shaped shapeshift sonically as the years go along. So I asked him, how do you change your perspective or your approach without losing the meaning of the song?

Yeah, and that's always a tough one, right? You cease to, you know, sometimes you have this idea of doing music for a long time and, you know, the dangers of becoming a parody of yourself or, you know, and trying to just, yeah, please the moment. It's such a brief life and music is so vibrant and for me it's a, It's a very, it's always been spiritual. I can say today I didn't know it was, you know. I've, to me, it matters. It matters every moment you sing. You don't just sing just to sing.

You want to sing and you want to connect, right? You want to connect with some other, that force, the source, the source, that energy. And it's not always there for you, you know, it is. You just got to show up though. That's what we try and do anyway. You know, Anna, that wasn't the first time that I talked to him in an interview situation,

I kind of think it was around the pandemic. I can't even remember now during the lockdown that we had an extensive conversation about what he was doing back then. And, you know, Draco, maybe that's why I'm attracted to his music and his journey because we got real deep, real fast and talking about life, talking about spirituality,

talking about, it's always centered around the journey, the personal journey, the professional journey, even the journey within a song. And this is like a continuation of the initial a conversation that we had way back when. Okay, Felix. So we finally arrived to our last little song interview, and this one is really special,

because we were able to close out this month with Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most legendary legends of all time from Mexico. Yeah, and I think a little bit behind the scenes will help here. We have been trying to get them for a long time, but, you know, they're just always so... A long time. They're always so busy because they're always engaged. You know, I don't even consider their tours, tours.

It's more like engaging with their audience, visiting their audiences all over the United States, all over Mexico, all over, even in Europe. So, yeah, it took a while to bring them into the tiny desk, but we finally got them this year. And you know what, Fee, this really felt like the right moment to do it for a lot of reasons. I mean, the Tigres have always been crucial, I would say spokespeople, more than just musicians for the Mexican community, for the Mexican-American community in the United States. And so I was really excited when, you know, we were discussing set list and the first song, their opening song, that they wanted to play is their song, Somos Mascarans. So when I spoke to them about a particular. So when I spoke to them about a particular song, I obviously had to ask them about that song and why it was important to play it.

So Jorge Hernandez, one of the members of the band started by explaining to me that they received the song actually completed. It was written by this composer, Enrique Valencia, who he describes to be a radical composer for the time. It was a song that really caught their attention because it's a history that isn't taught in Mexico or in the United States. It was a story they hadn't been taught, and it surprised them. Now, the history he's referring to is the fact that much of the Western part of the United States was once Mexico. The song itself states, I want to remind the gringo, I didn't cross the border, the border crossed me. America was born free, the man divided it. They drew the line for me to jump over it.

and they call me invader. It is a well-marked error. They took eight states from us. Who is the invader here? So, Jorge goes on to explain. So he explains that they knew the song had something interesting to share when they recorded it. And especially now, it feels particularly relevant to what we've been experiencing lately. We, being the Latino community in the United States.

The song has a double message, he shared. It says that all of us Latinos, especially Mexicans, are legitimate in this country because of those eight states, which the song mentions, used to be part of Mexico. The song continues to be important for so many today. Hernanéz, another people when we're in live, people who

yore That's why it's called Somos Mascarans. We are all more American. And its meaning keeps changing over the years. But while the meaning of the song changes, the narrative does remain the same. Luis Hernandez, another band member explains that a lot of people, because, as well it says the song,

those states that were to Mexico. Luis Hernandez, another band member, explains that a lot of people, still feel like foreigners in their own land. Because as the song says, they took away those states. And Jorge recites a line in the song where he explains, no matter what country someone's from, they come for a better future and to work.

He explains that that's why we are changing the way we see things, because there are more of us here in the United States now, Latinos who are fighting for the same cause. The narrative remains the same. Those who are arriving continue to suffer and continue to face the same. same problems as those who arrived a long time ago. We get to see them in a more intimate, maybe most intimate way more than we ever see them.

And personal and intimate for the people who watch this. I think a lot of the messages that these bands or these artists communicate are trying to communicate in their music. They're stripped back. They're more clear. It's like mixing the message up front, right? And then everyone who's watching around the world gets to really absorb and feel both the message and the emotions behind it.

And that just every year it makes what we do here this. month feel more and more special, especially for our community. Yeah, it happens all year round. You're exactly right. And when it's concentrated in Latin Music Month, the artist, and certainly the audience, it really resonates. It really pops. It really sinks in.

It really has a special meaning. I want to give a big thank you to all of the amazing artists that we had. I mean, even if we didn't tell a story behind one of their songs, they all had equal thought and intention and brought beauty to this desk like every year. Honestly, Felix, like I said, at the beginning of the month, I think this might be my favorite lineup yet. It's, it was very special. It's very special.

You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our producer is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Surrey-Mohamed. And Sonali Menta is executive director. As always, we really love to hear from you, especially after this month. Drop us the line, tell us which of the concerts from El Tani were your favorite and why?

We'd love to hear from you. And by drop us a line, Felix means email us at alt-latino at npr.org or comment on wherever you're listening to this podcast. Yeah, I forgot that part. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you all so much for listening and watching.