Óscar Armando Díaz de León Huez, better known by his stage name Carín León, is wearing a beige cowboy hat, with a classic crown and open brim with its toquilla and a reddish feather.
The rest of his outfit is complemented by a black turtleneck t-shirt with a black leather vest and jeans.
The rustic scenery where he is located is part of his Tiny Desk, a small and intimate concert format in which artists can be seen without artifice.
“Thank you very much for supporting our music, for allowing us to show you a little more of the soul that I and my colleagues have, of the desire we have to make music and experience things in regional Mexico,” says León, surrounded by his musicians.
They begin to play
No es por acá
, a song from their album
Inédito
, from 2021, in which the 34-year-old singer from Hermosillo, Sonora, began to show the first glimpses of his creative vein and his desire to go outside the lines. most traditional layouts.
The romantic lyrics are accompanied by traditional regional instruments such as the tololoche, the tuba and the accordion, but in this ballad they dialogue and are complemented by instruments such as the electric guitars, the bass and the dobro, resulting in a fusion of Sierra sounds with country rhythms.
Typically, Tiny Desk presentations take place in Washington, DC, at the NPR (National Public Radio) offices, but Carín does it from home due to the restrictions that still remain due to covid-19.
It was September 19, 2022. There were a few months left until the release of
Colmillo de leche
, his most recent album that was released in the first quarter of 2023. Without knowing it, but that moment was like a premonition of what was going to happen. come.
“We really like this song, giving weight to what it means and above all seasoning it with our sound and removing the
cliché
that in regional Mexico you cannot make quality music.
This is
my first date
.”
This is how Carín León said goodbye, without knowing that in December 2023—a little more than a year later—, with a Latin Grammy under her arm for Best Northern Music Album for
Colmillo de leche
, she was going to be presenting the same song in Nueva York, at Rockefeller Center, on Jimmy Fallon's
The Tonight Show
, one of the most watched programs on late-night television in the United States.
Carín León's 2023 has been a sum of efforts and diversification, which are reflected in collaborations such as
According to whom
, with Maluma, in a mix of regional and urban;
or more pop-style with Reik in
The Right One;
or without moving away from his roots, but with that fusion that he seeks, as in
Alch Sí
, the new song with country touches in which he accompanies Grupo Frontera.
It is the summary of a year of hard work that was crowned with the cherry of
Primera cita
, the most listened to song by
Colmillo blanco
, which to date has accumulated more than 450 million views on Spotify.
“I think 2023 was very clear with what the
First Date
phenomenon was .
I think they have opened a panorama for us and I think that all this music that we released together with other colleagues has contributed a lot to the Mexican region.
It is a year that has marked a lot, especially for the expansion of this genre and for the destigmatization of it,” says León through a video call.
Since last year, Carín León has been an ambassador of the slogan
Fuck regional
(translated from English as
Fuck the regional
), in which she defends regional as a set of genres that must stop marginalizing and denigrating them with statements such as “ He is nothing more than the people”, when in reality “culturally he has a lot to contribute”.
“It means thinking of our Mexican region as a world power.
Change our mentality, realize that they are sounds that identify us and we must carry them as a banner and expose them to the world as our main tool,” says the singer.
The Mexican singer Carín León.Courtesy
León started music in his adolescence, learning to play the guitar at school.
At 16 he formed the band Los Reales, dedicated to playing at local parties and events.
In 2010, at 21, he formed another band, Grupo Arranke, with which they became famous for the success
Through the Glass
and in which he remained for seven years as vocalist, guitarist and composer.
In 2018 he launched as a soloist and knew how to be versatile in the regional, developing in genres such as northern, ranchera, corridos, mountain music or banda with the reissue of a popular song that went viral as
La wedding del Huitlacoche
.
After squaring himself as an artist within the lines and rules of regional genres for several years, León reached a breaking point and finally said “
fuck it
,” bypassing conservatives and those who defend “purism.” ” of genres.
León grew up listening to Ramón Ayala or Los Cadetes de Linares, icons of regional Mexican music, while also enjoying Queen, Journey, Kenny Rogers and Silvio Rodríguez.
It is for this reason that
Colmillo blanco
, and the 18 songs that make it up, was an artisanal process together with his team to do whatever they wanted, without the radio or television telling them what to do or what to sing, simply doing " "what comes from the heart."
“All that musical influence doesn't have to be fought.
There are many influences from flamenco, from the soft rock of the eighties, from the Italian pop sound of the nineties.
There are many things that have shaped my life musically as a person, like Carín, and that go through a regional filter, which is how I see
Colmillo de leche
.
For me, the biggest risk is continuing to do the same thing.
This album was more than experimenting, it was bringing out what I have inside me and that has been here all this time and saying I'm going to put it on the table,” he says.
The interest in León and the explosion of his light towards the international radar has been such that there are even YouTube channels of singing teachers or vocal
coaches
who react to the Sonoran singing and who describe him as having a “privileged” voice and technique, with very distinctive lyrical resources from performers of genres such as R&B, country, soul or blues.
However, Carín, coming from a family fond of music and its only member who dedicated himself professionally to it, would seem to have an innate gift.
He says that he is not a method artist, “I am a very lazy person,” he admits with a laugh.
But he does work in a more experimental and introspective way with his influences and the music that he heard growing up to search for the color of his voice or to play with the sound of his oral cavities.
“He has a lot of influence from country music [he talks about his voice].
I have also heard all this roots music, this whole movement from New Orleans, from Nashville, which has a lot of similarity with our region.
Country has developed in a very similar way to what happened with regional Mexico.
An artist is also what he listens to and that makes very interesting sounds come out.
When you stop wanting to belong or sound like a musical genre, something more genuine comes out,” he complements.
León is one more ambassador of this explosion that the Mexican regional has had, comparable, according to different specialists, to what happened with the rise and consecration of reggaeton years ago.
And like a prominent representative, the doors have been opened this year to a great stage like the Coachella Festival.
In Indio, California, he will be accompanied by Peso Pluma and Santa Fe Klan in the three-day event in April, following in the wake of the previous year's presentation by Grupo Frontera, which had a special appearance with Bad Bunny .
Additionally, in addition to the 30 US cities he toured in 2023, in addition to his concerts in Mexico, his calendar will not stop this year until October.
That month, León will make the leap to the old continent in Madrid in his first solo show at the Wizink Center, the stage where his compatriot of the corridos tumbados and also the singer of
Ella Baila Sola
performed a few months ago.
The Sonoran, who has had collaborations with C. Tangana, on
El Madrileño
—considered one of the best albums of recent years—, with Keith Urban and Rosario o Grupo Firme, has received critical acclaim for
Colmillo de leche
, an album that various media and specialists have considered as a watershed of the Mexican regional.
Despite that and flattered by the praise, he admits that he is still looking for that work that will consecrate him.
“
El Madrid
is a work of art, one of the greatest that has come out in the last 20 years in popular music.
What I'm looking for is to move something in the mind or change something in the music.
At least that's what was done or attempted with
Milk Fang
.
Seeing all these articles that critics have given us and that they have told us about our album fills us with a lot of pride and above all it is a blast of gasoline, but I think we are still on the way to searching for that masterpiece.
“It is what we want,” he concludes.
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