Interview: Carin León Talks Regional Mexican Meets Country with New Walker Hayes Collaboration
Regional Mexican sensation Carin León talked to us exclusively here at crema by mitú about his upcoming collaboration with Country star Walker Hayes to celebrate Amazon Music Latin’s Latinx Heritage Month. Both singers teamed up to create an Amazon Original song and video that showcases the history and connection of the two musical movements.
On October 1st, Amazon Music will launch a new playlist called “Whiskey & Tequila” which honors two of Amazon Music’s most popular genres: Regional Mexican and Country Music and Carin talked to us about his experience, future projects and more.
Read: Interview: Carin Leon Talks Regional Mexican Fusions, Collaborations With C. Tangana And Grupo Firme
For Carin León, fusions like this one with Walker Hayes comes naturally
Carin León is no stranger to creating fusions and genre-bending collaborations. The Regional Mexican star’s viral cover of the Colombian vallenato song “Tú” has over 189 million views to date, and his collabs range from Grupo Firme to C. Tangana and more.
About this project with Amazon Music Latin, Carin said: “It’s something that makes me extremely proud, for me as a musician this makes me extremely happy. I love this new wave that’s coming not only to the Regional Mexican genre, but music in general, where we’re breaking more stigmas and removing labels from genres. [Regional Mexican] tends to be very closed off and purist, that we shouldn’t even go beyond other instruments that we already play, that we shouldn’t mix genres. But here comes the pandemic factor, the social media factor, which have influenced us this time around to realize that Regional Mexican and Country aren’t that far away from each other”, Carin shared.
“It’s great for us to bridge two musical worlds that aren’t necessarily that distant from each other on a map. This is a huge movement to create a union between sounds and two different nations. I’m very happy to be chosen to lead this movement and represent Mexico the best way that I can”. – Carin León.
Carin talked to us about his experience performing “Cambia!” with C. Tangana and Adriel Favela at the 2021 MTV MIAW Awards
“It was incredible, ever since we worked on that song it changed my life”, Carin shared about working on C. Tangana’s now-Latin Grammy nominated album ‘El Madrileño‘, which has the genre-bending collaboration where Flamenco-meets-Regional alongside Carin and fellow Mexican artist Adriel Favela.
“It’s something that blew our minds, and it’s great to see Pucho [C.Tangana] as someone to look up to in music. He’s always reinventing himself, trying new sounds. It was an amazing experience to do this fusion and perform it live on stage. It was something that was very rich both musically and culturally, and an overall unforgettable experience”, Carin continued.
On representing the new wave of Regional Mexican artists
For Billboard Latin Music Week, Carin was part of the panel ‘Regional No More’, where the new wave of Regional Mexican artists talked about the future of the genre.
When asked about what it meant for him to represent Regional Mexicano, Carin shared: “It’s a great satisfaction to be at this panel, but also a huge responsibility. It’s up to us to take the genre to new heights, and taking advantage of the opportunities presented to us. I’s amazing for [Billboard Latin Music Week] to take us into account and give us a space to showcase ourselves as exponents and leaders in our music. I love to serve as an inspiration for younger artist to take the initiative to reinvent themselves in music, to take their music to another level and to new audiences.”
Carin is already working on his next album
For his next project, Carin is going back to his roots. “We want to go back to what we did on the first album, going back to our rancheras, going back to truly Regional Mexican”, Carin shared. “We’re excited for this Walker Hayes collaboration to come out, but we also have more in store. There’s one with Banda MS, Piso 21, we also have the collaboration with Matisse which we just released. We’re in talks for more collaborations with Urban artists as well, but you guys will find out by the end of this year”, Carin continued.
