Few people have had a better year than Pedro Tovar. The 21-year-old singer is the voice behind Eslabón Armado, one of the biggest bands in the booming música Mexicana scene. This year, Eslabón Armado released Desvelado, a follow up to their 2022 emo sierreño opus, Nostalgia, which made history on the charts.
Desvelado features “Ella Baila Sola,” the track with Guadalajara-raised artist Peso Pluma that also made huge waves: “Ella Baila Sola” was crowned the song of the summer, its first few guitar chords followed by blaring horns reverberating across park barbecues in New York City, clubs across Mexico, and, as I experienced recently, a coffee shop in the Baltic city of Gdansk, Poland.
Música Mexicana, also known as regional Mexican music, is a radio format used to describe ensemble music such as banda, norteña, and grupera that have their roots in Northern Mexico and the American Southwest. These genres have grown exponentially in popularity over the past couple of years. According to Spotify data, música Mexicana streams have jumped 450 percent since 2018. Acts like Eslabón Armado and many of their collaborators, such as Junior H and Grupo Frontera, are pushing the movement forward.
In the past couple months, Tovar and his band-mates, the California natives Brian Tovar, Damian Pacheco, and Ulises González, have performed on Good Morning America, they threw the first pitch at a Dodgers game, received a couple of Latin Grammy nominations, and played the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Just a few days ago, Tovar fulfilled a longtime dream of seeing Mexican pop-star Luis Miguel live. “I low-key cried when he came out,” said Tovar, who once referred to El Sol de México as his “freakin daddy.”
Now, Eslabón Armado is ready to release “La Fresa,” a song that is ostensibly for all the single plebitas. The track, which comes out Friday Oct. 6, is Eslabón’s first collaboration with rising-star Gabito Ballesteros. In anticipation of the single’s release this week, Rolling Stone caught up with Eslabón Armado’s Pedro Tovar to discuss the collaboration with Ballesteros, the magic of Luis Miguel, and the global footprint of Mexican music.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Congratulations on the Latin Grammy nominations, the Dodgers pitch, and turning 21 this year. All very big!
Thank you so much. It’s been a year… I’m a little bit tired because yesterday I went to see Luis Miguel.
That’s huge. Didn’t you mention in an interview that that’s who you really wanted to see him live?
Yeah. I low-key cried when he came out…I cried during two songs.
Tell me a little bit about how this collaboration “La Fresa” with Gabito happened. How did it come about?
We’ve been going on and forth talking to each other on Instagram. We’ve wanted to do a lot with each other, but it hasn’t happened. I want to say we’ve been chatting since the beginning of this year. And we’ve been going back and forth saying, ‘Oh, let’s do [a song].’ And either he’s busy or I’m busy. One day I was in the studio, and I recorded the whole thing. And then he really liked it. He was really into it. So I sent it to him and he put the vocals on it, and we recorded the video. He’s super chill, humble and just the type of friends I like to make.
In an L.A. Times piece, one fan describes your music as capturing a range of emotions in the songs: Happy, drunk, sad and confused, you have it all. Can you describe this new song to us?
I feel like the song is very much of an independent feeling, especially for a girl who doesn’t need a guy in her life, and doesn’t want to be in a relationship at the moment. When she goes out partying with her friends, if someone wants to do something nice, then maybe they can give her flowers. And I think a lot of people can relate to that.
Did you imagine a specific setting in which someone would hear this song as you’re recording it?
Probably just out with their friends or by themselves, in the gym or wherever they feel empowered, because it’s an empowering pop song. It’s a girl who’s in control because you’re always hearing a guy in a song, and it’s usually about him and then the girl comes in. I’ve always wanted to do a song like [“La Fresa”] but it never worked out, and I think this one has the vibe.
So are you saying this song is for the girls?
Basically.
You’ve mentioned that sometimes you imagine Morgan Wallen or Zach Ryan or Luke Combs in your songs. As we know, there’s been a lot of cross-genre collaborations in música Mexicana. How do you see the movement stretching out from its original bounds and incorporating more pan-Latin influences and even Americana?
I think the sound has been changing for the last 20 years, not to say that back then, it was all just banda and norteña. But now we’re putting in traditional instruments to the banda, like the trombone, and we’re just mixing a sound that will catch people’s ears, something that will sound new and fresh. It’s a whole new sound, basically. And I feel like that’s what other artists from other genres are liking, because they have the ear for it, but it’s just new to them.
As a California native, what do you make of all the música Mexicana that’s being made in the U.S.? How does your exposure to both cultures influence your sound?
My lyrics, the way I write songs, is completely different from all the other people, like Natanael Cano or Junior H. Their style is completely different, like in lyrics, and since they’re from Mexico, they say things that I don’t even know how to say. I kind of have to find my own lingo and go with more of my lyrics and people still like it. So it’s for sure different from being over here… But every time I go on Spotify or Apple, I see our biggest fanbase is in Mexico. Mexico is one of our bigger goals and we want to go soon.
Critics have pointed out that música mexicana isn’t just a moment, but rather it’s a movement that has long been in the making. And Eslabón Armado is one of the artists leading this movement now. Why do you think this genre has gotten so big among such different audiences without sacrificing its core sound?
It’s gotten big because there’s an audience of people ages like 10 to 15, maybe 16, 17, 18 that are consuming the music in a whole different way than back then. I feel like now, like it’s just the younger audience that are loving the music, and it makes them want to start playing music, and it makes them want to start singing, and playing guitar just like how I did when I was 14 or 13. When I listened to Ariel Camacho I was like, I want to do this – I want to pick up a guitar, I want to play. And it’s the same thing. It’s just a cycle that’s going on and on and on. But it’s just growing bigger, and it’s going to continue to be bigger and hopefully they will change the name. Instead of Regional Mexican, I want it to be música mexicana.
Do you think the term “regional Mexican” doesn’t make sense for the genre’s ambitions?
I feel like people listen to this music outside of Mexico – I feel like it’s all over the country, all over the world. People in South America listen to it. People in Spain listen to it. They listen to this music because they know that it’s good. So I feel like I shouldn’t be “regional” anymore, I think “música Mexicana” is more expansive and I just want to see it grow more.
You’ve accomplished a lot this year, but this year is not over for you. What are you looking forward to the most? What can we expect from you?
We’re doing this album, which we’re trying to release at the end of this year and hopefully it does happen. Kind of like a surprise album that I don’t want a lot of people to know but some people already [who] know are actually fans. I want to drop it unexpectedly and there’s songs in there that are really good. Just release more music, more videos, and keep making people happy. I think those have always been my goals and I think I’m achieving them day by day.
Can you tease out any of the vibes that fans should be expecting?
This album’s way more upbeat. I feel like I’ve always done super sad music, so this album is dance-y in a way, where people in the club could be partying and listening to