Grupo Frontera revived Cumbias Norteñas. Now, “They're Trying Everything”

If you ask the members of Grupo Frontera because they have become such a phenomenon in música mexicana, they will probably say that they are just having fun.

“Cumbias, I don't want to say we revived them,” says singer Payo Solis, eyeing his bandmates hesitantly at first. He then adds, “But when we started playing them, it gave the genre a whole new life.”

Over the past year, the Texan group has been rising to the top of Latin music, even joining Bad Bunny on stage at Coachella 2023 for a cover of their collaboration “Un x100to.” On their debut LP, El Comienzo, the group—consisting of Solis, drummer Carlos Guerrero, guitarist Beto Acosta, percussionist Julian Peña, accordionist Juan Javier Cantú, and bassist Brian Ortega—harnessed a generation's nostalgia for the accordion-backed norteño sound of the early 2000s, but modernized it. lively lyricism about love in the modern age. It's a completely fresh spin on a familiar genre that retains the romantic essence at its core.

As the album's title in Spanish suggests, the project was an exciting start for Frontera. And lately, the group has been building on that foundation by experimenting in the studio, blending their signature style with muted drums, synths, and even steel guitars reminiscent of George Strait. “We were trying everything this time,” says Peña. (They recently dropped a collaboration with Christian Nodal, bringing the fellow mexicana star out of his traditional norteña comfort zone.)

Part of this exploration of the genre came from their producer, Edgar Barrera, who is behind some of Karol G, Don Omar and Marc Anthony's biggest hits. “On El Comienzo, wrote the songs but did our own style. On this album, we let him flow with his musical ideas,” says Guerrero. “He'd say, 'Are you ready to do this?' And indeed we were. We really let him experiment.” (At times, Solis adds, “We were skeptical and thought, 'What's this going to sound like?' But honestly, we're hanging on to every song on the new album.”)

With only a few years under their belt, the team is just getting to know them desmadre of the industry. They intend to take full advantage of the boom in Mexicana music right now, and they also have colleague-ship with many of the other artists blowing up the genre including Peso Pluma and Carin Leon. “The nice thing about being friends with them is that we understand each other,” says Peña. “We can skip the small talk and get more intimate. “What's going on with your tour?”

After starting out performing at weddings and quinceañeras in their native Rio Grande Valley, they've formed a deep connection as bandmates. When they spoke to me Rolling rockthe group had just reunited after a two-week hiatus.

“Right now we're crying over here,” says Peña. “You can be so far away from your brother for so long. If we hated each other, we couldn't do this.”