In the past year, Latin Mafia has become one of Mexico's top acts without a record label or an album. The trio of brothers, which includes Mike and twins Milton and Emilio de La Rosa, have embraced this artistic freedom in their music, which includes reggaeton, trap, R&B, house music, dream pop, among other sounds. At the core of their songs are messages about embracing emotions and raising awareness about mental health. With their music taking off around the world (and a recent Karol G co-signing), the guys are now playing several music festivals, including their US debut at Coachella on Sunday.
“This is our first year traveling,” says Mike Rolling rock.
“It's exciting and mind-blowing to see how our music crosses borders,” adds his brother Milton.
After selling out arenas in their home country, the guys took to the festival circuit this year. Latin Mafia has taken the stage at Lollapalooza Argentina, Lollapalooza Chile, Colombia's Estéreo Picnic festival and Costa Rica's Picnic festival. Although now based in Mexico City, the brothers did a show in their hometown of Monterrey. Their playful set drew one of the largest crowds at Tecate Pa'l Norte. Reflecting the band's sense of humor, the show opened with the brothers appearing in a parody of iCarly Introduction. They're coded from the 2000s with baggy jeans, tight mesh shirts, oversized jerseys and a mix of trucker hats and Mexican cowboy hats.
Mike is the group's producer, while Emilio and Milton are the lead singers. On the snare-infused 'No Digas Nada', they encourage the listener to metaphorically bar it all and shed the stigma associated with discussing mental health. With Mexican pop star Humbe on the symphonic “Patadas De Ahogado,” they harmonize about the beauty of creating an emotional connection with a loved one. Then there's the explosive flow of “Julietota,” which later melts into a meditative R&B moment where the Latin Mafia encourages a villain to live her best life. The kids caught up Rolling rock about their refusal to stick to one genre, their debut album and what to expect at Coachella.
Latin Mafia's music is quite extensive. Tell us about your approach and mixing all these different genres into your songs.
Emilio: We're just having fun. That's our main thing while we're in the studio. We like to have fun. We like to be ourselves. We don't like to be limited. If you define yourself, you limit yourself. We just make music. This affects a lot of what we do. We are always exploring new music.
Mike: Other than that, there are three of us, so everyone has their own tastes and brings something different [to the band]. We share different music and draw from each other. I love it so much.
How would you describe the experience of working together on music as brothers?
Mike: We each know how the other works. We know our strengths. We are best friends. We are like colleagues. It was a really fun experience to have the opportunity to live this dream together with our family.
What does it mean for kids to see your music go global as an independent act?
Emilio: Nowadays, there are many ways to create music, to distribute music, to get out of your comfort zone to reach more people. This is something we have always held the flag high for. The music industry is always changing. What worked before may no longer work. New things work and other ways exist. We are very excited to say that today you can get where you want while being independent.
Why is it important for you guys to talk about emotions and mental health in your music?
Milton: I think it was generally taboo to talk about mental health. Mexico is a country with a high suicide rate among teenagers and adults. It is a topic that is very common and it is absurd not to discuss it. I am sure that at some point in your life you have suffered from anxiety or depression. Everyone has gone through such a crisis because we are human. It is something that is real. It is very sad to deal with mental health problems in silence. How awful to go through something so powerful in silence and alone. If we have the opportunity to make people empathize and give a voice to this issue, we will do it our whole life because we are human. Before we became the Latin Mafia, we are Emilio, Milton and Mike and we feel the same as every other person. If we can connect with people in this way and give voice to these emotional and mental issues, we will always be grateful to be able to help people in this way.
Especially as men, you push too Mohism. It's refreshing to see you let your hair down in a crop top at your concerts with these important messages. I've seen your fans in the LGBTQ+ community also connect with it and show you love on social media.
Milton: We are not in this life to follow expectations, stereotypes or what people say you should be. We just have to be ourselves. Love is love in any form. Que chinge su madre [fuck] those who want to limit us. We are all just human. We love and we feel, and what difference does it make how we do that? Everyone should do what they want to do and no one should come in between.
“Julietota” is one of your biggest hits at the moment. How did this song come together?
Emilio: We premiered “Julieta” like three years ago. We love reggaeton. We love perreo. We felt we didn't want this to be 100 percent perreo. We had the idea to do what we did with 'Julieta', which starts with a bit of Afrobeat and ends in perreo. Now we wanted to do the opposite. It would be easy to just do a sequel to “Julieta,” but we don't like to do things the easy way or stay in our comfort zone. We said, “What can we do to make this different?” We decided to do “Julieta” in reverse and change it.
Tell us about the experience of working with Humbe on 'Patadas De Ahogado'.
Milton: We are lucky to be able to say that before we were musicians, we were friends. We ate at his house. He has been hanging out with us. We met each other's parents. Recently, Emilio saw a meme on Facebook that said, “Make fucking music until your favorite artists become your friends and colleagues.” We feel very fortunate to say that this is the case with Humbe and Jesse Baez. We managed to meet a lot of people, so it's really nice.
Emilio: I think we all have artists we dream of working with. I would love to work with C. Tangana, Dominic Fike, Bad Bunny, Danny Ocean and Omar Apollo.
Milton: Bad Bunny would be awesome! Ralphie Choo and Brent Faiyaz.
Mike: Fred Again.. and Skrillex.
What did you think when Karol G said she wanted to work with you?
Milton: We didn't mention Karol because we think that could be a real possibility. It hasn't happened yet, but we'd love to. We were at her concert at the Estadio Azteca. It was crazy! Hopefully in the near future, we'd like to get to know us more personally and see what comes of it. Something with La Bichota that would be amazing!
What can we expect from your debut album that you are working on? You recently posted a studio video with Duki.
Emilio: Something's coming [with Duki].
Milton: Lots of musical diversity. A lot of playing with the music. A lot of music with the intention of performing it live. The music will be very personal and human.
Mike: A lot of things I think people won't expect from us, but that they'll like.
How do you feel about hitting the stage at Coachella next?
Emilio: Honestly, it's an experience and an opportunity that we never dreamed could be a possibility. It's crazy to think that something you might never have imagined, that seemed out of reach, is now a reality. It is an incredible experience and we are very excited to go.
Milton: We've never been to the US or Los Angeles, let alone Coachella. What another amazing opportunity that the first time we go to Coachella is to play our music for the people listening to us.
Emilio: It will be fun. lots of dancing perreando, and also crying. We also have a little surprise in store.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/latin-mafia-coachella-karol-g-interview-1235004383/