Houston-based Tejano group OJALA and emerging Monterrey-based Grupo Anexo teamed up to record a cover of the Luigi Giraldo and A.B. Quintanilla penned song “Desde Que No Estas Aqui,” recorded by Los Kumbia Kings in 2001.
OJALA recorded their debut album Vuelvo A Enamorarme in 2016 at LozSound Studio in Monterrey. The studio, owned by ex-La Firma drummer Nacho Lozano, houses other artists including grupero, which is where OJALA’s Chris Gomez and Anexo’s Soren Alvarez first met.
“Nacho told me about this young drummer he had in his arsenal of studio musicians, and at the time I was recording my album, Soren was jamming with a couple Tejano artists,” Gomez recalls. “I was blown away by his talent and he said he admired my work. The feeling was mutual. I remember jokingly telling him that I would someday steal him away from his other bands so he and I could form one together.”
During the first week of April 2020, Gomez and Alvarez discussed recording a duet for OJALA’s sophomore album. Due to both being on lockdown, the discussion shifted to recording something now. Soren says, “my brother Buba Alvarez, had an idea to maintain ourselves active on social media due to travel restrictions. We wanted to cheer people up through music. Originally, we were going to record ‘Azucar’ until we agreed to do ‘Desde Que No Estas Aqui’.”
Utilizing the studio equipment available to them in their respective cities, Houston and Monterrey, both bands began working on the duet.
“At first, I thought we were going to just record a simple track for ourselves and not to release to social media since we are both working on albums at LozSound and Black Sound Studios in Monterrey,” said Gomez. “But I saw how passionate the guys from Anexo were about this project so I had to step it up and swing for the fences.”
“Our respect and admiration goes out to the Kumbia Kings, Cruz Martinez, AB Quintanilla, and Luigi Giraldo, who wrote an amazing song,” said Gomez. “We really hope their fan base responds positively to our cover of the KK song.”
“We also want to thank Baldo, Polo, Hever, who were guest musicians on this session,” added Alvarez. “On behalf of myself, Buba, Daniel, Rafael, Darwin, Pechu, and Anexo, as well as our brother Chris Gomez and OJALA, I’m excited and grateful that we were all able to come together for a very fun project, and we are already in discussion to record another duet!”
The video launched simultaneously by both bands via YouTube and their respective Facebook pages.
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