Mexican Rock Band Zoé Want To Be Heard All Over The World

For two decades, Zoé has carried a piece of Mexico's modern rock sound across many parts of the world. Their psychedelic, rock en Español, pop, synth sounds have captured fans in areas of the U.S., Latin America and European countries like Spain.

Listening to Zoé is like going through a galactic trip into romantic relationships and self-reflection; the journey entering light and dark moods—just listen to "Love" and "Dead." And it works. The band has maintained and grown a strong fanbase, with over a billion visits on VEVO and two million streams per month worldwide on Spotify.

Formed in Mexico City in 1997, Zoé boasts some of the best modern songwriting in the Spanish language and a solid marriage of sounds. Even when they opt to go acoustic, they leave what is at the heart of their music: poetic verses, an innovative blend of instruments and frontman Leon Larregui's deep, enchanting voice.

Over the course of their career, which include six studio albums and collabs with Enrique Bunbury from Spanish iconic rock band Héroes del Silencio, the Mexico City band has garnered GRAMMY nominations and Latin GRAMMY wins, but it is their latest album, Aztlán, produced by Craig Silvey & Phill Vinall, which has won them a GRAMMY for Best Latin Rock Album (their last nomination was in the same category for 2006's Memo Rex Commander Y El Corazón Atómico De La Vía Láctea).

While the group continues to hold their signature sound close, Aztlán takes the band to a mythological place of the past: the birthplace of the Mexica people who would rule the Aztec Empire and would inspire the country's name. The album was intended to be an invitation into their culture and a statement among political and social events happening around the time of its conception.

"It is an invitation to discover the beauty and richness of our culture, and look inward so we can recover that Mexican dignity and pride," Larregui said in a statement. "This reflection to the past is with the hopes that as we reinvent ourselves in the near future we continue to maintain our ‘Mexicanness’ in a globalized world."

The quintet is pushing full-throttle into a globalized music industry where language is no barrier to mainstream success; they recently started a tour with some fellow North Americans: Canadian bands Metric and July Talk. The tour marks the first time the band has hit the road with English-language acts.

Bassist Ángel Mosqueda spoke to The Recording Academy on a stop in San Antonio, Texas about their tour, what the band's first GRAMMY win means for the band's growth, the socio-political inspiration behind Aztlán, what has kept the band going after so many years, and much more.

Where were you when you found out about your GRAMMY win?

I was in Mexico. At home. It was Sunday evening ... we have a chat in which we disclose many, many band things ... our manager and people from the office [are also on it]. That's where we, as a band, and all the team realized we won that precious award.

You're Latin GRAMMY winners and now you're also GRAMMY winners. How's that feel?

It's great ... we weren't expecting anything because sometimes you're just [doing] other things, and we have been nominated before and didn't win. So, we were like, we're taking it very seriously, of course, but not expecting anything and that feels good, when you're not expecting anything and you win and it's like, "Whoa. Things are happening."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Emocionados por este gran logro para <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zo%C3%A9Aztl%C3%A1n?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ZoéAztlán</a> | "Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Rock Album" en los <a href="https://twitter.com/RecordingAcad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RecordingAcad</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GRAMMYs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GRAMMYs</a> <a href="https://t.co/aFSFW97IRi">pic.twitter.com/aFSFW97IRi</a></p>— ZOÉ (@zoetheband) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoetheband/status/1094728553462034433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Aztlán is this mythological place. What does it mean to you, and why name this album that?

Leon [Larregui], who is the singer and who does all the concept and the lyrics of the albums, decided to name it this way. He was considering all that was happening in Mexico [at the time and thought] it was a very good opportunity to name it like that and to think [of] our roots as a nation, etc. ... [At the time] there was an earthquake in Mexico, there was things happening also with migration with the new American president, and many, many [other] things happened. He could see a very good motif and a very good moment to name it like that and to return to our roots, to [reflect.] ... I'm really happy, not just in many aspects of the album, composition-wise, I think we have evolved and the production has evolved and the concept is great. I really love it.

As a band, you have so many great songs about love. There's “Camara Lenta,” there's "Love" and now there's "Azul." How do you continue to create songs about love with a fresh perspective after so many years?

I think songs are not just coming from Leon's experiences, [even though he writes] almost all the lyrics. He also gets inspired [by] things that happen to the people that surround him ... he also captures stories and things that happen to friends, to family, us as a band ... For example, “Azul” is something that [didn't] exactly happen to him ... They're some other [songs like], "Hielo," which [are inspired by] things that happened to him. So every song has its own story, which makes it very interesting.

You've been a band for 20 years. What is the glue that keeps you together after so long?

Very good question. I think it's the music. As long as we continue doing good music. As long as we enjoy [being] in the studio, making good albums, which we put a lot of weight and a lot of emphasis and a lot of value to all the albums, into all the songs—as long as we continue doing good things, doing things that we consider are good for us, I think we're going to stay alive [as a] band.

I think we're still alive because of that. I think this last album really corroborates our strength as a band; that we continue doing good things and this album is great and we're very happy and thinking of doing another one in the future. So that's very good for us. We're very happy now and in the near future as a band.

Being a GRAMMY winner brings in new eyes and ears to music. I know that you have a lot of fans in the United States, but for people who may not know your music and are discovering it because they see you've won a GRAMMY, what do you want them to know about you as a band?

Good question. I think you are right, sometimes we are not thinking that this is the situation, but yeah, you're right. I think with the GRAMMY we are earning more fans, new people that are getting close to the band and they're getting to know the songs, and I think it's a big responsibility. I think, as soon as they hear our music they're gonna get it ... I think [we] have a very good spectrum of songs, of variety, of production, of instrumentation, of compositions, and I think they're gonna enjoy [all our music.] And I think it's very good that these things are happening now, because as you say, you're right, maybe we're earning more fans.

So how is the tour going? What can fans expect from this one?

The tour has been great, we're very happy. We're very happy to tour in the States. I mean, really for us it's a very good experience touring this huge amazing country with all these huge interesting cities. We take it like a very good opportunity to expand our market, to expand our career, of course, because this is a great country [with] great venues. And there is a lot of Latin people as well, now with this tour we have the opportunity to [tour] with Metric ... [We have] music that could be heard in not just in the common market of Latin people. It's music that could be heard anywhere in the world. We have friends all around the world that supports this idea.

I think we asked our office some time ago, that it would be great to [tour with Anglo bands] and they started to follow this idea and then suddenly it came to reality ... So in the show there's a very good mixture of Latin and Anglo people, which makes it very very interesting for us. I mean we're really really happy. The tour is going great. There's been great shows and it's a huge tour. I think we're gonna have 25 shows in 40 days or something, which is a very good effort. I think it's a very very good opportunity for us and for all the team.

For more information on Zoé's tour, go to the band's website.

Mexican Rock Band Zoé Want To Be Heard All Over The World

Assistance