“I’m not sure if I’m a staunch defender of the ranchera genre—it’s more about being true to my ideals and the integrity of my musical perspective,” Pepe Aguilar tells Apple Music. “I keep playing mariachi music because I like it, but mariachi can defend itself just fine.” With a career that spans more than 35 years and 23 studio albums, the legendary singer-songwriter has sustained a balance between preserving ranchera tradition and updating a sound that survives generational changes because of its ability to renew itself. When it comes to making music, Aguilar believes in a world without frontiers. The new chapter in his artistic saga is Que Llueva Tequila (“Let It Rain Tequila”), an ingenious title that adds a contemporary touch to his pioneering brand of Mexican folk. The sound of the album draws from rock, adding a new dimension to mariachi music. “It’s infused in rock ’n’ roll from the inside out, beyond the addition of drums or electric guitar,” he explains. “From the harmonic circles to the chords, structure, and arrangements—it’s all different. This album proposes a real fusion of styles.” Here, Aguilar dives deep into some of the album’s key tracks. “Te Confirmo” “At first listen, you will like this song if you’re into mariachi. If you pay closer attention, you will identify a number of curious little touches. After the intro, the bridge goes somewhere completely different, and the outro has nothing to do with the bridge. Now that I’m singing it in concert, people like it quite a bit. They may not be familiar with it, but it has that trademark mariachi punch that makes you scream when you listen to those first trumpet notes. They’re not in the intro, but appear in the middle of the song, and at the end, they morph into something else. People who know about arrangements and production would tell you that you can’t do those things—you are meant to repeat the patterns to make people happy, but I saw it differently. The lyrics are a bit unusual, too. I’m not complaining about love being a disaster. On the contrary, I’m telling you how happy I am that you left. I’m confirming that I’m still here, alive and kicking, just in case you harbored any doubts about it.” “Corazón a Medio Día” “It’s funny, because when Pablo [Preciado] gave me these songs, I had a couple of tequilas in me, and I told him, ‘My intention is to reinvent the sound of mariachi.’ This is doable, of course, because you’re as good a singer and producer as the songs that you’re working with. There was so much meat in this material that I knew something incredible would come to light. This is a more rockish tune from its very inception, and I wanted the drums to play a leading role. Even though it kicks off with an accordion—an instrument I love—there are other elements, especially rhythmic. Some of the tom-tom sounds remind me of Peter Gabriel. Even though I haven’t played the drums myself in a long time, I’m good about mimicking the sounds that I want.” “Sólo Es Cuestión de Tiempo” “This one was written by Enrique Guzmán Yáñez, better known as Fato. It’s a bachata, but I added a drum kit so that I could lower the rhythm. It’s like a club anthem, a bachata-ranchera. Fato wrote the greatest hits of my career, and our relationship included moments of love and hate. Now we’re a little more mature, and we plan to continue singing and working together. Originally, he gave me a couple of bachatas, and I transposed them to ranchera territory, because he didn’t write mariachi music. In fact, no one had recorded his songs with a mariachi backdrop until I did. Some of those bachatas I love, because they groove like a bolero. It was logical to add this kind of beat—the chorus is like a power ballad. The lyrics speak about life from a different perspective. It’s not about dying of heartbreak, but rather a reflection about being able to bounce back from anything and the importance of staying positive.” “Que Llueva Tequila” “This is the most traditional track in the entire album. Still, there is a novel approach, a modern touch to the arrangement. The title works really well for a song—but it could also be an album, a television show, or even a novel. I really like it, and we decided to name the project after it. My lifelong friend Manuel Eduardo Castro wrote my first mariachi songs, back in 1993, for my first self-produced record. Now we’re working together again on this song after a long time, and it became the title track. There’s always one or two songs like this one on my albums, paying tribute to traditional mariachi, but with unusual arrangements. We have an organ, and a Leslie, and it adds a unique vibrato—it makes the organ sound a bit raspier.” “Hojas de Otoño” “In lyrical terms, this is the saddest song, because it’s about resigning yourself to a love that couldn’t be. Or a relationship—not necessarily romantic—that went beyond its expiration date, whether it’s family ties or a friendship. This is a more traditional approach to mariachi, very elegant, with a heartfelt arrangement. In comparison to ‘Que Llueva Tequila,’ meant to be danced with your boots on and a sombrero, this should find you wearing a suit, with your girlfriend on the dance floor. It’s the darker side of love—the suffering, the sadness that lies underneath the affection. I love the arrangement, even though orchestrations of this kind are not in vogue anymore.” “Hasta Que Me Duermo” “I knew that this would be the first single from the beginning. It’s written by Pablo Preciado and produced by myself. In terms of the melody, it’s a rock ballad. When I first talked to Pablo, I explained to him that I wanted to make an album like this one. It was something I had in mind, recording tracks with huge choruses, great hooks, and delicate instrumentation. He understood the concept and wrote a number of gems. I don’t usually include many songs from the same composer on a single record, but in this case, I recorded five songs by him, because they were too good to ignore.” “Mira Quién Lo Dice” “Edgar Barrera wrote this one. He’s an amazing composer. This is the first time that we worked together, with my people and music team. It veered into country when I added a steel guitar, something I had done before. When I produced a Guadalupe Pineda album in 1994, there’s a song in it named ‘Enamorarse Así’ that I mixed in Nashville. While I was there, I found the best steel guitarist in town, and those tracks sounded really cool. I’ve returned to that sound a number of times in order to recapture that same texture. Interestingly, I wanted ‘Mira Quién Lo Dice’ to have more of an R&B, blues, and soul touch. It begins with the guitar, strings, and a blues backdrop, until the steel guitar brings it closer to country territory.”