Billboard cover stars Grupo Frontera take us through a day in their lives, showcasing their favorite hobby, describing what their studio time involves, and explaining what an "asada" entails. They discuss how they initially managed with a limited budget and how they did not expect to suddenly gain rapid traction with "NO SE VA," a song that changed their lives. They also share details about their collaborations with Bad Bunny and Grupo Firme, how their EP with Fuerza Regida came about, and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00The heartbreaking truth is that Frontera is famous, but we are not.
00:04We would spend a lot of time here.
00:06So me and Beto would come here and play and they're like,
00:08where are you guys paddling?
00:09What the hell is paddling?
00:10Something that doesn't change when you go to different places is
00:13how hard a car is to have.
00:30Frontera, come with us on our day off to play paddle with our friends from Billboard.
00:40Last year's concerts, I wouldn't like move.
00:42Like I would just sing in place.
00:43I would just stay there and I would do this.
00:45And then this year I would like run around and jump across the stages and stuff.
00:48So I feel like it did help with the, como se dice, endurance.
00:51So what's next for the next, what's going to happen next year with your body?
00:54Backflips, backflips.
00:56We're going to do shirtless concerts.
00:59Split.
01:00Because we would spend a lot of time here.
01:02So me and Beto would come here and play and they're like,
01:04where are you guys paddling?
01:05What the hell is paddling?
01:06What the hell is paddling?
01:07But it was, oh, I remember now.
01:08We invited Morat for a, no, they invited us for a concert.
01:12And they play paddle.
01:13So Julián and Beto were like, oh, let's go with them.
01:17And I was like, I'm not going to play El Chile.
01:18I don't like sports.
01:20I don't like sweating more than I already do.
01:21I sweat so easily.
01:22So I got here and I was in pants and I was wearing like this sweater.
01:27And then I got here, they were like playing.
01:28I was like, all right.
01:29So I was playing in pants and everything.
01:31And I got, I got, I got into it, El Chile.
01:34I got into paddle.
01:38The reason why we do this is because this place opened up about a year ago
01:42and it's coming straight to you, buddy.
01:44This is the only thing we do for fun.
01:45Only because we found a love for it.
01:48And they have everywhere, they have what's called paddles.
01:52Except LA, I think.
01:53Some of us are better than others, as you can see.
01:56Right now we're up one, zero.
01:58They're losing.
01:59They're probably going to end up losing.
02:00Since it's always very few of us and it's only us six.
02:03The game goes to six, but we play till three.
02:06So we can swap around and keep playing.
02:09Usually when we're all healthy, it's Beto, Juan,
02:12me and Payo, Carlos and Brian.
02:14For the main reason is because there's squirts everywhere.
02:18No injuries.
02:19Easier to learn.
02:20Payo never played sports before and he's good at this.
02:22So we found a common ground.
02:25And it's a quick sport.
02:26On tour we tried to play, but I mean,
02:29we didn't have that much time to go to a place.
02:31So we tried picking up pickleball.
02:33Yeah.
02:34And then we had like our own little court in the arenas.
02:36We would set it up before sound checks.
02:38But then we stopped doing that because we got bored.
02:40Like pickleball is not paddle.
02:42I thought I wouldn't sweat because of the cold,
02:43but it was worth it.
02:45Yeah, bro!
02:46I don't know what that was.
02:48That was a good one?
02:50Yeah, Brian!
02:56People, we are home.
02:57We are in McAllen, Texas.
03:00Valley.
03:00Rio Grande, El Valle de Texas.
03:04We are in Frontera HQ.
03:06I feel like when we come home,
03:08we actually like feel that we're coming home.
03:11And we really take it to heart when they say that.
03:14Keep your feet on the ground.
03:15That's like a main thing that's gonna...
03:19You guys being homeboys,
03:20what's gonna take us farther, you know?
03:22People see that.
03:23We project that, you know?
03:24So I feel that us staying here is when we come back,
03:28we feel like we're here.
03:29We're not living that fast life over there.
03:31Don't get me wrong.
03:32We like the good life and stuff,
03:34but being here, I don't know, it's different.
03:37Put your feet on the ground.
03:37In the first videos of Frontera,
03:39we didn't have that much money.
03:41So for the videos and the songs,
03:43it was like a $400 video.
03:45We had to pay the guy that was gonna record us.
03:47And then Beto was the camera guy.
03:49He went to the studio.
03:49He was like,
03:51And then Beto was the camera guy.
03:53He would make sure that he set up the cameras
03:54in angles where he wouldn't be seen.
03:57So he would set that camera up
03:59and he would be the one recording.
04:00And then later he would record himself,
04:02like just to clip it inside of the video.
04:06♪ Ese vestito que me diste en la boca ♪
04:09♪ Me trae la mente loca ♪
04:11Your mentality is a really big part of your success.
04:13We met Edgar.
04:15Edgar Barrera.
04:16And Edgar also.
04:17Yeah, he's the one that really opened it up.
04:20He played a big part.
04:20Yeah, he opened our eyes on a lot of things.
04:23He's like our mentor.
04:24We had the local minds.
04:26Especially.
04:27And he opened it to a broad.
04:29Especially the biggest thing
04:31that I think Edgar helped us at,
04:34was that we were thinking about
04:36how do we do the biggest wedding here in the Valley?
04:40And he goes,
04:41Wedding?
04:42How can you do the biggest stadiums in the whole world?
04:45And we're like,
04:46Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy, easy, easy.
04:47There's no way we're gonna.
04:49That's how you gotta think.
04:50And we're like,
04:51All right, let's think that way.
04:52And then little by little,
04:54we release a song.
04:55We release a song.
04:56We would do it thinking that this song was gonna go viral.
04:58This song was gonna help us out a lot.
05:01And it would work.
05:01And it would work.
05:02And it would work.
05:03And we're like,
05:04Dude, it's all mentality.
05:07My favorite part about everything
05:09is the people that go to our shows.
05:11They always let us know that
05:14our concerts sound exactly
05:17like the songs that we release.
05:21I feel like that's really cool
05:22because the way we record
05:24is we still record all together at the same time,
05:26but now we do it in different tracks.
05:27So we can,
05:28if one person messes up,
05:29they can just go back and fix that part.
05:31But I think that's really cool.
05:32That goes to show that
05:35we actually do record our music.
05:37We are the group.
05:38We record our stuff.
05:39We actually are the guys.
05:42That's something cool that at the beginning,
05:43we were always thinking that,
05:46we had the local mindset that
05:48our music's not gonna make people
05:51be standing up and just watching us.
05:52It's gonna be music for dance.
05:54How can we make it big?
05:56It's a cumbia.
05:57Cumbias cannot be on an arena
05:59or a theater.
06:02It has to be a ballroom for dancing.
06:04That's why No Se Va took us a month to release.
06:08That's the song that blew up for us.
06:10And we were all thinking,
06:11well, they were thinking,
06:12I loved it since the beginning,
06:13but they were thinking that,
06:15no, that song is too fresa.
06:17It's too quirky.
06:18It's too lovey-dovey.
06:19It's too, it's for sing-along.
06:21It's a sing-along song.
06:22It's not a dance song.
06:23It wasn't that.
06:26And that's exactly what needed to happen.
06:28It's like people wanted that combination of dancing
06:32while singing along to lyrics.
06:41Honestly, we started putting that EP together
06:43last year when we were recording,
06:45¿Cómo se llama?
06:46Juando Que No Pasa Nada.
06:47Yeah.
06:48Because me, Edgar, Alex Hernandez, and Ivan Gamez,
06:53we all did a writing camp.
06:54And then we started inviting Armenta,
06:56and Armenta works closely with Fuerza RÃgida.
06:59And we invited, I think, two other people.
07:02On Juando Que No Pasa Nada, with the writing camp,
07:04let's say there was 12 songs on the album.
07:06I think maybe we did like 20 or 22
07:09during the writing camps.
07:10So it was just these extra songs floating around.
07:12And me and Edgar presented the idea to Armenta
07:16about doing a collab EP.
07:18Because we were taking note of Oasis,
07:21the Bad Bunny, J Balvin,
07:24and there was this other person that did it.
07:25Faded, it's Faded Yandere.
07:27SÃ, Faded Yandere.
07:29So we were seeing all these collab albums
07:30and we were like, we should do that with Fuerza RÃgida.
07:34Total, we released the album
07:36and everything went quiet for like a year.
07:39Like it just left our minds.
07:40We did the album cover and it said F-R-F-
07:43G-F-F-R.
07:44No, G-F-F-R-24.
07:46But we did that.
07:47We wanted to do it for the year 2024.
07:49So J-O-P didn't know,
07:50Fuerza RÃgida didn't know that we could do the history.
07:53We talked to him and we tell him like,
07:56hey, there's a history, for real, yeah.
07:59Honestly, that's what, I don't know,
08:01it just ends up working out for us.
08:03All these things.
08:04Like we just hope something's gonna happen and it does.
08:07Bad Bunny, we were recording.
08:09Literally, oh my God, do it.
08:11There's so many examples.
08:12We were recording Un Porciento, Juan, out of nowhere.
08:14What do we put Bad Bunny in this song?
08:15We're like, dude, shut up.
08:16Yeah, we had to record like four songs
08:18in two days in Washington.
08:19And we took a whole day to try to record Un Porciento
08:22because we didn't know how we wanted to do it.
08:24We tried a country, we tried Dos Cuartos,
08:27we tried Cumbia, we tried so many styles.
08:29At the end, when we got it to like,
08:32kind of how it sounds like the finished product,
08:35Juan just said out of nowhere like,
08:36hey, Bad Bunny would sound good on this song.
08:38And I was just like, okay, bro,
08:40you're like reaching for the stars
08:41and you're like, get up, get up.
08:43And that's why we have stars in this room.
08:44Yeah, but, but yeah, like everything's just,
08:48everything's just manifesting,
08:50like hope for it and it'll happen.
08:51♪ Que si me ven con otra en una disco ♪
08:54♪ Y salgo perdiendo el tiempo ♪
08:56Yeah, we bought the house with the intention
08:59to make a studio.
09:00So we made a studio in the back.
09:02♪♪♪
09:04♪♪♪
09:34♪♪♪
10:04♪♪♪
10:34♪♪♪
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11:06♪♪♪
11:08♪♪♪
11:10♪♪♪
11:12♪♪♪
11:14♪♪♪
11:16♪♪♪
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11:20♪♪♪
11:22♪♪♪
11:24♪♪♪
11:26It's because, honestly, we would,
11:28we would before rent a studio,
11:30we would rent a studio anytime we needed to record.
11:32It was either that we rented a studio,
11:34or we had to plan a studio session in Miami,
11:36or in Los Angeles, Washington,
11:38wherever we were at.
11:40But we never really got to record any of the
11:42good Frontera songs in McAllen.
11:44So,
11:46we started,
11:48we were renting the studio,
11:50and that studio that we used to rent, we bought it,
11:52so that we could record there.
11:54But people started figuring out that, like,
11:56we recorded there, that that was our studio,
11:58so they would just go.
12:00It was like a business. Yeah, before it was a business,
12:02so they would just walk in, like, we wouldn't lock the door,
12:04so they would just walk into our studio.
12:06And they would, like, hear what we were recording.
12:08Like, one time we were, like, on the living room,
12:10and we were talking, oh, so we're going to put this song,
12:12this, this, this on the track,
12:14and then someone comes in.
12:16Suerte.
12:18People would just walk in.
12:20There's a very few studios,
12:22and there's a lot of artists.
12:24So how we did it, we recorded
12:26a live session, like,
12:28in a public place,
12:30and not even a studio.
12:32Yeah.
12:34Like, when we started, we didn't record in any studios,
12:36because we didn't, well, first of all,
12:38we didn't know how to record in a studio.
12:40Second of all, it was,
12:42like, there was, like, a limited amount of studios.
12:44So what we did when we started
12:46was we literally just hooked up our instruments
12:48to, like, a console,
12:50and recorded everything on one track.
12:52Like, everything was together.
12:54If one person messed up, you had to record the whole thing all over again.
12:59We all respect
13:01each other's work.
13:03Like, Carlos is
13:05the most talented drummer I've ever met.
13:07Carlos can play whatever genre
13:09inside of cumbia, and it's gonna sound good.
13:11Like, he plays rock licks
13:13or whatever inside of the cumbia, and it sounds amazing.
13:15Beto, he
13:17always does the same pasada.
13:19But it sounds good.
13:21We know Juan's gonna play good.
13:23Like, we all respect each other's instrument
13:25inside of the song.
13:28Deciding over
13:30where to stop in the song,
13:32where to put a rest in, like, a little break,
13:34where there's just silence,
13:36where to play close.
13:38Like, the instruments are more quiet, and my voice is louder.
13:40And then when everyone comes in loud,
13:42that is after recording.
13:44Since we're, like, together 24-7,
13:46automatically everybody in the group
13:48knows what everybody likes
13:50or wants. So let's say there's been
13:52cases where,
13:54I don't know, there's this artist,
13:56and you know there could be a collaboration,
13:58but you're not gonna say it because
14:00half of the group doesn't like him,
14:02or they don't feel the music.
14:04It's not that they don't like him, it's just the vibe.
14:06Simple things, simple things.
14:08Frontera has had disagreements before.
14:10But it's like, it's the same thing.
14:12Just like we all understand each other
14:14when we agree on something, or we know
14:16someone's not gonna wanna do something,
14:18someone else is gonna wanna do I don't know what.
14:20It's the same thing.
14:22When one person is wrong, the rest of the group notices it,
14:24and they just turn the shit up, like all together.
14:26Because you can't do it one-on-one, then there's gonna be like a fistfight.
14:28So the whole group just tells that one person,
14:32the whole group just tells that one person,
14:34honestly, you're wrong, you're thinking about it wrong,
14:36you're going all wrong about I don't know what.
14:38And since that one person
14:40knows that the rest of the five are telling him
14:42the same thing, he's like,
14:44okay, I'll take the hit.
14:50The heartbreaking truth is that
14:52Frontera is famous,
14:54but we are not.
14:56The name Frontera is recognized,
14:58but they don't recognize us as much as you think they would.
15:00For people to recognize us,
15:02we'd have to be all together.
15:04If they catch one of us like birds,
15:06they're gonna...
15:08Wait, wait, wait.
15:10In Madrid, he was walking all alone.
15:12They recognized him like two or three times,
15:14but when we were walking as a group in Madrid...
15:16Yeah, everybody was like...
15:18Also in Madrid,
15:20we got shocked that
15:22people were singing our songs
15:24from start to finish.
15:26New songs too, I mean...
15:30We played half of it
15:32because we were not sure of ourselves
15:34that it was gonna be a hit over there
15:36because it barely came out.
15:38And we start playing and we're like,
15:40whoa, we took off our ears
15:42and people were singing along.
15:44Yo, parece amiga tuya ese cabrón
15:48And we get scared.
15:50Carlos is the first one to say,
15:52dude, I don't know, man.
15:54Worst pain, like I don't think
15:56nothing's gonna go...
15:58A bunch of people, we're at Coca-Cola Fest
16:00and the same thing, he goes,
16:02dude, I don't know how people are gonna react.
16:04It's a tough place.
16:06100,000 people.
16:08We're like, what the...
16:10Colombia and Bogotá.
16:12I don't know.
16:1470,000 people singing.
16:16That's true.
16:22Normally...
16:24Una canazada del Grupo Frontera
16:26lleva mucha música,
16:28lleva a Frontera,
16:30mucha comida, ¿qué más?
16:32Cerveza, Victoria, tequila,
16:34mezcal.
16:36Mezcal, pero que sea nomás
16:38y solamente de nuestro compa Maluma.
16:42A carne asada here in the valley
16:44consists of...
16:46I'm not really a big fan
16:48of fajita, pero...
16:50Fajita...
16:52Costilla,
16:54chicken,
16:56tortillas,
16:58arroz.
17:00Something that doesn't change when you go to different places
17:02is, I want a carne asada.
17:04We've done carne asadas before shows.
17:06Like,
17:08a couple times.
17:10A lot of times.
17:12I'll take the plus.
17:14That was in the RV.
17:18We can do that again, man.
17:20There was this place that we went to.
17:22I think it was maybe Costa Rica.
17:24I don't know, but we went to go play paddle.
17:26No, but Paraguay.
17:28We went to go play paddle.
17:30And they have barbecue pits there.
17:32Las chimneys asà grandes.
17:34You'll reserve the paddle court.
17:36You pay extra
17:38if you get a chef
17:40that makes the food while you play.
17:42By the time you finish playing,
17:44you already have carne asada ready.
17:46It was very good.
17:48Paraguay was good.
17:50You guys could have a guest here
17:52for the barbecue, dead or alive.
17:54Each one pick one?
17:56Sure.
17:58For me, it would be...
18:00La Mole.
18:02La Mole.
18:04Good pick.
18:06I would pick Robert Green.
18:08No way, bro.
18:10But you brought that guy to cook.
18:12To be completely honest,
18:14I already have everybody that I want.
18:18That is so lame.
18:20So cheesy.
18:22Honestly, honestly, honestly.
18:26I would pick
18:28the Finns.
18:30I can't decide.
18:32Can I just choose two people?
18:34I'm between Grupo Virme
18:36and Fuerza RÃgida.
18:38We've done it with both
18:40and they're both a good vibe to be around.
18:42I'll choose Beto because he's never
18:44had carne asada.
18:46And I would say dead or alive
18:48and I would put Mr. Vicente Fernandez
18:50telling the stories.
18:56I don't think we're in the position we want to be yet.
18:58There can be so many people that tell us
19:00you guys are living the dream,
19:02you guys made it and all this good stuff.
19:04But I feel like...
19:08We're still hungry.
19:10We're still hungry for more.
19:12We recognize that what we have done
19:14has been amazing.
19:16We have had so many accomplishments.
19:18We're so grateful for everything that has happened.
19:22But we know that we can do more.
19:24And it's not like a bad ambition.
19:26It's not like, I need more and more.
19:28We want more people in the world
19:30to discover our song.
19:32I'm going to say the truth and this is going to sound wrong
19:34but this is what I feel.
19:36I feel like it just became too easy.
19:38I want it to be harder.
19:40I want to make more music.
19:42I want different styles.
19:44Everything that I've accomplished, I've done it already.
19:46If I get the same award next year,
19:48that's not what I want.
19:50We won one Grammy this year.
19:52Next year I want two.
19:54I just want to keep accomplishing.
19:56That's what I want.
19:58Yeah, I mean,
20:00that goes with
20:02how our mentality keeps growing.
20:04This Little Bitty concert
20:06we did, which wasn't Little Bitty by the way,
20:08in Madrid, opened our eyes completely.
20:10We were like, dude!
20:12We were so worried about coming up here
20:14and doing all this and look what we did.
20:16We had people singing our songs
20:18that we didn't even know existed.
20:20Now we want to go back and do an arena.
20:22Now we want to go back and do a stadium.
20:24Where they don't speak Spanish,
20:26they speak Italian.
20:28How are they going to sing our songs?
20:30They go to Iceland.
20:32Music is international.
20:34We're trying to become superstars.
20:36We're trying to grow
20:38not in our own personal lives,
20:40we're talking about frontera here.
20:42Something that 30 years from now
20:44somebody's going to look back,
20:46dude, remember frontera? Remember this?
20:48Remember they still play our music?
20:50Mostly be inspiration for new talent.
20:52We want kids that are learning
20:54to play an instrument to say,
20:56hey, if frontera did it, I can do it too.
20:58People from our town,
21:00people from Mexico,
21:02to Cumbia,
21:04because that's something cool.
21:06Not even Cumbia, because we also do new stuff.
21:08Frontera, that we're our six kids
21:10around the block
21:12that made it, you can make it too.
21:14I don't know who said it with these guys
21:16because we all say it all the time,
21:18but someone said,
21:20we want to be like ACDC,
21:22we want to be like Queen,
21:24and I remember saying, dude, shut up.
21:26What the hell?
21:28And now I think about it, why not?
21:30Why can't we be that?
21:32Break the barriers.
21:34It was Beto he said
21:36that he wanted us to be like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
21:38Yeah, I mean,
21:40be one of those bands that are
21:42always there and always will be.
21:44T-shirts 20 years from now.
21:46All that, that's who we want to be.
21:48That's what we're trying to work for.
21:50And I think we all have the same
21:52ambition this time.