Singer-songwriter Ivan Cornejo fuses alternative and regional Mexican music on new album, ‘Mirada’

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In singer-songwriter Ivan Cornejo’s world, regional Mexican music can have pop, ballads and also a bit of melancholic lyrics. His most recent and third studio album, “Mirada,” is a mixture of styles, without neglecting his interest in modern corridos and sad sierreño.

Cornejo, 20, is originally from California. His maternal grandfather played guitar, accordion and harmonica, among other instruments, so music was always a part of his life. But Cornejo started to play guitar and compose by watching tutorials on the internet.

The curiosity to make music began in childhood, when his family got together every weekend and listened to songs by artists like the Mexican band Los Bukis and romantic songs such as Emmanuel’s “Quiero Dormir Cansado,” which he covers on “Mirada.”

“My parents played that song, and when I heard it again for the first time a few years ago, I got nostalgic and fell in love with the song a lot,” he said in a recent Zoom interview from his parents’ home in Riverside, California.

The conversation was conducted mostly in Spanish. Cornejo says he wants to practice more of the native language of his parents, who are originally from Michoacán, Mexico.

At age 15, Cornejo began uploading corridos on social networks. By 2021, when he was 17, he released his first album “Alma Vacía,” which he made with the help of his cousin Edgar Alejandro Cornejo, a collaboration that continued on his second album, “Dañado.”

Cornejo is the youngest of three brothers and says he is very close with his family. His sister is his manager, and his brother has also joined his team. His mother is a housewife — “she likes to have a very clean house and cooks every day,” he said — and his father worked as a truck driver, including garbage and cargo collection, but is now retired.

Cornejo describes his music as “the elements of a modern corrido mixed with a bit of pop and … very alternative mixtures,” he said. “It’s a fusion of many genres.” Cornejo thinks of singing in Spanish as a particular form of expression — an extension of his vast musical loves, which also include rap, alternative music and reggae.

“My roots are Mexican, and I really like Mexican music,” he said. “I ventured to start recording songs because I felt that I had to be able to make something unique with all my inspirations.”

Cornejo composes his own songs, although on “Mirada,” he co-wrote with the Mexican musician Arath Herce and the Mexican composer Édgar Barrera. The album was mostly recorded in California.

The video for the title track “Mirada,” which shows Cornejo creating an orange painting, helps explain a bit the origin of the album cover. On it, he appears sitting on a couch dressed in black, one of his favorite colors, with a faded orange background.

“I wanted something that felt very vibrant, full of life and color. I wanted it to feel a little nostalgic,” he said. “A bit like a sunrise and like a sundown, a mixture of feelings, and also that it felt like summer.”

The album, released in July, debuted at the top of Billboard’s Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts and entered the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. The first half of “Mirada” evokes a style close to regional Mexican music and, after an interlude, changes to more alternative tunes.

“Everything was very intentional with the order (of the songs) and the names, even the lyrics and everything. Almost all my projects are very intentional and the order of the songs, we do plan a little,” he said.

“Herida Abierta,” a heartbreak song, is one of those first songs on the album that has a more regional Mexican sound.

“It has the tololoche, the charchetas and the trombone; I wanted to get my feet in that area for the first time,” he said.

“Donde Estás,” which he says discusses the desperation of “not finding your love and losing it,” was recorded together with his producer Frank Río. It is one of the songs composed exclusively by Cornejo.

Another of the outstanding songs is “Aquí Te Espero,” which he released a year ago. Cornejo said it took months to prepare it in the studio, making sure that every instrument and every guitar chord was exactly as he had imagined it. It has since accumulated 22 million views on YouTube and more than 84 million plays on Spotify.

“It’s one of my most emotional songs,” he said.

Cornejo will tour starting on August 15, hitting Tampa, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Boston; San Antonio; Tucson, Arizona and Palm Desert, California. In October, he will perform at the Tecate Peninsula Festival in Tijuana, Mexico.

“I’m super excited to see how my fans react and interact with the new songs on the record,” he said.