Billboard cover star & the ‘Future of Latin’ singer Xavi is making his mark. The young singer is sacrificing his youth to put in the work to take over the Latin music, and he shares how he first started getting into music, how he created “La Diabla,” why he’s putting love and passion into his music and more!
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00:00Yes, sir. We're speaking English today in Phoenix, Arizona, where we at.
00:04Billboard.
00:13I grew up listening to Vicente Fernandez, Selena.
00:18You know, the typical music where, like, that's what my mom would wake me up to.
00:22You know, like, she'd be cleaning and she'd put Selena, Vicente.
00:25You know, I feel like I just grew up with all that music.
00:26And then going to the US, there was a whole different world, you know?
00:29And I got to, like, hear Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar, and a lot of other ones.
00:34You know, I was like, I was a little kid, so I would, like, dress up.
00:39Yeah, I don't know. I just really like this music and, like, style.
00:42Instead of, like, expressing my emotions, I express them through music.
00:50Do you remember the first time that you actually started writing out lyrics for your own music?
00:54Oh my gosh. It was a long time ago, but yeah, I do remember.
00:57I was 12, and I remember I would just, like, freestyle songs and stuff.
01:01Until, like, I got to a point where I was like, wait, why am I not writing this, you know?
01:05So I started writing it, and I didn't have the best handwriting, you know, but we made it work.
01:10It's an old, old, old song. I don't even remember it.
01:13But yeah, I was 12 when I wrote my first song.
01:15My grandpa and my whole family would always talk about those type of stuff, you know?
01:18It was their dream to, like, make it in the music industry, you know?
01:21And I took it like, damn, you know?
01:23It hasn't hit me yet because it's too much to process, but I'm really, like, you know, trying to push their dreams forward.
01:28Because, you know, if they weren't able to do it back then, you know, I wouldn't be able to, like, give that to them, you know?
01:38Being a young artist comes with a lot of sacrifice.
01:41You have to sacrifice your youth.
01:43Me doing that and sacrificing my years of, like, partying and doing that,
01:48I feel like it's the best thing I could have done because I'm working on giving my family a better future.
01:53The day I realized music wasn't just a hobby was when I found out I could retire my mom from her job.
02:03She's a single mother of three.
02:05Just her paying everything, you know, and doing all that for us, paying the bills.
02:08You know, it was just tough seeing my mother work in construction.
02:13And how's she feeling now?
02:14She's at her new house now, and she's super excited.
02:18You did that.
02:20We did that.
02:21Damn!
02:23I got deep.
02:28Do you remember the first time you played them La Diabla?
02:30What that reaction was like?
02:32Yeah.
02:33It was so unexpected, too.
02:35It was just like, hey, let me show you guys a song.
02:37And I sang it to them, and they liked it.
02:40They were like, it's cool.
02:41But since my grandparents are religious, they were like, why is it called Diabla?
02:46I was like, oh, it's just, you know, like, she's a little sassy.
02:50And they were like, nah.
02:52They're religious, you know, they're Catholic.
02:54So they were like, why couldn't you name it Angel or something?
02:57And I was like, oh, my fault.
02:59But we ended up dropping it like that.
03:01We all have, like, a little angel and a little devil.
03:04Our little devil tells us, like, hey, like, go do this.
03:07Go party.
03:08Go do this.
03:09And then the angel tells you, nah, don't do it.
03:11Honestly.
03:12All I do is write.
03:13I just write and write, you know, because there's always something, you know,
03:17I feel like we all got to let out.
03:19And I just let it out through music.
03:22I feel like there's a lot of, you know, songs that I want to show to the world.
03:26But it's just, they're not ready yet.
03:32I wanted to, like, do a straight album of straight corridos.
03:35I'm representing Mexico.
03:36You know, I don't want to switch it.
03:37I don't want to switch genres yet.
03:39I want to keep doing corridos and represent Mexico and put the Mexico flag up there, you know?
03:42We've just been working on the sound of the fusion.
03:46Because there's a lot of styles out there, you know?
03:49There's a lot of genres.
03:50But what happens when you put two genres or three or four or five into one song, you know?
03:56And it just becomes, like, a song where, like, it's five genres.
04:01I don't want to call it alternatives.
04:04But at the same time, it's definitely, like, something new, you know?
04:07That's where the fusion comes in.
04:10For the next album, I want to do, like, different music, you know?
04:15Like, bringing Mexico to, like, a new sound.
04:18Or, like, you know, just start jumping on different genres, you know?
04:22We're ready.
04:23Yeah, let's do it.
04:28Goals for my 20s?
04:29I just turned 20.
04:31My goals are starting my new label and, you know, signing, like, a new label.
04:38Like, talents, giving people opportunities for those who don't have.
04:43I want to heal people through music the same way it heals me, you know?
04:46The most exciting part is, like, working behind the scenes and, you know,
04:50being able to, like, grab a little bit of, you know, this and then just putting it over there.
04:55You know, I feel like that's my favorite part.
04:57The creative process, you know?
04:58Because we're building, like, the sound of the future, you know?
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