Meet Santiago Alberto.
Santiago Alberto was born into a musical family in Española New Mexico. His mother is Angel Espinoza, a well known music artist and his father is James Espinoza who is a working actor, musician and artist. Santiago grew up around music and started singing as soon as he started talking. He had a toy guitar growing up and used to go visit his grandma and sing and play the guitar for her and have her sing along. At the age of three, he started playing the drums. Soon he became part of his mom’s performing band and played in many shows that included the New Mexico State Fair and many local community festivities.
During Santiago’s teen years, he was in the school mariachi band and learned how to play the vihuela under the instruction of his Mariachi Teacher, Mr. Alfonso Trujillo. Santiago fell in love with mariachi music and learned how to play the guitar and guitarron as well. He loved attending mariachi conferences and learning all he could about mariachi music and studied with Chuy Hernandez and Jose Hernandez from Mariachi Sol de Mexico.
Santiago now lives in Los Angeles, California and released his first album last year entitled, ‘Con Amor‘. This album got him international acclaim with his hit song, ‘Amor de Estudiante‘ with a music video that has over 2 million views.
Earlier this year, Santiago Alberto took home the top three awards at the New Mexico Hispano Music Association Awards in New Mexico, Male Vocalist of the Year, CD of the year for ‘Con Amor‘ and Song of the Year for ‘Amor de Estudiante‘.
Santiago, tell us about your new single, ‘Mañana’ and what inspired you to write this song?
In mid March when Covid-19 started to change the daily routines of our lives and all my booked performances got cancelled, I decided I wanted to write an uplifting song with a message of love and hope. I began writing and immediately was inspired and the lyrics and melody came together right then and there. I began recording it from home as soon as I had the main parts written. I recorded most of the instruments myself. I did call on a few friends to add their special touch to the song, which really made it special. Jerry Lopez, a very talented musician and good friend of mine living in Las Vegas, NV recorded a killer lead electric guitar lead which became one of my favorite parts of the song. I also invited my friend David Valdez from Albuquerque, NM to record the horn parts which came out spectacular. My friends in Long Beach, CA also came through and recorded background vocals. I ended up going back to New Mexico to stay with my family during this time and finished the song there. I took my recording equipment with me and my mom helped me make the music video and take the cover photo. It gave us a chance to do a fun project together doing what we love to do. Once the song was finished being tracked, I sent it back to LA to my good friend and renowned recording engineer Freddie Sandoval to mix and master the song and I could not be happier with the outcome.
How has your song been received by the public and media?
It brings me a lot of joy in seeing people sharing “Mañana” with their friends and family on social media and sending me messages telling me about how this song and music like this is making all the difference in helping them maintain a positive attitude through difficult times. I feel like I accomplished what I set off to do with this song. From the beginning of creating this song it was therapeutic and healing just for me to create and in turn has helped bring that good energy to others.
The music video for ‘Mañana’ was broadcast on Univision networks ‘Despierta America’ and Telemundo show ‘Al Rojo Vivo’. It was exciting to see this homemade music video on TV during the quarantine and I really got a kick out of seeing the hosts sing the song and smile. At the end of the day, something as simple as putting a smile on someones face makes it all worth it.
What are your future goals in your music career?
I love making music and am constantly writing and developing new music. I have new projects in the works that are in the development stages which I am very excited about which will be in collaboration with some of the top producers in the music industry. I love performing and am really looking forward to when we can have live concerts again to continue to share that amazing connection with audiences that can’t be duplicated in any other way in the form of live music. Music heals and now is definitely an important time for musicians to continue sharing their god given talents and continue spreading love and unity through the power of music. My most important goal as a musician is to do my part in helping spread that message through my music from here on out.
Watch Santiago Alberto’s Interview on Telemundo’s ‘Al Rojo Vivo’
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