Exclusive Q&A with the multi-platinum award-winning Latin duo.
Who is Mau y Ricky, how would you best describe who you are as people and as brothers.
We are 2 Venezuelan born singer songwriters that love writing songs and believe that life is about finding your purpose and living through it.
You’re beginning a new era of Mau y Ricky, tell us a little about your experience.
This has been the most life changing, purposeful, fun experience of my life. We feel like we are creating something great and it’s exciting. Super proud of the work we’ve done and what we are focusing on and how clear we are artists and as a team bout our vision with Hotel Caracas.
How has the creative process differed on this project from your previous releases?
We really went in on this one. Personal stories and paying attention to every detail. Wanting to write from the same place we would write when we started writing music. No expectations. That’s usually when the magic happens..
“Vas A Destrozarme” is the first single off your forthcoming album Hotel Caracas, walk us through the meaning behind the song.
This is a song that talks about an affair and when you start developing feelings inside that affair.
What about this song made it feel like the first song to release in your new era?
It’s a song that is so honest that it’s undeniable to us. It feels like it has to be told like this and it automatically captures your attention. You feel it when you listen to it..it’s a good attention catcher. I don’t know.. we were confident in releasing any song from this album.. but that one feels so honest it feels like a good first impression.
What do you hope people take away from the song?
The honesty behind it. It’s a rnb ballad with some Mexican horn influences that helps carry the emotion behind the lyrics. I hope people can feel related to the pain and forbidden desire behind what they’re listening to.
What was your experience like working with Malay Ho and JP Saxe?
Malay has really helped change all of our hearts when creating.. he’s helped redefine what to “chase” when making music. And that in and of itself has changed my life. Redefined for all of us the role of a producer and really leaned in to our individual strengths. It’s been insane. As well as working with JP who connected us all, JPs songwriting has inspired our music since we first heard it. He’s become our brother and along with malay and JonTheProducers our sole collaborators on this album.
I find it interesting that you worked with two non-Latino’s for this new era of music, can you walk us through the decision?
Well it really wasn’t a conscious decision.. we didn’t really start making an album.. we got together after I asked JP if he thought malay would be down to work on some music. After actually working we realized we had created something special combining all our influences that we decided that there was more to explore and we should make an album. We’ve dreamt of making music at the highest level forever and dreamt on making an album out here in LA too.. we did it. Malay Ho, JP Saxe, Manny Marroquin.. It’s all a dream come true.
Your new music is set to be released via your new label Why Club Records, in partnership with Warner Music Latina. What does it mean to you to be releasing your own music?
Owning our music has always been a dream.. a scary one cus we grew up in the old school model of the record industry with our dad having exploded in the 80s and 90s it’s all we knew.. but now we feel we’ve built the perfect team , infrastructure and partnership for this next phase
You guys have also written numerous hits for yourselves and other artists. What does it take to make a hit song?
I honestly don’t know. It changes everytime. When you think you have it figured out this industry surprises you.. we’ve had 9 songs on the top 20 and we’ve had none.. it’s a rollercoaster ride.. we just gotta keep making music we love. That’s the only guarantee.
