DannyLux Keeps Pushing His Regional Mexican Sound

When I first bump into DannyLux on the fourth floor of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, which has transformed into Warner Music Latina's headquarters during the week of the Latin Grammys, he's in the middle of playing video games in the streaming room.

Like most other 20-year-olds, Gen Z's favorite regional Mexican singer is in the middle of a game of Valorant when his team makes him pull the plug so he can speak with New Times. Despite the interruption, he's in a good mood, sporting a chill demeanor and oozing swagger.

It wasn't too long ago that DannyLux was prepping a house music project inspired by the success of "House of Lux" off the Latin Grammy-nominated Evoluxion. The project had a couple of big-name house DJs attached to it, but, for now, it's not set to be released any time soon. "At the end of the day, I feel like I'm gonna wait a little bit for all the EDM stuff. It's gonna stay in the vault for a little bit," he shares.

While he teased the project by releasing the tracks "Soltera" and "Midnight," Danny doesn't think it's the right time. For now, he's decided to focus on the regional Mexican sound that helped him build his fan base in the first place. He's been back in the studio, pushing himself to create some of the most cutting-edge regional Mexican music at a time when the genre has exploded in popularity.

"I feel like it's crazy — the whole Mexican scene. I feel like we're, in general, reaching heights that it's never reached before," Danny says. "It's just so sick to see all the pioneers right now — Peso, Tito, all of them are going crazy."

As the conversation moves toward Tito Double P and his album Incomodo, Fuerza Regida songwriter and Street Mob Records artist Armenta walks into the room. The two dab each other up and quickly catch up. After about five minutes, Armenta is dragged away to the other side of the room, and Danny's attention turns back to the interview.

A bit starstruck, Danny confesses he hopes to work with Armenta soon and starts talking about the recording process for his upcoming album.

"I rented this house, and we recorded a bunch of new songs, and honestly, these songs are so crazy," he says. "We have a lot of big things planned for this next project. It's gonna be the old Danny feel but with newer sounds, and it's just so sick."

This latest recording session comes after he had a hard drive as well as backups of unreleased music stolen from a car as he and his team ate at a restaurant after a show in Los Angeles.

"Someone broke the windows and stole everything, like a laptop, the hard drives with the backup files — it was hectic, bro," Danny adds. "I remember we were all so stressed, and it was right before going on tour."
Danny is referring to his tour through Mexico, where he played cities like Mexico City, Monterrey, and Tijuana to sold-out crowds waiting to see the Sierreño superstar. In the past, Mexican-American musicians were met with a bit of mistrust, if not hostility, by Mexican crowds. Even Tejano's biggest superstar, Selena, faced criticism at the peak of her popularity, and Becky G has often spoken about the "ni de aquí, ni de allá" ("neither from here nor there") effect.

According to Danny, though, that attitude is changing.

"I feel like Mexico is so accepting, and I'm just so happy to have those Mexican roots," he shares. "The tour was crazy; we filled like almost all the shows. It was the first time that ever happened, and it's just so dope seeing the growth."

The tour's success has only helped push and inspire Danny to do more and create more opportunities to interact with his fans. That's part of the reason he founded the fashion brand Lux. "I really want people to be able to dress similarly to me because a lot of people really love my style," he adds. "They don't know where to buy the clothes that I buy. They don't know where to find clothes similar to my style."

Where does Danny find his clothes? Scourging the world, he says, adding that 2000s fashion icons like Kanye West and Pharrell Williams hugely influenced him.

"I love that style. I like mixing it; I like putting my own touch on everything," he explains, oversharing the fact that "I like wearing pink underwear a lot." To prove his point, he tugs on his underwear around his waist.

Still, Danny's undergarments aren't the most eye-catching thing he's wearing. He's also sporting a shiny chain with a pendant shaped like a Gothic church.

"Oh, this old thing?" he says with a smirk. "One of my homies from Chicago, his name is Jared — we both designed it together. It's just crazy, bro; I love it. I just love Gothic churches, Gothic girls."

Everyone in the room laughs at his response. Suddenly, Danny is reminded he has another interview waiting for him. While walking out, he quickly talks about his new project with his engineer, David Segura.

"When we started working on the new stuff, we decided to really challenge ourselves and do some things that are more experimental. We wanted to do something that was different but the same vibes," Danny says. "I feel like it's the same feeling that I've always had with the original Mexican music, but even the lyrics are better. I've been getting better at writing. I feel like when you hear these songs, it'll really hit you in the heart."