Adrian Quesada Continues His Love Letter to Latin American Balladry on Boleros Psicodélicos II, New Album Out June 27th via ATO Records

A Sprawling Sequel From The GRAMMY-Winning, OSCAR-Nominated Artist, Featuring Cuco, iLe, Angélica Garcia, Ed Maverick, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Monsieur Periné, Gepe, Dayme Arocena & More Latin Alternative Stars

Watch The Music Video For Lead Single:

"OJOS SECOS" (FEAT. CUCO)

Upcoming Tour Dates Include Austin's ACL Live, Los Angeles' Greek Theatre, Fillmore Miami Beach & More With Hermanos Gutiérrez

Boleros Psicodélicos II Cover Art by Victoria Villasana 

Today, the GRAMMY-winning, OSCAR-nominated Adrian Quesada continues where he left off, carrying forth a mission to celebrate, preserve and reinvent the baroque, eccentric sounds of Latin American balada music from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Out June 27th on ATO Records, the Texas producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and Black Pumas co-founder's next opus, Boleros Psicodélicos II, is a sequel to 2022's acclaimed Boleros Psicodélicos LP, and the start of something sprawling, fresh and far more expansive. Like the first Boleros Psicodélicos – which led to performances for Austin City Limits and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, reached cult status and resonated with a global audience of vinyl enthusiasts begging for more – Boleros Psicodélicos II is a deeply personal but profoundly communal album that combines brand new, original music, with reimagined renditions of classic baladas. Just as Boleros Psicodélicos "tapped into an emerging mood in Latin music" (The New York Times), and did "for psychedelic boleros what the Buena Vista Social Club did for the Cuban son" (Rolling Stone), Boleros Psicodélicos II honors a specific moment in time, while introducing a wider world of listeners to a vital and enduring subgenre, in all of its romantic glory.

Produced by Adrian Quesada and Alex Goose (Aaron Frazer, Childish Gambino), Boleros Psicodélicos II increases the music's intensity, blending harpsichord flourishes, distorted guitar lines, lyrical drama and other bolero signatures with hip-hop elements and heavy grooves that cut through the haze of heartbreak. Across the album's twelve tracks, collaborations come from a cast of Latin Alternative stars, including Los Angeles singer-songwriter Cuco, pop auteur Angélica Garcia, Chilean singer-songwriter Gepe, Cuban singer Daymé Arocena, Colombian gypsy-jazz combo Monsieur Periné, Chihuahua's lo-fi troubadour Ed Maverick, Swiss-Ecuadorian duo Hermanos Gutiérrez and more, as well as Puerto Rican vocalist and former Calle 13 member iLe, who reunites with Quesada following their epic "Mentiras con Cariño," from the first Boleros Psicodélicos. Opening Boleros Psicodélicos II is the mournful yet sumptuous "Ojos Secos" (feat. Cuco), available now. 

Pre-order Boleros Psicodélicos II, listen to "Ojos Secos" (feat. Cuco) via ATO Records, and watch the music video, directed by Bobby Astro: HERE 

"I was surprised at how many people knew about Boleros Psicodélicos. In record stores and radio stations, people all over the world were asking me if I was doing a volume two. But I definitely needed another perspective, because I didn't want to make the same album twice. I gave Alex Goose one of the tracks to see what he could do with it, and the following day sat behind him in the studio and watched him work. It was like handing the project to a hip-hop producer. He kept the essence of it, but made some really bold decisions. I still wanted the album to feel timeless, but I didn't want to pretend like it was recorded in the '70s anymore. I wanted it to play just as loud next to a Bad Bunny record. The first Boleros Psicodélicos was done remotely during the pandemic, and no one was in the studio with me. I had written more songs in that same style, and wanted to give myself the opportunity to expand. I could write a hundred songs in this same vein. It's just where I've been, both sonically and mentally. It's my favorite place to be."

-Adrian Quesada

"'Ojos Secos' is all about heartbreak," adds Cuco. "I wanted it to feel like an old bolero, something timeless and romantic."

In the three years following the first Boleros Psicodélicos, Adrian Quesada released an instrumental noir called Jaguar Sound, created the soundtrack for the film Home Free, toured the world in support of Black Pumas' Chronicles of a Diamond, and, most recently, earned an Academy Award nomination for his song "Like A Bird," from A24's Sing Sing. But having grown up bilingual, living on the Texas/Mexico border city of Laredo, his obsession with Latin American balada music dates back two and a half decades, to when he first discovered a song by Los Pasteles Verdes on one of Austin, TX's local AM radio stations. Since then, he has worked with everyone from Prince to Los Lobos and Wu-Tang's GZA, bridging the gap between musical worlds, and extending his influences even further. 

This spring, Adrian Quesada will perform music from Boleros Psicodélicos on tour with Hermanos Gutiérrez, with shows including Miami's Fillmore, Austin's ACL Live, Los Angeles' Greek Theatre and more listed below, and on-sale at adrianquesada.net/tour.