After going viral with their Tiny Desk and showing they’re more than hype with recent project, “PAPOTA”, Argentine duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso are here to do one thing – disrupt. Talking to Ben Tibbits in Las Vegas ahead of the Latin Grammys, the pair make it clear they aren’t afraid to come out swinging. 

We live in an age when one viral moment can change, dictate, establish, and launch an act’s career. And so, when just over a year ago, two Argentine troubadours who go by the sobriquet CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso stepped onto the famed NPR Tiny Desk stage and delivered a seminal showcase of Latin brilliance, they changed their lives forever. 

There’s a bullish charisma to CA7RIEL, and a suave assurance to Paco. It’s Tuesday late afternoon and the pair sit in the spa of the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, legs open, tattooed torsos on full show, a relaxed focus circling the buzzy atmosphere that surrounds them as their team (near double figure in number) scrambles to organise a busy few days ahead. There’s one sole reason for their appearance in the Nevada city – the Latin Grammys. 

The Sony-signed duo arrived in America late the night before, burdened by airline adversities; as they sit in front of an equally jet lagged journalist, they’re tired, but in decent spirits. They’ve refused most press but agree to give me ten minutes of their time, for which I’m grateful. I’ve been increasingly fascinated by the lads – an interest that climaxed with the release of their mesmerising latest project, “PAPOTA”, in Spring of this year. 

“Now what are we going to do? // Tiny Desk f— me,” they joke on the jazzy opener “IMPOSTOR”. It’s a lyric emblematic of the body of work’s attitude; it’s satirical – sizzlingly so – striking a sensational balance between light-hearted entertainment and slick, striking, statement-worthy artistry. Most importantly, it showed that CA7RIEL and Paco Amoroso have more to offer than one blazing flash in the pan of fame – they are here to stay, shepherding in a new epoch of Latin progression.

They met at primary school, and are still inseparable. They finish each other’s sentences, define themselves as brothers. And they obtain the same fearless, fearsome attitude to their career. Take the Latin Grammys for instance; they are up for 10 awards – a figure only bettered by global heavyweight and Latino totem, Bad Bunny. But being nominated is not enough. If they don’t win at least three, they say, they’ll be mad. It’s a robust, rousing attitude – these two believe they are the best. And well, the more you listen, the more you discover, the more you realise – they just might be. Below, they chat Vegas, brotherhood, and Batman and Robin.

How are you feeling being in Vegas?

Paco Amoroso: Well, it’s a crazy city, it’s a very weird place. We arrived  last night at  11pm. We had a crazy flight from Milano. So we are  with the time very changed. Everything is very weird here, but we are for a good reason. 

CA7RIEL: It’s a simulation. 

I love your album. Honestly, such an incredible body of work. You’ve been at it for a long time at this point – does it feel that the response that this album has got is quite justly deserved? That you’re finally get your flowers?  

Paco Amoroso: Yes, the reception of the Tiny Desk was very good, and we understood that we need to sound like that. We made these songs like this, with this Tiny Desk tone. So it was very fun to make these songs and it was just after the release of the Tiny Desk concert. We were recording music two weeks after. So it was very fresh, the memory of the Tiny Desk.

What do you consider the core inspiration of the album? 

Paco Amoroso: It was in a way joking about our success – with the tiny desk and the last year. This idea that now that people are looking at us,  we need to work in the way that the industry wants.  

Which is… Sometimes good, sometimes bad.  

Paco Amoroso: Yeah. This whole year that’s what we’ve been doing.   Hitting the gym, eating chicken, and being ourselves. 

What duos did you look up to when you were first starting? Who were your inspirations as being two guys making music together? 

CA7RIEL: Batman and Robin. 

Paco Amoroso: The Chicken and the Cow?

CA7RIEL: Sonic and Taze.

Paco Amoroso: A lot of video games. The video games reference is there more than the music.

You’ve been friends since you were six years old.

CA7RIEL: Yes, we’re like brothers. 

Well, what’s your favourite thing about each other, what’s your least favourite thing about each other?

CA7RIEL: He’s so smart and concentrated. But he’s so neurotic. 

Paco Amoroso: That’s true, I’m neurotic. 

CA7RIEL: But they are the same, just different powers.

What about you, Paco? 

Paco Amoroso: I think… you don’t choose your family. [All laughs]

Good answer. We’re here for the Latin Grammys, and you guys have gotten quite a few nominations, haven’t you? Congratulations. Is there one in particular that you’d really like to win? 

Paco Amoroso: I think we deserve three. Yeah. If we don’t win three, we will be really mad.

CA7RIEL: I fucking hope. 

Paco Amoroso: But the thing is, we didn’t vote for ourselves because we forgot that there is a timer on the public voting. One week ago we discovered we didn’t vote for ourselves. So maybe we won’t win anything. Because if we don’t vote for us, why should the others vote? 

[Laughs] You shouldn’t have to vote for yourself, you’ve got all your fans to vote for you. To round it off, obviously this album is such a creative high, stamping your name not only in Latin music but in global music. So what’s the next step? 

Paco Amoroso: I think we should go to the top next time we release and go even more global using this opportunity. 

Words – Ben Tibbits