Cardec Drums has built a name for himself as one of the elite beatsmiths in the industry. He has four Dove Awards to his name and a Latin Grammy nomination. He goes by El Gordito Lindo to embrace his Puerto Rican heritage while wanting people to have fun with his music.
The Florida-based artist is stepping into a leadership role by signing with LABEL, a company that specializes in sync, as their first Latin music artist. The deal is a partnership with Reflection Music Group, who guided Cardec Drums to become the businessman he is today. His songs have already been featured in WWE, an Apple commercial, "MLB: The Show" and used to highlight the one and only Lionel Messi in an episode of Apple TV's "Onside" docu-series.
He has learned many lessons in his musical journey and refined his sound while being open to experimentation. His first release with LABEL is the single, "FIYAH," a track that's sure to keep the party going all summer. In a way, this is just the beginning for him.
Kick The Concrete spoke with Cardec Drums about making music fun again, how his son is his guinea pig and the future of Latin music.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Kick The Concrete: What was the inspiration for your new song, “FIYAH?”
Cardec Drums: To be honest, that song just came out of nowhere. The goal for this is kind of sync for film and TV and stuff. And so it really started with the vocal sample and adding the drums, and that was the first thing that came to my mind. And it was just something to have fun. I feel like that's a thing that is missing in music is songs that just have fun, that are like, "Hey we’re just gonna have a good time," you know? Like, "Let's just have a good time for these three minutes. Forget what's going on. Let's have a good time and listen to the song." So that’s kind of the whole thing. It was done really quick, and it was just fun. When people listen to it, they're like, “Oh, this is dope.”
KTC: That's very true. It seems like either music is super conscious and you have to dissect the lyrics, or it's the extreme opposite…
CD: Or like sad or sometimes people want to be super artsy-fartsy and do all this stuff. It’s like, can we just dance and just have fun and just have a good time?
KTC: How does that maybe tap into your heritage? Did you grow up listening to music, dancing with family?
CD: For sure. I mean, I think for me, the purpose of music is to dance. I've never seen people that listen to music and don't dance or bop their head or move their toes or whatever. I think that's a real big point in my music is I want to make you feel something, and a lot of times that is to dance. From the roots of Puerto Rican music, from salsa, but then even going back to the traditional African influence of like Bomba and Plena and all this stuff. It's a big thing, the music and the dancing went hand in hand. They were playing the music and the dancing created, they were giving you a message, you know? I think that's a very big part of my music and a huge influence, is combining the two of the rhythm and being able to feel something that makes you want to move, feel something in your soul to just have a good time or listen to it to get away from from the norm, and just take you somewhere.
KTC: Yeah, totally. I know some of my favorite memories are when my brother, who is super stoic and serious, but we listened to Lil Wayne in the car going to high school, and when he'd bop his head, I'd be like, “Yes!”
CD: Yeah, exactly! For sure.
KTC: You mentioned touching the soul, and I know you've worked in Christian Hip-Hop, winning the four Dove Awards, and now your brand is going a little more neutral. But what is still that mission to inspire or to still touch people on a deeper level?
CD: I think for me, it’s more where I'm at now is just being a light in the darkness and kind of like, "Hey, this is who I am." I don't have to change who I am or force myself to be something. This is just who you're getting, you know, and this is the music I make. In my personal life, I love Jesus, and I will never shy away from that. But at the same time, I feel like I don't have to make a song that has a six-point presentation of the gospel and all that stuff. I really let God handle that and He puts me in the situations where I could just be myself. And you see God moving in my life through what I've done, or the way I walk or talk or whatever, and so I think now just being able to, like, "Hey, we can make really fun music that everyone can enjoy without being explicit or talk about violence or anything like that." And the fact that this music is also doing that and being put into film and ads and commercials and TV and stuff, that just takes it to a whole other level of like, "Hey, this dude did this without having to sacrifice his beliefs or what he believes in, or have to force himself to do something that he doesn't want to."
KTC: I love that. I can relate. We just have to be ourselves, right?
CD: That's the biggest thing, I just want to be myself. That's the whole thing behind the brand El Gordito Lindo, which translates to the cute, chubby guy. That’s literally the translation. It's funny. The first thing every time people hear that, they laugh, they chuckle. But then it's also like, from a cultural perspective, that's something that their parents have been calling kids forever. When they’re little babies, they're little chunky things that's like, "el gordito." It’s a term of endearment. Even if you're skinny in Puerto Rico, they're like, "oh gordo." It’s a term of endearment. And I wanted to put that as my brand, and be like yeah, Gordito Lindo. It's fun, but it's also not being afraid of who I am and just having fun. The whole purpose of this is to have fun. There's so many times in the industry where everything is so serious or you kind of feel the pressure of every time you work with an artist, it has to sound like this, or we need a number one, or the song needs to do well in streams. And that's cool, I understand that. But can we have fun first? Can fun be the focus? And then, once we have fun, usually all of that follows.
KTC: Has maybe going down the sync path helped take off that pressure of, “We need all these streams?” I'm sure there's a different pressure with syncs, too. But how does that maybe help?
CD: I think being in sync gives me a little bit more musical freedom, and also the fact that venturing into the space that's kind of uncharted, that no one has really been in, tapping into the Latin side, there isn't really anybody that's doing it like, "Oh, this is the sync guy for Latin music." Obviously, there's people doing it, but there's not a face or a main person or, this is the person, right? And so with that, I feel like I've been able to be free and try certain things and see what works, see what doesn't work. As a musician, it's been great, because I just can create, and there's no one saying, like, "Oh, you can't do that. I don't think that's gonna work," because it's just me, right? So that’s great of like, "Hey, I'm gonna try this. And then if it works, cool, if it doesn't, then we go back to the drawing board." Then obviously, there's certain things that you have to have for it to be placed in film and TV. Those are the non-negotiables, but once you meet those parameters, you're kind of free to do whatever you want. As long as it meets that, you're good. So finding that freedom in that and being able to embrace my culture has been really fun and freeing to just have fun and create.
KTC: I love that. I know you're a family man, too. How does your kid and having a family help you stay tapped into that fun? Or motivate you to keep going with your career?
CD: I have a seven-year old. He's turning eight this year, Isaiah, and he's always keeping me on my toes. And the funny thing is, like all the music we listen to is Disney, and all the soundtracks and the movies. Any song you mention, we got it on the playlist. I used to dread it, but then listening to that, I started listening as a musician, and I'm like, "Oh, they're actually doing some really complicated, really cool stuff." And with that, I've been able to take some of those elements and put that into my own music. And I can always tell, because if Isaiah likes it, if a kid enjoys it and wants to dance, you got something there, right? When it's simple enough for a child to understand and just have fun and dance to it, we got something. So he's always my little guinea pig. I'll just play, and if he's like, “Turn it off, Dad!” then I'm like, alright, well, that's not it. If I play something and he’s like, “Oh!” and he’ll sing it back, I'm like, yep, we got something. Me doing this, I've been able to get closer with my family, just be home and work. I don't have to travel, I don't have to do all that stuff. It's been great. It really has.
KTC: Yeah! So is your Spotify Wrapped all kids songs?
CD: I don't even post it anymore. It's a mess. “You listened to the 'Encanto' soundtrack 2 million times!” Yeah…
KTC: There's nothing like tapping into that spirit of a child. It's the purest critic, the purest appreciator.
CD: Absolutely.
KTC: You're signing with LABEL in partnership with Reflection Music Group. Two-part question: Why did LABEL make sense? And then, why is it important to you to continue with RMG as well, who has helped you to get to this point of your career?
CD: I would say RMG is family. I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now if it wasn't for RMG. There was a time where RMG solely was keeping me afloat financially as an up-and-coming producer, and being with Doc [Watson] as my manager, he has blessed my life in so many different ways, teaching me the business. You know, not just being the typical manager of like, "Oh, I'll do this," but like saying, "Hey, let's sit down. I'm going to show you what's going on. The reason why you're not making money is because none of your songs are registered, and you need to learn about publishing and administering that publishing, and how to get registered and all of that, and how to keep on top of your royalties, and how to keep track of that." So I owe him everything because he actually took the time to teach me to be a better businessman.
And then with LABEL, it kind of just made sense. For me, if I'm trying to be serious in the sync world, I need to open more doors and get in there and with LABEL, they've kind of already had that name in the sync world. We talked with Dashon [Moore-Guidry] and everything just made sense. We made a few songs, and it's like, “Hey, this is great. Let's keep it going.” Now we're putting out the music. I'm excited for this year, what's going to happen. They really believe in the music. They're really excited about it. It's not just like a “Hey, just turn in the songs and then we're good.” They really listen to it. They have input that can make the song better. They really care about the product. It's been great. And I'm really excited to see where the music lands, what it does and where we go from there.
KTC: It seems like a really organic partnership. And shoutout Doc. He's helped me so much too. He has the biggest heart. I know so many people have stories on stories of how he’s impacted them.
CD: That man has changed lives for sure. He definitely changed mine for sure.
KTC: Where do you see the future of Latin music? It's grown so much. It's continuing to grow. Where do you see it going from here?
CD: I keep talking about sync, but I feel like that is the one element that's missing to really make, Latin music is already huge and global, but I feel like if we tap in a little more into the sync space, I think it's gonna be something on a whole other level. Because you look at hip-hop, hip-hop is a normal thing now. Twenty years ago, it wasn't. But now you see it, you hear the music in film, you hear it on commercials, you hear it on ads, you hear it everywhere. And it's just a normal thing, right? Where versus Latin music, though it is everywhere now, it's not as your everyday thing. Does that make sense? You'll be walking down the road and a commercial plays and oh it’s a hip-hop song or a hip-hop thing in the background, or a movie and they use some Jay Z song in the trailer. It's a common thing.
I think that is the missing element to make Latin music not just a novelty. I think people still talk about Latin music as a novelty of like, “Oh, it's Latin music” versus just “music,” and the style is country, or the style is hip-hop, or the style is rock or whatever. But with Latin music, it's still because, and obviously it's in a different language, I understand that, but it's still this new thing, this import thing, of like, it's not common. And so I think having that element is because everyone watches TV, everyone consumes content, whether it's ads or online or whatever, streaming, that is a part of our daily lives. So that's why Latin music getting into sync and it being more prominent, I feel like that's going to have a direct impact in the industry as a whole. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
Stream "FIYAH"on Spotify and Apple Music.
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