The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Nico Peña studied music in college, but credits most of his skills to time spent at “YouTube University.”
The San Francisco-based musician’s latest project, Peña, began as a solo endeavor that later blossomed with a full band. En Vivo, the project’s live EP, mingles jazz and bossa nova influences, creating what Peña calls “Latin lo-fi.” But he considers the song “Bella” a straight bossa nova song.
Peña, who’s originally from New Jersey, said he started out in rock ‘n’ roll and punk bands. “I was told in my earlier bands that I was a part of, that I didn’t sing loud enough or passionately enough,” he told KQED. “Then I heard these bossa nova artists singing so quietly and gently, and it felt like maybe this is for me.”
The musical transition has also reconnected him to his roots. “It got me closer to my culture in a sense that it’s Latin jazz technically, and I started singing Spanish,” he said.