Born in Atlanta, GA, Mateo Arias goes by the musical moniker of ¿Téo? And his new record ‘Sol’ has been one of the most anticipated ones this year. At least for us here at Mundane!
The artist and actor already embraced his stride with recent singles “Buzzed“ (feat. Willow Smith), “What’s On Ur Mind,” and “Suplicar,” which has garnered millions of streams and was championed by none other than Justin Bieber.
¿Téo? ‘s multi-faceted, all-encompassing approach to music is the overarching theme of this record.
“Sol, to me, really expresses the many sides of who I am,” says ¿Téo?.
“I feel like I gave myself total freedom to access all the parts of myself, and the musical styles I admire, & mesh them in a way that’s true and tells a story.”
His rich heritage (Mateo was brought up bilingual and is fluent in Spanish and English) and his early exposure to arts and creativity (His older brother was an actor himself Moises Arias who starred in Five Feet Apart and Monos) brought him to treasure and cultivate his own creative spark since the very beginning.
Propelled by his brother, he took his shot and stood in front of the camera for the first time. In addition to this, he went on to produce a bunch of independent and studio films himself.
His calling for music kept slowly creeping in and Mateo soon realized he had to let it in and take over. The result is years and years of original music highly influenced by culture and international background. His musical style takes the most exciting elements from all kinds of genres including Bossa Nova, hip hop, alternative music embellished by his ery distinct and hypnotizing voice.
His fans around the world started calling it “Neo-American’ and certainly can’t seem to get enough of it yet.
Mateo has recently appeared in Sony’s feature film Blast Beat (out now in select theatres), with his brother Moises, American Colombian star Kali Uchis, and Diane Guerrero (Netflix’s Orange is the New Black) which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
It’s a new dawn for international and exotic music since ¿Téo? brought his Neo-American music to the world and it can only get better.
