A Mexican indie rocker and a studio technician from Nashville plan to create the new sound of Mexican pop music.

LAST October a quiet and unassuming 26-year-old musician from Mexico arrived at Nashville International Airport to meet an American record producer he had known only through a few e-mail messages and a phone conversation. Neither had any idea what the other looked like.

Multimedia'Completamente' by Chetes (mp3)
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'Que Me Maten' by Chetes (mp3)
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The musician was Gerardo Garza, the floppy-haired, dirty-blonde It Boy of the alternative rock scene in Monterrey, Mexico, who goes by his lifelong nickname, Chetes. (It’s Spanish shorthand for “cheeks”; Mr. Garza’s are noticeably pale and round.) The producer was Ken Coomer, a Nashville studio whiz who played drums for the new-school Americanists Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, two bands Mr. Garza had only recently heard.

The plan for the next month was simple, if not somewhat comical: the two would hole up in a studio with local musicians and technicians — none of whom spoke a word of Spanish — and create the new sound of Mexican pop music. [read the whole article here]