The opening two sentences of Rana Santacruz’s site explain the musician’s output and mission quite succinctly: “As the ethnic make-up of America changes, so does its music. And with a passel of influences under his belt, Rana Santacruz makes music for that new America.”
That doesn’t mean classifying Santacruz’s output is easy, though. “Mexican bluegrass? Irish mariachi?” asked the Washington Post of his wonderfully eclectic instrumentation, ultimately stating that Santacruz is “helping to redefine Mexican-American music.”
That may be a lot of pressure for the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to shoulder, but he appears to take it in stride. Santacruz’s cross-genre explorations are surely refreshing for the Mexico City-born musician, whose musical direction rose out of his dissatisfaction with former rock group La Catrina.
Unhappy with the group’s inability to achieve widespread success, Santacruz chose to redefine his music by moving to Brooklyn in 2002. He soon discovered a wealth of talented musicians who helped him discover a new musical voice.