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Boiling Point
Introducing: The De Los Podcast
00:11:32
From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.
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- [00:00]
Leslie Grace
I remember Lin had written on his script, like, don't fuck it up on our first table read, and he was like, oh, I felt that.
- [00:15]
Fidel Martinez
Hello and welcome to the Delos podcast, where we discuss everything Latinidad and we speak to the movers and shakers that are proving that Latinos are, in fact, part of the American mainstream. My name is Fidel Martinez. I am the editorial director for Latino initiatives at the Los Angeles Times. And as usual, I am joined by my co host, Delos editor, Suzie Expositos. Suzy, how's it hanging?
- [00:38]
Suzie Expositos
Oh, you know, I'm hanging 10, whatever that means. I'm feeling the Cali chill from you, if at all. Yeah, well, but I'm also feeling very New York today.
- [00:49]
Fidel Martinez
Well, it's so funny you mentioned that because. Well, before we get to that, I have a question for you.
- [00:55]
Suzie Expositos
Okay, shoot.
- [00:56]
Fidel Martinez
When was the first time you've ever heard of Leslie Grace's music?
- [01:01]
Suzie Expositos
Oh, man. The first time I heard Leslie Grace was when she released her Spanglish bachata cover of the Will youl Still Love Me Tomorrow, the Banger, which I do believe is one of the best Carole King songs of all time.
- [01:13]
Fidel Martinez
I would second that. Absolutely.
- [01:17]
Suzie Expositos
Which makes me so excited to share with you our latest guest. We're so stoked to be talking to to the Dominican American actor and Latin Grammy nominated recording artist Leslie Grace. Welcome to the Delos podcast.
- [01:33]
Fidel Martinez
Thank you.
- [01:33]
Suzie Expositos
So good to have you here, Claude.
- [01:37]
Leslie Grace
So happy to be here with you guys. Thank you so much for having me.
- [01:41]
Suzie Expositos
You started in the Christian music world. You were making bachata, but also in Spanglish in a time when, you know, the Dominican wave was, like, coming up in Latin music. You had Aventura like Romeo Santos, Prince Royce. But just thinking about how, you know, you shaped your own identity as an artist is intriguing to me. You know, your latest album, it's so the way that I would describe it is like tropical eleganza, you know, that's a beautiful description. No, but it's, like, grown and sexy. Like, I think that's something that people, you know, like, want to hear. And so I'm interested in the trajectory, you know, that it took for you to, like, own, like, your sound.
- [02:36]
Leslie Grace
Yeah, it took some time. It's taken some time. And I think that's something that changes over the seasons of life that you live and how you evolve and grow as a person, too. For me, starting so young, starting. I've always been singing all my life, but with that first little project that we recorded in the closet of my family's home at 14. That was like a Christian album with like a friend of a family that was willing. Richard Cepeda, actually. Who's Bonnie Cepeda, Dominican merengue legend and songwriter as well. Like, that's his. And he was, he was like open to, you know, just offering another space where I could sing at the time. And I was, he was like, if you want to record, like I come to your house, we can record this album. We can go church to church and sing. And I was just like, anything that I could do at that time, I was willing to do. And so from going from that, from those days to then that music, you know, getting to Sergio George and him seeing something and hearing something and it being right at the moment where Prince Royce was on the rise and Romeo was, you know, doing what he's always done. But now as a solo artist, Bachata was just breaking through in this global way.
- [03:55]
Fidel Martinez
Yeah, it was becoming global, right. It was like one of the first real genres of Latin music to hit a global audience.
- [04:02]
Leslie Grace
Yes. And streaming was just starting to become a conversation. So the globalization of music was just now starting to break open. These genres that were more just specific to a certain place, very niche. Yeah. People were able to access them in a certain way. And so, yeah, to be introduced to the music industry at that point in time at 17 and with the song like We Used to Love Me that I grew up singing all my life, it was a beautiful, like, it was a beautiful introduction. I feel that I got to experience without any perspective of what it is to create your own, you know, creative process, to navigate the business. My parents don't come from entertainment, so like, you know, there was so much that we had to learn. I was so blessed to meet people that believed in me and that could also counsel me in that sense very early on. So I'm very grateful for that. But there have been so many things that I had to learn, especially as an artist, female artist in a male dominated genre at that time, like Bachata.
- [05:16]
Fidel Martinez
And still. Yeah, let's be real.
- [05:19]
Leslie Grace
Yeah, yeah. And still there were so many things that I had to grow through personally. And mainly learning how to create room for me to find my own way of doing things, you know, just protect a certain space. And I'm still learning how to do that. I think, you know, as artists and in any field, you know, you have to leave room for the sacredness of whatever it is that your craft is in order to continue to do it in the specific way that you long to and that whatever value you have to bring to the conversation, can survive and live. And I think in the last. I don't know how many years, Since I was 17, I'm 31 now, so time has passed. You know, it's the biggest learning, I think, has been how to protect my creative space while I grow it and discover it at the same time.
- [06:17]
Fidel Martinez
Yeah, no, I mean, obviously a lot has changed since you first broke out into the music scene, and a lot of it has been on the industry side, you know, so what have been some of the new elements of the industry that came about when you were starting that you've had to navigate?
- [06:35]
Leslie Grace
Yeah, you know. Yeah, I think the first one was like going from physical to, like. To streaming. Yeah, I think that revolutionized everything for all artists at that time. My music started to be discovered right in the thick of streaming, becoming a thing, becoming very popular, the way to listen to music. And so my rise was kind of like at the same time. And so I learned along with the industry and all of my team and what were the ways to. To make sure that people were discovering the music and that social media played so much more of a role in marketing the music and making sure that people are getting exposed to it than it did in the past. And so, yeah, I've kind of. That was the beginning of that. And I think now, obviously we all know that social media and content is king, and so that has only grown. And I think I've found my way. As me personally, like a lot of artists, I feel I'm truly an introvert. I'm driven by conversations with people, and I'm very much a people person. But I recharge in alone time. And I create a lot of what I create from getting that time alone. And I like to talk about things after they're finished, you know, and social media and how people connect and how we connect, we like to be on for the ride, you know, like, we connect more when people connect more to something when they're a part of the process. And so straddling that fence of like, again, protecting the sacred space that you need that's very private in order to create the thing before you know what it is, while also inviting people in just enough at the same time to feel invested in what you're making. So by the time that it comes out, they feel a part of it and they're happy to listen to it. That, I think, is the biggest learning curve that all artists, I think, are going through right now. And I think it's the biggest one that I've. In the course of all of the learnings that I've had professionally is, I would say, the biggest challenge, because you have to pick up different skills along the way, you know, that aren't related to being in a studio and writing a song and writing the best song. It might not, you know, that you're gonna have to learn how to defend it on a camera, in first person, and connecting with your audience through a platform, which is something that just didn't exist before. All the artists that I looked up to, you know, there was mystery attached to them, and that's how we were. That's what actually fueled our interest in them. Yes. And now it's the opposite. It's like, if there's mystery, we just only hear about you, you know, so you gotta get out there and you gotta keep some of it. In certain ways, it's just different. It's just a different landscape.
- [09:57]
Fidel Martinez
I mean, inevitably, becoming an influencer becomes part of your job, and it's like, how do you reconcile that with wanting to create? Right.
- [10:09]
Leslie Grace
Yeah.
- [10:10]
Fidel Martinez
I think what's interesting is that you made a very valid point that audiences are built on social media, but the end goal is to get them to listen to an album. It sounds exhausting.
- [10:25]
Leslie Grace
It is.
- [10:26]
Fidel Martinez
Yeah. So, wow.
- [10:28]
Leslie Grace
It is. And it's exciting in other ways because you learn, you're pressed to grow, you know, you're pressed to evolve. And also, I've. What I've learned is I've learned how to call on help when I need it from people that are. That know much more than I do about these particular skills with socials and with marketing and all of these things. I've learned how to be malleable in how to receive feedback, which is something that, again, can be very hard for an artist. That's just like, I'm an artist, and I'm sensitive about, you know, so you want. You're like, but this is. There's a reason why it's this way. And if we change it, it's just gonna change everything, you know, And I think a lot of us are going through that in this. In this period of time. The full episode with Leslie Grace is available now.
- [11:23]
Fidel Martinez
Watch the Delos podcast on YouTube and wherever you.