Is this Fresno songwriter the future of mariachi? Here’s the song he hopes reignites the genre

Omar Naré isn’t looking to revive mariachi — more like herald it into its next phase.

The Fresno musician and songwriter has spent the past half-dozen years composing and performing a catalog of songs he refers to as “nuevo mariachi.” The latest, “Mañana Es Para Siempre,” was recorded in January in Los Angeles at Interface Recording Studios, a place with a history of creating hits for the likes of Mariachi los Camperos, Sol de Mexico, Juan Gabriel and Jenni Rivera.

Naré saved up to pay for studio time and an elite list of mariachi players, knowing he’s likely not going to be the next mariachi star.

“The star is in high school right now, in California, in Texas,” says Naré, who toured the Latin music circuit while still in his teens, selling copies of a self-released CD from the trunk of his mom’s car.

“What I’m doing to opening that door,” he says.

The song was written in collaboration with Larry Bastian, a mentor of sorts for Naré and a man with no shortage of songwriting experience. His credits include Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers.” In fact, the pair first met when Bastian hired Naré to translate “Unanswered Prayers” into Spanish for a film soundtrack.

“Mañana Es Para Siempre,” was written in an afternoon while sitting on the porch of Bastian’s ranch near Springville.

The song is inspired by Naré’s grandfather, who left his family in Mexico and traveled alone to the United States to find a better life. It tells the story of that moment of leaving.

In a way, the sentiment mirrors Naré’s ambitions for the mariachi genre: “This is the moment the style is leaving the country,” he says.

The last big idea in mariachi, Naré says, came when women started to find their roles in the genre. They created popular groups like Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Mariachi Mujer 2000 and others.

The next big idea is mariachi crossing cultural lines, Naré says.

“For me, it’s Mexican American mariachi,” he says.

“I grew up and was raised in California. I’ve been in two cultures, my whole life.”

Technically, it’s three cultures. Naré is half Mexican and Arabic and grew up in the Valley. His take on “nuevo mariachi” is about telling that unique story through the music.

Adrian Vaca can relate.

He, too, grew up in California, playing in the mariachi scene in Los Angeles. He’s since become a known composer, arranger and producer and is the music director for the group Mariachi Angelenos.

Naré recruited Vaca to compose and arrange music for “Mañana Es Para Siempre” and to put together the group of musicians for the studio recording. Vaca took Naré’s two-step demo version of the song and created a sprawling, almost orchestral, piece. The song was recorded live, over several takes with the players together in the same room. It’s a relatively old-school method in the days of digital production, and you lose some ability to edit the song after the fact, but Vaca and Naré knew the players they’d assembled could pull it off.

“We captured another vibe,” Vaca says.

“Mañana Es Para Siempre” is available across streaming platforms now. A documentary on the making of the song is in the works and and will be out later this month. Naré will be traveling to Mexico in June to record an official music video.

Already, he’s booking gigs off of the song, including a performance for The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. More importantly, perhaps, he got asked to teach songwriting at a summer mariachi workshop in Texas.

There is a sort of schooling process for mariachi, Naré says, where students learn to wear the clothes (the charro) and play the music. They learn the culture, but they don’t know how to write new music.

That is what mariachi needs, Vaca says.

Los Angles has some of the best mariachi players in the world and it has some historic studios with the space and know-how to record them. What the genre needs now is more new, original music.

“If we can inspire anybody, that’s the best thing that can come out of this,” he says.

“That’s a huge thing.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 3:00 PM.