Mateo Cruz
a crumbling hacienda in Oaxaca, Mexico
Mateo Cruz grew up in a crumbling hacienda in Oaxaca, where his childhood was filled with the scent of damp earth and the resonant creak of the old screen door. After leaving home to work as an oil-rig roughneck on remote platforms, he began collecting a pebble from each place he laid his head as a tangible map of his transient life. The rig work is grueling and demands strict adherence to schedules, but Mateo finds solace in the rhythm of labor and sketches song ideas in his head between shifts.
About
Obsession
The exact creak of an old screen door
Voice
Heavy ground shifting beneath you
Genre
Anthemic ambient norteño
Instrumentation
Steel drum, accordion, field recordings of rig machinery, pebbles rattling in a pouch
Vocal Style
Deep, gravelly, resonant near-whispers
Production Style
Recorded in the echoing halls of his hacienda, at night, layering sounds from the rig
Influences
The oil rig's monotony, his childhood memories, the hacienda's decay
Selected 1 time · Last: June 08, 2026