His Father Used to Work Coachella — Now DannyLux Is One of the Festival’s Most Anticipated Performers
When the 19-year-old Mexican-American artist DannyLux found out he was playing Coachella this year, the first call he made was to his parents. In his family, the festival has a special meaning: DannyLux grew up outside of the Coachella Valley, and his father, Oscar, drove a garbage van for a company that used to help clean the grounds after the event.
“I remember when I was little, I would be like, ‘Mom, why is there so much traffic?'” DannyLux tells Rolling Stone. “My mom would be like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s Coachella weekend, all the artists are coming in.’ So now, it’s such a crazy thing that now I’m going to be one of the people playing.”
It was, in fact, one of Oscar’s collection routes that led DannyLux to music. Oscar would drive around picking up refuse, and one day, he saw something he thought his son might like: a guitar in great condition. “Sometimes he would find furniture, fully good furniture. And it wasn’t even literal trash. People would just leave it, you know? And he found that guitar when I was, like, seven. I remember he just brought it home and I immediately fell in love with it,” DannyLux says.
DannyLux began teaching himself to play all kinds of songs — especially songs by American rock bands that Oscar listened to, and Spanish songs his mother loved. “There’s videos of me as a little baby with the Eagles in the background playing,” he says, “and my mom would be listening to a lot of Spanish rock groups like Maná and Enanitos Verdes.” As he got older, he began noticing a rising generation of kids on TikTok performing brooding corridos and classics from música Mexicana traditions. He’d try out songs on his guitar, finding way into the style. “I would be like, ‘Dang, my voice doesn’t fit in this.’ Even my dad would say, ‘Yeah, you’re forcing your voice too much.'” Eventually, he found his own path through a softer, more melodic approach that’s made EPs like Perdido En Ti and Las Dos Caras Del Amor stand out. He’s also become a go-to collaborator for rising stars, like Eslabon Armado, who are looking for a gentler contrast in their music. “I try different things, like adding jazz chords into this regional Mexican stuff and other things to make it more chill,” he explains.
That romantic side of DannyLux comes through constantly, even when he’s telling family stories. One of his favorites is how his parents met, as teenagers n Mexicali: “Basically my dad at 17, he told my mom that he was going to come work in the U.S. and then he was going to bring her with him. And so my dad just crossed the border, he didn’t have any papers or anything, and it was a whole journey that he had. When he got here, he started working on the fields, in agricultural and all that. And then it lasted six months, where he didn’t have contact with my mom. But once he went back to Mexico, he saw my mom. He asked her to marry him.”
The rest is history, and the family will be there to see DannyLux make some of his own. He plans to bring his dad backstage with him, but first, Oscar had, a surprise for him. Before his anticipated show on Friday, Oscar took out giant yellow billboards in town that read, “My last time at Coachella I was picking up the trash. Now I’m back to see my son perform this Friday. Te amo, Dannylux. Tu papa.”
His performance will be an emotional moment during a festival full of other Latinx acts that DannyLux’s says he’s looking forward to seeing. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m actually going to be playing,” he says with a laugh. “I’m just excited I’m going to be up there playing with these super talented artists.” But the show is fully dedicated to his parents: “I just want to really do this to make them happy.”