Artist Interviews
Documenting the Voices, Stories, and Creative Thinking Behind Independent Music.
Realm26 Foundation’s Artist Interviews create space for musicians, producers, songwriters, and creative professionals to share the stories, experiences, influences, challenges, and creative decisions behind their work. Through thoughtful, artist-centered conversations, the series goes beyond the finished performance to explore how music is developed and how independent creatives navigate collaboration, career growth, and the changing music industry.
Interviews may examine songwriting and production processes, artistic influences, cultural identity, collaboration, live performance, career development, creative risk, industry challenges, and long-term artistic goals. By allowing artists to speak directly about their work and experiences, the series provides audiences with a deeper understanding of both the creative process and the realities of building a sustainable artistic practice.
Professionally filmed and presented for public access, these conversations also create lasting educational and cultural resources while expanding visibility for distinctive independent voices. Through the series, Realm26 Foundation helps document contemporary creative practice, preserve artist perspectives, and connect audiences with the people and ideas shaping independent music today.
Pacifica
Realm26’s in-depth conversation with Pacifica—Buenos Aires rock duo Inés Adam and Martina Nintzel—goes beyond the performance to explore the creative partnership, influences, decisions, and experiences behind the band’s rapid evolution. Formed through an online connection and a shared love of rock, Pacifica developed a distinctive identity built around raw guitars, melodic interplay, direct vocals, and the natural chemistry between its two members.
The interview explores how Inés and Martina met, began creating music together, developed their sound, and transformed an independent project into an internationally reaching career. Their conversation offers insight into the realities of building a band in a digital era—from creating and sharing music online to navigating songwriting, recording, touring, audience growth, and opportunities beyond Argentina.
At the center of the conversation is the relationship between friendship and creative collaboration: how two individual musical perspectives developed into a shared artistic language and how that partnership continues to shape Pacifica’s songwriting, performances, and direction as the project grows.
Claudio “Pato” Strunz
Realm26’s exclusive conversation with the late Claudio “Pato” Strunz, one of the most influential drummers in Argentine heavy metal, offers a first-person perspective on a career closely connected to two defining bands of the genre: Hermética and Malón. Strunz joined Hermética in 1991 and became part of its best-known formation before later co-founding Malón, contributing to a musical legacy that continues to resonate across generations of Latin American rock and metal audiences.
The interview moves beyond a traditional career retrospective to explore how Strunz developed as a musician, the experiences that shaped his distinctive approach to drumming, and the circumstances that led him to become part of Hermética. His reflections offer insight into an era when musicians often learned through constant practice, listening, experimentation, and self-directed discovery.
Following Strunz’s passing in July 2026, the interview has taken on additional significance as a lasting audiovisual record of his voice, experiences, creative philosophy, and contribution to Argentine music.
Valgur
Realm26’s conversation with Valgur—Mexican siblings Elizabeth and Hugo Valdivieso—offers a deeper look into the ideas, cultural references, and collaborative process behind one of the most distinctive projects in contemporary Latin American independent music. Originally from Juchitán, Oaxaca, the duo creates work that moves across experimental pop, electronic music, performance, visual art, and theatrical storytelling, developing a creative language that is as visual and conceptual as it is musical.
The interview explores how Valgur builds its artistic universe, from songwriting and production to movement, imagery, costumes, performance, and the broader narratives that shape each project. Elizabeth and Hugo reflect on the role of cultural memory, identity, magical realism, science fiction, and personal experience in their work, as well as the creative relationship that comes from developing music and visual concepts together as siblings.
The conversation also provides insight into the realities of creating genre-defying independent work, including the challenges and opportunities involved in presenting a project that does not fit neatly within traditional musical categories.
Los Fundamentalistas del Aire Acondicionado
Realm26’s conversation with Los Fundamentalistas del Aire Acondicionado offers an inside look at the musicianship, collaboration, and shared history behind one of the most significant projects in contemporary Argentine rock. Closely associated with the musical universe of Indio Solari, the group has developed a powerful collective identity shaped by decades of performance, distinctive arrangements, musical discipline, and an extraordinary connection with its audience.
The interview explores the experience of building and sustaining a large-scale musical project in which individual musicianship and collective interpretation are equally essential. Members reflect on the creative and technical demands of performing this repertoire and the responsibility of bringing deeply meaningful songs to audiences across generations.
The conversation also examines the relationship between music, memory, community, and live performance. Los Fundamentalistas discuss the unique energy created between musicians and audiences and the cultural significance surrounding the project.
la mono
Realm26’s conversation with La Mono offers an inside look at the friendship, musicianship, and creative evolution behind the Buenos Aires rock trio formed by Gaspar Benegas on guitar and vocals, Lucas Argomedo on bass and backing vocals, and Ramiro López Naguil on drums. Built from a friendship that predates the band itself, La Mono developed into a collaborative project where individual experience, shared musical history, and the energy of playing together.
The interview explores the band’s creative process, musical influences, songwriting, and the development of its identity across years of recording and live performance. Drawing from the intensity of 1990s alternative and guitar-driven rock while maintaining a distinctly Argentine character, La Mono has progressively established a sound of its own—one built around powerful guitar textures, dynamic rhythm sections, melodic experimentation, and the immediacy of a classic power trio.
The conversation also provides perspective on what it means to build an independent project alongside extensive professional careers in music. Each member brings experience from other significant projects.
nito mestre
Realm26’s conversation with Nito Mestre offers an intimate look at the career, creative philosophy, and musical legacy of one of the defining voices of Argentine rock. Best known as the co-founder and vocalist of Sui Generis alongside Charly García, Mestre helped shape a generation of listeners through songs that combined melody, lyrical sensitivity, acoustic instrumentation, and a direct emotional connection with audiences.
The interview explores Mestre’s experiences during a formative period in Argentine music, including the development of Sui Generis, the creative relationship between its members, the evolution of the band’s sound, and the cultural environment in which those songs emerged.
The conversation also extends beyond Sui Generis to examine Mestre’s development as a solo artist, his approach to songwriting and performance, and the lessons gained through decades of professional life in music. His reflections address the importance of artistic persistence, collaboration, adapting to changes in the industry, and maintaining a personal connection to music as both a creative practice and a form of communication.
cesar franko
Realm26’s in-depth conversation with César Franko offers a rare look behind the songs through the perspective of a singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer with more than three decades of experience in Latin music. A four-time ASCAP Award recipient and Latin GRAMMY nominee, Franko has written and produced music for artists including Olga Tañón, Mijares, Julión Álvarez, Cristian Castro, Noel Schajris, and Miriam Hernández, building a career that spans songwriting, production, performance, and recording.
Presented as “El Hombre de las Mil Canciones,” the Realm26 interview explores the experiences, creative decisions, and professional lessons behind Franko’s extensive body of work. The conversation examines how songs take shape from an initial idea, the relationship between melody and emotion, the producer’s role in developing an artist’s vision, and the judgment that comes from decades spent working inside the recording process.
The interview also provides a broader perspective on building and sustaining a career in music across changing technologies, audiences, and industry environments.