Estrada Showcases His Unique Spin On Shoegaze With Haunting New Single “Esta Noche Que Salí”.

With his latest release, the California-based artist delivers the perfect soundtrack for your next late-night drive.

Some songs take a couple of listens before you get them. Some are defined enough that they immediately stand out. Estrada’s new single “Esta Noche Que Salí” is one of the latter – yet one that doesn’t need to shout about it. Restrained but unmistakable and haunting, it has a rich, flowing bass riff that has to overlay the gauzy shoegaze pop of early emo bands.

Estrada was born as an artist due to his desire to create a musical space for himself. Coming from a Latin background but embracing the completely different world of shoegaze, he knew what it was like to be an outsider. Yet the genre, either way, is perfectly suited to get more of a spotlight at the moment, and “Esta Noche Que Salí” is a brilliant track to do this. Already ranking as one of his most popular on Spotify within less than a week after its release, there’s something magnetic about this new development within the genre. Perhaps it’s in the name of it – derived from the old joke of artists staring down at their shoes instead of the audience. But this vulnerability is what makes it the right space for the Hawthorne, CA-based musician to release a track that doesn’t need to shout for attention but rather creates a space and gets it anyway. 

“Esta Noche Que Salí” ultimately represents the balance of wearing emotions on your sleeve. It is a track that puts its finger on the right feelings without defining them and instead simply celebrating and embracing them. The name of the track translates as “I went out tonight” in Spanish, but you don’t have to speak the language to get the right story from the music. It’s one of those moments in sound that sums up the kind of idiosyncratic atmosphere familiar to all fans of any smaller and less recognizable genre such as shoegaze. What rounds the track out are the hollow, echoey guitar lines at the end of the track that form a segway into the silence beyond. It’s a small detail, a human touch that brings you closer to the studio. And as shoegaze is an intimate genre, it’s this raw, rough-and-ready approach to the recording that makes it form such a human connection.

Estrada has managed to the variation of emotions of any night into three minutes just by mixing and matching the right elements. There’s a thunderous booming to the drums and the mix in general. It’s messy, human, and intimate, with a slight element of shyness and sorrow in it. Yet, beyond all this, the summer-ready, upbeat chorus makes it a track that, like an optical illusion, can appear one mood or another based on what you want it to be.

Beyond just creating music, Estrada has actually been active amongst listeners, carving out a space for fans of a similar background. It’s this kind of personable approach to his audience that is evident in his other tracks, like “Better Off Alone” and “Pomona”. He’s the originator of TikTok’s 9.6M-view #foogaze hashtag, and he has multiple Spotify playlists to his name.

Sonically, he slides between the 80s and the 90s, with the atmosphere of synthpop and shoegaze including indie staples of moody bass and heartfelt, sincere lyrics. Yet his involvement with his fans and the sincerity in his music are a modern paradox. Both something that could only have been built with the help of social media, it is simultaneously refreshing in the impersonal world online promotion has created.

On “Esta Noche Que Salí”, there’s something really satisfying in seeing how the popular effects of one of the biggest decades of alternative rock combine with the drums and arrangements of synthpop. It’s almost like a musical missing link. Who knew that the wobbly, echoing guitars would segue smoothly with the tightness of his punchy beats, big chorus, and slick bassline? It’s obvious to see why Estrada has formed such a connection within the scene.

Ultimately, “Esta Noche Que Salí” could be the soundtrack to a teen movie, but a slightly darker one, capturing all the ennui and feeling of alternative subculture. It’s the moments of stretching time, of sitting next to a window watching raindrops chase across the glass, of worn Converse and jeans and small, darkened music venues. With the organic connections he has forged, Estrada is one to watch – and his latest single shows just how this is set to continue.

Listen Now


Estrada (US)


Featured Image by Tallulah Totten

Related Posts

Discover New Music.

Get a monthly update on the best new releases, upcoming tours, curated playlists, and exclusive giveaways.