After putting in countless hours, Brownsville artist Cleiri Quezada is taking the next step in her musical career by signing with a record label and planning to record and release her first studio album in 2023.
Raised in Brownsville with roots in Jalisco, Mexico, Cleiri signed with CHR Records June 9 with the agreement of having a full 10-track album.
CHR Records is an independent record label based in Harlingen, which was founded in 2017 by Charles Hearn, Hilda Lamas and Rick Garcia. The label focuses on multiple genres that include Tejano, conjunto and blues, to name a few.
Always intending to launch a music career, the 2021 Brownsville Music Legacy Awards’ Best New Singer and Songwriter said she has been singing since she was a child at church and whenever opportunities became available.
“Music has always been my passion,” Cleiri told The Rider by telephone from Teocaltiche, Jalisco, Mexico. “I always knew I would get involved in music. … I certainly did not predict that, in the near future, I would be putting this project together.”
Performing in her former band, Even Four Five, before the COVID-19 pandemic, they reunited in July 2021 with the condition that the band perform under Cleiri’s name for the goal of marketing herself as a solo artist.
Cleiri is employed at the Brownsville Public Utilities Board as senior communications and public relations coordinator. She is a former editor-in-chief of The Collegian, the student newspaper at legacy institution University of Texas at Brownsville.
Last summer, she had a residency at Isla Grand Beach Resort on South Padre Island and said it is exciting for her to take this direction in her musical career and is looking forward to what the future is going to bring.
“It’s very nerve-wracking as well because, now … I have to dedicate the time now to really put all the effort into writing and producing this album,” Cleiri said. “It’s going to be my first studio album. … It’s a huge project that I have, but I’m very excited and I feel very blessed to have this opportunity.”
During contract talks with CHR Records, she made it known what certain elements she wanted in the album and for it to be fully in Spanish.
“I want it to be, like, my breakthrough into the music industry,” Cleiri said. “So, I want it to reflect my heritage because I’m Hispanic but, you know, there’s a very specific part of Mexico that my family’s from. Right now, I’m in Teocaltiche, Jalisco, and so it’s where mariachi was born. It’s not going to be a mariachi album, but it is going to be heavily influenced by Spanish ballad sounds and very strong guitar acoustic sounds, as well.”
With the album in the early stages of production, Cleiri hopes it has an original but familiar sound that people all over Latin America and the United States can enjoy.
She is working with CHR Records co-founder Garcia to produce the album.
“Hopefully, between now and the end of the year, we’ll have a complete 10-song package done to present at the first of the year out to the public,” Garcia said. “And I think, personally, she’s going to knock it out of the park.”
Garcia said he initially communicated with Cleiri through Facebook and later met her at an event in San Diego, Texas, where she sang and garnered the attention of the audience and the media.
He said it was when Cleiri was giving interviews to the news media right after the performance that he noticed she had a good personality for the music business.
Initially, she was not ready to commit to the record label but they stayed in touch and, about a year later, discussed the pros and cons of signing with CHR Records. Cleiri decided to sign a deal.
“I’m not entirely sure right now what direction we’re going to take Cleiri in [musically], but the bottom line is she does everything wonderfully,” Garcia said. “… We plan to do a lot of different styles of music and … the project will kind of just lend itself to whatever creativity comes about.”
He added that with Cleiri being versatile in different genres and bilingual, the sky is the limit for her.
Comparing the progression of the album to a football field of 100 yards, Garcia said it is about at the 40-yard line right now and hopes that the album will come out during the first quarter of 2023.
With Cleiri, staff writers and producers currently in the studio, the record label hopes to release a Christmas track after Thanksgiving. Garcia also said they hope to possibly release two singles leading up to the album.
“I’m very confident about Cleiri as an artist and I feel very good about marketing her as an artist of CHR Records,” Garcia said. “… It generally takes a little while to break a new artist, but I’m willing to take the journey and she’s willing to do the journey.”
Asked what is unique about Cleiri as an artist, Garcia replied, “Cleiri has a natural drive and passion for the music.”
“This girl is a workhorse,” he said. “She is a nonstop, always thinking about music, kind of an artist. And, really, that’s what separates … those who make it professionally.”
To find Cleiri’s music, social media and to keep up to date with her, visit Cleiri.com.
“This album is really a labor of my heart and it’s going to take everything from me,” Cleiri said. “I want to be very careful about what I put in this album. I don’t want to put just sounds. … It’s very important to be able to love what I write and what I hear. And I feel that at the end of the day, this album should communicate to people a story, an idea and a feeling. And that’s my ultimate goal.”
