Rana Santacruz is born in Mexico City on February 25th 1973 and since his early years falls in love with music. Through his high school years his first band El Círculo De Los Seres Queridos, performs covers of bands like The Cure and The Smiths and start performing its own compositions.

Years later, when Rana finishes his Communications studies, the band changes its name and style. La Catrina, with its happy and drunk alternative folk sound and its sui generis line up –that includes accordion, banjo, violin and trumpet- grasps the attention of the Mexican music industry. In 1999 the band signs a record deal with Warner Music Mexico and travels to Madrid and Miami to record its first and only record under the production of Juan Ignacio Cuadrado, Alejo Stivel and Oscar Lopez. Between 200 and 2002 La Catrina appears in different radio and TV channels (MTV, Telehit, Televisa, TV Azteca, Canal 11) and tours around Mexico.

In 2002 Santcruz goes to New York City to continue his musical project and to study a master degree in Music Business. His current music could be considered "first cousins" to La Catrina, this time though, He gives it an alternative touch and revitalizes it a little bit. His music has been labeled as “Irish Mariachi”. He is still influenced by folk music and in particular in artists that take folk music and transform it into something else, like The Pogues and Tom Waits. Rana Santacruz is still quite fond of acoustic instrumentation and for his current project has chosen stuff like: accordions, guitars, guitarrones, jarana, harps, banjos, mandolins, violins, etc. Lyric-wise his songs usually tell short tales and adventures and resemble short films.

His two current projects are "Ojitos De Maguey" (Cactus Eyes) and "Canciones de Marineros" (Sailor Songs).

"Ojitos De Maguey" is a project heavily influenced by Mexico, its culture and traditions. Most of the songs are very romantic and are inspired by the innocence and simplicity found in traditional songs and vintage Mexican movies. The styles range from "Son Jarocho" -traditional music from Veracruz (a state in the eastern part of Mexico) which by the way, Rana believes to be one of the most beautiful music in the world - to Tambora - Mexican brass bands, in which the music is maybe not as beautiful but still very colorful, strong, and melodramatic. Typical lyrics from this style are very, very simple as well.
The songs in "Canciones De Marineros" are much more melancholic. More than Mexican, they sound kind of Irish, or French, or Russian or... who knows, really. The lyrics are about sailors, their lives, their farewells and range from the story of an old sailor who's about to die, to the romantic encounter that another sailor has with a ghost who once was the love of his life.

Rana Santacruz offers free downloads of his songs in his website: www.ranasantacruz.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.