A Chat with Ignacio Peña (30.09.25)
Ignacio Peña is a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter and Emmy Award–winning storyteller whose innovative work blends music, science, and multimedia. Known for his boundary-pushing artistic projects, Peña continues to inspire audiences with works that celebrate curiosity, creativity, and the human spirit. We chat with Ignacio Peña about all things music below.
OSR: You’re a three-time Emmy-winning storyteller. How do those skills as a filmmaker/educator influence the way you write songs?
Ignacio Peña: Well, it influences a lot, it all goes together. I started writing songs when I was 14 years old, and I took it very seriously early on and through that study of songs, I found the story, and I found that the story is really the universal template for all the arts and education.
OSR: What does ‘To The Stars’ represent at this stage in your career?
Ignacio Peña: It represents different things at different levels. Musically, it’s a throwback to the pop of my youth. I grew up in ’77, ’78, ’79, and I love disco and what they call “disco rock” or “dance rock” from the beginning of the 80s. Stuff like ABBA, Menudo and Earth, Wind & Fire. I grew up listening to a lot of that dance rock, and even a lot of my favorite rock acts, they have elements of dance, like the four on the floor and all that stuff. So musically, it’s a throwback to the music of my youth. Thematically, it’s more of what I’ve been doing the last 15 years, which is trying to bring stories of science up front, mainly because I find them really interesting and entertaining. So thematically, it just ties everything in for me and musically, it’s something that harks back to when I was growing up.
OSR: Your music often speaks to our shared humanity. How do you balance that universal message with personal artistic expression?
Ignacio Peña: I find the universal much more interesting than the personal. I believe that the universal includes the personal, and I believe that we are more the same than we are separate or different. And I believe in exploring our similarities, and that’s why I believe in the story and the song, because they are things we have in common.
OSR: What excites you most about representing Puerto Rico and Latin America on a global stage with this release?
Ignacio Peña: I always hope that I can change the narrative of the common Latin American artist. I am not that big on the incessant party, heavy sex and all that stuff that has been taking over Latin American popular music. So I hope to be an alternative to that.
OSR: Can you walk us through a typical day in the studio while working on this track?
Ignacio Peña: Yeah, well, it was me and Isaac Sacco working out the arrangement to the song. I had written the song a while back, but we went through a few arrangements. Finally, Sacco came up with a beat that I thought worked, and it was that: a bunch of trial and error. After we had the beat and the general sound, then we decided to add the choir, and then we decided to add the horns. I don’t remember who had the idea for the horns. But that’s the way it happened.
OSR: You’ve worked across many mediums from television, film, to music. Do you see them as different outlets, or as parts of the same storytelling drive?
Ignacio Peña: Definitely part of the same storytelling drive. They’re all the same to me. They all are different manifestations of the story, which is at the center of the arts and everything that entertains us.
OSR: What was the most challenging aspect of bringing ‘To The Stars’ to life?
Ignacio Peña: Making a good melody and making a good song. To me, the challenge is always coming up with a memorable melody and a good song. And we work hard at that, at having all the elements of a good song.
OSR: How do you think the live performance of this track will differ from the recorded version?
Ignacio Peña: We just played it for the first time in this new version and it’s already changing. I’d say its probably going to be a bit more shoegazy. We will find out, but I will tell you it will probably change. It’s already changing.
OSR: What artists, past or present, do you see as kindred spirits in the way they merge music with bigger ideas?
Ignacio Peña: I would say that the biggest and best storytellers in music have been Michael Jackson, Madonna, and The Beatles. In salsa, you have Ruben Blades. In Merengue, you have Juan Luis Guerra. They always had these bigger concepts and a lot of mythology. At some point, when you’re in your growth through music, you’re probably going to run into the understanding that you’re really a storyteller.
OSR: Looking forward, do you see yourself exploring more space/science-themed projects, or is this song a one-time orbit?
Ignacio Peña: It’s a continuation of one of the projects I’ve been working on. 15 years ago, we started a science rock show called “The Great Planet Earth Debate”. The idea was to, through a rock show, tell the back story of the subjects that are being taught in school. So I do not see myself separating from the subjects of science, time, space, or motion.
Many thanks to Ignacio Peña for speaking with us. Find out more about Ignacio Peña on his Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify.
