“I don't see music as a movie, I see it more as an amusement park,” Mora tells Apple Music. “I just go looking around, trying things, just exploring sounds and new stuff.” That approach suits the multi-talented Puerto Rican artist well, as he’s become one of the most sought-after talents when it comes to writing, producing, or singing on tracks. In his work for others as well as on his own projects, he maintains a forward-facing focus all the while. In his relatively short career, Mora has already left a significant impact on reggaetón via projects like Primer Día de Clases and MICRODOSIS. Now, coming after a chapter of experimentation with 2022’s PARAÍSO, he continues writing his musical story with ESTRELLA. Boasting features from legends like Arcángel and Yandel, the project balances between the Mora we know and the Mora that we will continue to hear, tackling drum ’n’ bass and garage rhythms on “CÓRCEGA” and “FANTASIAS,” respectively. “The idea is that a year after my albums come out, they continue to feel fresh, that they don't sound like time has gone by,” he says. Below, read Mora's thoughts on his career and his path to ESTRELLA. On developing as both a singer and a producer across genres: “When I started making music, I didn't really think about it, I really saw it more as doing something for fun and to pass the time. Right now, it's very different, because it's gone from being a hobby to being my whole life, so it's really cool looking back and realizing that everything was natural. I started playing two roles within the same genre, which is producing and singing at the same time, and I never really leaned towards one or the other. Obviously, when I started singing, it's not that I had to put production aside, but I had to give it some space, because singing involves many more things than being a producer, just being at home and making a couple of tracks from time to time. Seeing it now, it all feels good. I still enjoy both.” How ESTRELLA happened: “When I started working on the record, I really didn't even want to make an album. I just started making music, and since I was already coming from PARAÍSO, from a slightly more electronic world, I just felt like I had covered all the bases. This was also a record that I made without real pressure. Obviously, there was a bit, because I finished it while on tour and the timing wasn't right. It wasn't like the other records, because I had a lot of free time to think about it. But I did not go looking for something; I just started making music. I realized that there were different things that I hadn't done before. They began to pile up, and when I had six, seven songs, there was no going back. I was not going to leave all those songs out and just release them like that. I knew that if they didn't make it into a record, they were going to be left out and I was going to put them in a drawer. “The album has 15 songs, but really, in all this time, I wrote 40 or 50 songs—easily. It is not like you write them and that's it; there are more things behind this process. People think that it's like that: You record one song, you record three, five, and when you get to ten, you already have an album. And it really isn't like that. I start making music, a lot of music, and I separate everything. Of every five songs that I do, I take two and move them to one side and give them love. Later, when I start to shape the album as such, well, I go back and rerecord some of the songs, I work on them a lot. The hardest part of a record isn't starting, it's finishing it, because you can have 500 songs, but what are you going to do with them? You have to find a way to make everything coherent and make sense.“ How dance music influenced ESTRELLA: “I'm not a person who gets up and says, 'Okay, I'm going to do five trap songs this week.' Because it's not what I enjoy 100 percent. All the trap songs on the album came out like that—randomly. I wasn't looking for anything; they just put on a trap track and I felt it and gave it a go. It's the same with drum ’n’ bass. It's just a moment, situations in which I find myself playing that track and we do it like that. They can be changed, they are interchangeable, change the melody and write a reggaetón or a dancehall song, but you really listen to them and understand that they are what they are and that's it.” On his role in the bigger picture of Latin American music: “Well, I don't see music as a movie, I see it more as an amusement park. I just go looking around, trying things out, seeing what I like and just exploring sounds and new things. Obviously, there’s also a responsibility knowing that I have a lot of eyes on me as well as ears, people who are waiting to see what I'm going to release, to see where the wave is going to move. But in reality, I go around just living life with no complications and enjoying music. Thank God it has worked that way, with people not knowing what to expect from me.”