by Lila Lopez
A great story from the eyes of one of our Fall 2025 ACC Honors Cohort Interns; please enjoy this write-up from a fan’s perspective taking in an electric performance and being moved to track them down for an impromptu interview. Can think of nothing better to honor KOOP’s 31st Birthday than a story of heart and volunteers. Congratulations and thank you Lila! -KOOP
On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, KOOP teamed up with sister station KVRX to present their annual 91.7 Day Celebration at the 29th Street Ballroom. Many bands performed that night, but one stood out the most. From the moment they walked on stage, you could feel the warmth from the fire they were about to ignite.
The first to enter the stage was Arnesto, the band’s synth player and main producer. He’s tall, bleach blonde dyed hair, and has a mysterious aura to him. The next to enter the stage was Wade, the drummer; he’s older and has a beard, showcasing his years of experience. Then came Matt, who also plays synths. Matt’s tall and has to bend down to reach the synthesizers. Then Coco, the lead singer, came on stage, draped in veils, hair messy, and a smile beaming. Together they make Alma Muñeca, the pop synth band that mixes ambient electronic music with Spanish lyrics, and it’s nothing like I’ve ever heard before. The band name translates to “Soul Doll,” and they are definitely full of soul.
As they begin their song, I observe their setup. All I noticed were a drum set, heavy electronic equipment, and a keyboard. No guitars in sight. I think to myself, “How good is this going to sound without a guitar to support the melody?” “Will it even be any good?” Then, in seconds, the band explodes and shocks me. Wade hits the down beat with heavy arms, and you can hear the sound explode from the back of the room. The heavy synths from Matt and Arnesto come in together. They have such a synchronized musical relationship when playing that you can’t help but close your eyes and hear it. Then, finally, Coco begins to sing in Spanish. Her mouth is wide open; she’s eager to be heard, and she was. She projected over everyone and everything in that room, even Wade’s drumming. Every eye in that room moved to Coco as she began to dance in her flowy brown dress. Her movements are mesmerizing yet mysterious, obscured by the veil covering her face. She continues her elegant movements, then BOOM, out of nowhere, she rips off the veil to reveal not only her big curly hair but also the loudest, most sustained note she’s sung yet. She holds this note with much strength and emotion, and in that moment, that’s when I come to realize Coco’s vocals create an atmospheric Latin melody that no guitar could ever replicate.
The music is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. I can’t even think of a comparison because of how unique it is. It’s blaring, electronic, echoey, and even glitchy? Yet at the same time, Coco’s vocals add this sustained smooth silkiness to it. Her Hispanic accent allows her to emphasize certain syllables, which adds to the listening experience. And that’s exactly what Coco wanted when she first met Arnesto and began the journey to becoming the band Alma Muñeca.
In 2021, Coco moved to Austin to pursue music. However, months passed, and she still felt as though she hadn’t connected with anyone musically. That’s when she reached out to a friend who also sang, and she immediately told this guy about the message. “And that guy was Arnesto. I’m really shy, so I was thinking, would it even go anywhere? But then he responded and asked me to send a voice memo of me singing. It felt awkward, so I almost didn’t do it.” Coco said.
After Coco sent that voice note, Arnesto was in awe of her voice and immediately asked her to meet for coffee. That’s when they talked about the details for the kind of band they wanted.
“We met up, and we just started talking about how first we’re both Hispanic, and we would like our music to be in Spanish because you’d be surprised. We’re in Austin, and we’re a Spanish-speaking band, and there’s a lot of Latino culture here, but where are the other people singing in Spanish?” Coco said.
After meeting up, Coco and Arnesto instantly hit it off and started making music right away. They made it “homework to go to the studio every week, which is at Arnesto’s place, and just come up with stuff. Slowly, we started finding rhythms and finding melodies. It was really hard for me to just start singing cause I had never done this before. Like I love singing, and I’m glad it has given me a lot of confidence,” Coco said.
Arnesto became the main producer for the band and felt as though Coco came into his life “at the perfect time.” Before Arnesto met Coco, he was in another band with Alma Muñeca’s current drummer, Wade; however, that band decided to go on hiatus, so Arnesto and Wade felt stuck. Arnesto told Wade that he wanted to keep making music. Then that’s when he met Coco. “It was good timing that Coco came into my life because I was looking for another avenue of expression, and I really wanted the music to challenge me, especially with working on music in Spanish for the first time. Even though I grew up in Mexico and my first language was Spanish, in Austin I hadn’t worked with anyone who sang in Spanish, so I just wanted to invest in that side I hadn’t explored before. So Coco and I wrote music together for like 6 months,” Arnesto said.
Arnesto and Coco started to build the band up, and then after a few months, that’s when Wade and Matt came into the picture. “I know Matt because his girlfriend was in a band that I was in prior, and Wade was the drummer for another band I was in, so it’s just friendships that made this band,” Arnesto said.
Arnesto and Coco both agreed that after Wade and Matt joined the band, their sound really started to take shape. “The modular synths were really interesting when we went and met up at Matt’s house for the first time, and he has just like huge modular synths. I’ve never seen something like it, and we just already knew this is gonna add so much life to this music, and it immediately did,” Coco said.
Wade also added a different, more experienced sound to the group as he has been playing with other bands for years, playing as a studio musician and teaching drum lessons. “I think there are maybe 5-10 artists that I’m working with in town,” Wade said.
“Something important that Wade adds is that he is a really good drum teacher; he’s teaching the next generation of artists,” Coco said.
Before working with Matt and Wade, Coco and Arnesto were trying to figure out what exactly their sound would be. They have hundreds of old demos that are just acoustic guitar and Coco’s raw vocals. “I would say by the time Matt joined the band, the sound started to take more of a form before it was really just experimentation and flexibility,” Arnesto said.
Before joining Alma Muñeca, Matt took on the synthesizer world at home during COVID. “This was kinda the first major band that I’ve been in. I got really into synthesizer stuff back in 2020, and I kinda went into the ambient world and was playing ambient music for yoga classes and stuff like that, so [Arnesto] was thinking of electronic music, and I am this big synth guy, so it just kinda worked out,” Matt said.
Matt and Arnesto are both producers for the band, and both play synthesizers, which was unheard of to me. It made me question what their dynamic would be like. They describe their musical relationship as symbiotic. “The stuff that comes out of the modular synths is like painting on the wall, and I just make sure it stays in the frame,” Arnesto said. “Yeah, basically I just throw a whole bunch of paint on the wall, and he actually paints it in,” Matt responds.
Alma Muñeca has a message, and they will do anything to be heard. After seeing them, I won’t forget their message. I was starstruck by Coco’s stage presence. The way she danced was mesmerizing, and her ability to sustain held notes was unreal. Alma Muñeca is a band not like any I’ve heard before. From the hardcore synths that Matt and Arnesto use, to the incredible vocal capacity and range Coco has, to finally the base of it all, Wade and his insane drum patterns. It all fits into the perfect painting they want to create. The symbiotic relationship Matt and Arnesto spoke about becomes very clear when seeing them live. The whole band’s musical connection is powerful and driven by a true passion to paint a color of sound unheard before. Their painting analogy rings true.