Mexico City-based producer, Camilo Lara, creates irresistible beats for the global dance floor with his project: Mexican Institute of Sound. He writes music for film, TV and video games – sometimes composing the score, other times creating songs or incidental music. His work as a composer has landed him an Emmy, and as an artist and musical supervisor, he’s received multiple Grammy nominations and awards.
Camilo’s film and TV credits include:
Film scores:
● A Million Miles Away (Amazon)
● Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Disney)
● Going Varsity in Mariachi (Netflix)
● Judy Baca documentary for LACMA
● Familia (Netflix)
TV scores:
● Home S2 (Apple TV), for which he won an Emmy
● VGLY (HBO)
● NEON (Netflix)
● Gentefied S2 (Netflix)
● Coyotl (Fall 2024 – HBO Max)
● La regla de oro (Fall 2024 – Amazon)
● La liberación (Fall 2024 – Amazon)
● VGLY S2 (2025 – HBO Max)
● Prefiero la muerte (2025 – HBO Max)
Camilo created the incidental music and was the musical consultant for Pixar’s Coco (where he even had a cameo!) and all seasons of Narcos: Mexico. He was part of the music teams for Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Songs for:
● Coco (Pixar)
● Vacation Friends 1 and 2 (Hulu)
● Queer (Luca Guadagnino film, Producer Trent Reznor Track)
● Rudo y Cursi (Alfonso and Carlos Cuarón)
Camilo won a Grammy for producing the score and soundtrack for Alfonso Cuaron’s Y tu mamá también. His music has been featured in Narcos, Breaking Bad, Y tu Mamá También, Vacation Friends, Mosquito Coast, Californication, and Ugly Betty, to name a few. He hosts his own radio station, EastLos FM, on the best selling game of all time: Grand Theft Auto V.
As an artist and producer, Camilo’s work has landed him one Grammy and eight Latin Grammy nominations. He produced the best selling album in Mexico of the last 25 years (Los Ángeles Azules). His production credits include a wide spectrum of artists raging from rap superstar Santa Fe Klan and the king of Corridos Tumbados Natanael Cano, to legendary artists like Lila Downs, Norah Jones and Calexico. He has produced artists from across a broad range of genres, be it contemporary Congolese icons Jupiter & the Okwess, Band of Horses, Beck or Damon Albarn’s eclectic Africa Express.
Artists that have commissioned remixes from Camilo include: Metallica, Run the Jewels, Beck, Beastie Boys, Morrissey, Placebo, Interpol , Don Letts, Madness, Julieta Venegas, Tony Allen, Babasonicos, Hermitude, Amadou & Marian and Sofi Tukker, to name just a few.
Mexican Institute of Sound released his debut album Méjico Máxico in 2006. Since then, M.I.S. has released 5 albums: Piñata (2008), Soy Sauce (2010), Poitico (2012), Disco Popular (2017), Distrito Federal (2021), which made NPR’s list of “Best Albums of the Year”. His latest album is Algo Ritmo (2024), a retrospective of Camilo’s work over the past 20 years. Mexican Institute of Sound has performed in every continent, headlining Mexico City’s Vive Latino in 2024 to a crowd of more than 80,000.
Camilo’s side projects are many and diverse, and include a Morrissey tribute act called Mexrrissey (their record No Manchester is the first Mexican album to appear in the UK music charts, ever), and the 2016 album-documentary Compass, which featured collaborations with 80 artists from 8 different countries.
He’s collaborated with a wide range of artists from all corners of the globe including Beck, Damon Albarn (Gorillaz), Manu Chao, Cuco, Bia, Duckwrth, Dan the Automator, Graham Coxon, Cuco, Ludmilla, Bonde do Rolé, Sly & Robbie, Toots and the Maytals, Gogol Bordello, Amadeu e Mariam, Tricky and Tom Tom Club.
Time Magazine named Camilo “One of the 80 Mexicans shaping contemporary Culture.” Spanish newspaper El Pais named him one of the “50 Most Influential People in Latin America.” Quien magazine named him one of the “50 People Who Are Transforming Mexico.”
