Salvador Hurtado is a Grammy-Award-winning guitar player and a 2017 International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™ (WFCT) gold medalist. No big deal, right? His next act involves a five-track, 16-minute album built for blasting in tint bays worldwide.

Salvador Hurtado has worked on the project for two years.

“I wanted to make a tool, but I wanted it to be free,” Hurtado says. “I wanted to make a streaming playlist that was customer-safe and child-safe; something you could stream in your shop at any volume and not offend anybody. It’s a streaming playlist on Spotify and doesn’t require you to buy anything. Make money to it all summer.”

Hurtado wrote, recorded and mixed the project in-house. Nick Landis of Nick Landis Mastering in Austin, Texas, mastered the project. The album, which is primarily instrumental with few lyrics, drops on July 17.

“Imagine mild hip hop music and blues merged into something new,” says Hurtado of the album’s vibe. “It’s a mixture of all my influences—from classical music to jazz to hip hop to blues to heavy metal. It’s guitar-driven. There are multiple guitars in every song.”

The album cover features a tinting blade.

A Tinter’s Tracklist

Track         Title                                                 Artist
1                Hustl’a                                            Feat J Moon
2                Limo 5 Percent                              Salvador Hurtado
3                Fresh Tint                                       Feat J Moon
4                Slip Solution                                    Salvador Hurtado
5               Don’t Sweat It (Blade It)                Salvador Hurtado

Each track incorporates a minimum of five to six digital and physical instruments.

Salvador Hurtado (left) and Nick Landis (right) collaborated on the project.

“I was self-critical because I did [a lot],” says Hurtado, who spent two years constructing the collection of songs. “I went through the process until I found nothing I could make an excuse for.”

Hurtado earned a degree in sound recording technology from Texas State University and began playing instruments in the sixth grade. He learned how to tint two grades later. Hurtado became involved with Grupo Fantasma, whose studio album El Existential won a Grammy for Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011.

Today, Hurtado is the vice president of Sal’s House of Tint in San Marcos, Texas, where his days are a harmonious blend of both skill-centric segments.

“The songs are about making money and hustling; that’s what we’re doing,” says Hurtado, whose company solely installs ceramic tint and is currently scheduled six weeks out. “You can vibe out on it, or you can turn it down, ignore it and get to work. It’s all dependent on the volume. There’s a lot there.”