About // Bio
NVM, ILY (never mind, I love you) is the Los Angeles based Mexican American emo and pop punk project founded by songwriter, vocalist, and producer Gerald Cerda. Built around the world of Mexican American Blue, the band turns early 2000s emo nostalgia, pop punk urgency, and Mexican American identity into songs about heartbreak, memory, culture, family, and the strange feeling of growing up between worlds.
At the center of NVM, ILY is a specific point of view: the Mexican American emo kid who grew up with Warped Tour sounds, family parties, MySpace era internet culture, Mexican television, and the pressure of never feeling fully understood by either side. Rather than treating emo as a phase, Gerald Cerda frames it as a cultural memory shaped by no sabo identity, late night drives, loud guitars, and the emotional language of a generation that learned to process everything through songs.
The band's online world connects its music to iconic Mexican emo and Mexican alternative history, including the La Rosa de Guadalupe emo episodes, the "Soy Emo" era, Mexican television panic around emo culture, and the 2008 emo vs punk riots in Mexico. These references are not just internet jokes or nostalgia posts. They are part of the band's larger mission to document and reclaim Mexican emo history through a Mexican American lens.
NVM, ILY's most recognized song, "I Know You Think This Song Is About You, But Other People Live In Chicago Too", captures the project's voice at its clearest: emotionally specific, self aware, melodic, and rooted in the kind of storytelling that feels both deeply personal and instantly shareable. Releases like "Distractions," "Before You Leave," and "Bigfoot" continue expanding that world, pairing hook driven alternative rock and pop punk songwriting with cultural references that make the band feel unmistakably its own.
With NVM, ILY, Gerald Cerda gives Mexican American emo a clear voice: loud, melodic, nostalgic, self aware, and rooted in a cultural history that rarely gets documented in alternative music.
Connect // Follow
Key Tracks // Sonic Identity
"I Know You Think This Song Is About You, But Other People Live In Chicago Too"
NVM, ILY's second single of 2025 y uno de sus momentos más definitorios. Punkeando!, el medio independiente de Ciudad de México, lo describió como un corte que evoca "el ingenio de los primeros trabajos de Fall Out Boy y Panic! At The Disco" — un track que "equilibra humor, melancolía y catarsis" and connects instantly with anyone who grew up on Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, and the Warped Tour era. La propia banda lo describes as "a rush of heartbreak, humor, and Midwest nostalgia." Top 8 Scene also went Behind The Track with Gerald, digging into the local LA scene and what was coming next.
Top 8 Scene — Behind The Track ↗ Punkeando! — Reseña ↗"Distractions"
The lead single into the Mexican American Blue era. Top 8 Scene gave it an exclusive early listen and broke the EP tracklist, calling it a track that captures "the push-and-pull" of the record — fear, self-sabotage, and wanting closeness while being terrified of it. Gerald in his own words: "I have an issue with becoming very close with someone and then taking too much time thinking of how I can mess things up, that they eventually move on. 'Distractions' was born. It's sort of a play on 'I love you, but I don't want to lose you.'"
Top 8 Scene — Exclusive Early Stream + EP Reveal ↗ Top 8 Scene — Full Interview ↗"Before You Leave" (feat. Danny Goo)
El proyecto angelino presenta un tema "cargado de guitarras y emociones que confirma su lugar como una de las propuestas emergentes más sólidas" — those are Victor Tellez's words in Punkeando!, Mexico City's leading independent punk and emo outlet. The track earned praise across the Latin American alternative press for its energetic guitars and precise drumming, with both Punkeando! and Pop Punkers MX covering the release. Inspired by The Story So Far, Real Friends, Four Year Strong, All Time Low, and Mayday Parade, it rides the tension of saying the thing right before it's too late — Gerald's raw delivery against Danny Goo's smoother counterweight.
Punkeando! — Reseña ↗ Pop Punkers MX — Reseña ↗"Bigfoot"
Loud, weird, cryptid-core. The song turns conspiracy culture and pop punk momentum into something fast and melodic, built for live chaos. Since release it has been picked up by radio shows in Brazil, playlist curators in Germany, Israel, and the UK, and independent stations across Latin America — the band's widest geographic spread to date, showing that the NVM, ILY signal reaches well past Los Angeles.
Stream on Spotify ↗