About Chinoy

Chinoy (born 1983 in Placilla, San Antonio, Chile) is a Chilean folk singer-songwriter. His real name is Mauricio Castillo. His first steps as a musician were at the age of 15, in the local punk band Don Nadie. He also developed some of his musical skills in Argentina, where he travelled in 2 ocassions and played as second guitarist in the punk-metal band DiaDema. and invited by the argentinian band Loquero, whose members got impressed by his skills as a performer, went to La Plata where he stayed there for some time doing live concerts at cafes and bars. In 2007 he moves to Valparaíso to study Arts, but but drops out a little after, to focus exclusively to write and perform his songs at bars and other public locations. He started to get attention thanks to his way of playing the guitar, his androgynous voice and his ability to express. When Manuel García got to know Chinoy, he invited him to perform as the opening act at an event in the Council of Culture in Valparaíso, and in the Spain Cultural Centre, where he was being part. Soon he was traveling to various Chilean southern cities, and his song "Carne de gallina" got included in the 2007 compilation album Escuelas de Rock 1er Disco Bicentenario. At the time he still hadn't release any record, several songs of him and illegal bootlegs were available in internet, and his MySpace reached the 130 thousand visits. His breakthrough came after filmmaker Andrés Wood asked him to create the theme song for his 2008 movie, La Buena Vida. Then he finally became a known musician in the whole the Chilean music scene. In late 2009 his long-awaited first original album Que Salgan los Dragones was released through the Quemasucabeza record label.