Benjamín Gloria: The Unsung Architect of Rhythm

Aug. 28 2025, Published 2:30 a.m. ET
When the lights go down and the first note shatters the silence, the crowd feels only magic. But behind that wall of sound—behind the sweat, the fire, the transcendence—there’s a hidden architect making sure the night’s heartbeat lands with absolute precision. His name is Benjamín Gloria, and if you’ve been to a Juanes concert in the past six years, you’ve heard his work—whether you realized it or not.
Gloria isn’t just a drum tech. He’s a craftsman who can take a worn kit and make it pulse with new life. In the charged atmosphere of live performance, he ensures the drums are more than instruments of rhythm; they become the heartbeat of the night.
His success can be summed up in one philosophy: Gloria understood the industry’s hunger for creativity-driven technical work. Drumhead choice, wood type, tuning in fourths or fifths—those are only the raw materials. What truly matters, he insists, is how those elements collide with body resonance, coverage, and sonic pressure. That unique equation is his fingerprint, and it’s changed the way drums roar on some of the world’s biggest stages.

Raised in Mexico, Gloria began playing in local bands before moving on to larger stages, where his performances left a lasting mark on both audiences and recordings. But somewhere between the stage lights and the backstage chaos, his obsession shifted. He needed to know why drums sounded the way they did—why some kits thundered and others barely breathed. That curiosity became craft, and the craft made him one of Latin rock’s most respected technicians.
The turning point came with Rostros Ocultos, where he carved his reputation as the guy who could make drums sing. By 2019, he’d become Juanes’ right-hand man, perfecting a system of tuning in fourths and fifths—a sonic alchemy that locks the kit into harmony with the rest of the band. From Bogotá to Berlin, Los Angeles to Lisbon, Gloria has carried that magic into venues that demand nothing short of perfection.
And the trophies back him up. With Juanes’ Vida Cotidiana, Gloria’s fingerprints are etched into the grooves that earned both a Latin Grammy and an American Grammy. He doesn’t crave the spotlight—he doesn’t need to. For him, those victories are proof that the invisible work still shakes the world’s biggest arenas.
But it’s not all glory. While on tour, Gloria faced his toughest test: making the sound hit consistently across wildly different spaces. Cathedrals of glass and steel. Underground clubs dripping with sweat and smoke. Each room demanded reinvention. And every night, he delivered—because for Gloria, the only thing that matters is what the audience feels in their chest when the kick drum lands.
Working with technical crews across the globe has sharpened his instincts and broadened his vision. He steals tricks from every genre, every tradition, every piece of gear—and folds them into his own philosophy. That hunger to experiment is what keeps him ahead. He’s not just tuning drums. He’s shaping the heartbeat of the show.
Ask him what advice he’d give the next generation and he won’t hand you a textbook. Instead, he says: “Experiment. Chase sounds. Break rules until you find your own voice.” That’s not technician talk—it’s gospel for anyone who knows music is more than notes on a page.


Looking ahead, Gloria is already gearing up for Juanes’ most ambitious tour yet in 2025, while sculpting the backbone of the singer’s next album. His hands may never touch the spotlight, but his fingerprints are carved into every beat.
Because at the end of the night, when the lights cut out and the ringing in your ears won’t quit, you’re not thinking about drum tuning or tech crews. You’re thinking about the electricity of the show. And that’s exactly how Benjamín Gloria wants it.
He’s not just behind the music. He’s inside it.