How Agua Tinta’s Class Project Launched Her Songwriting Career

Daniela García BM ’24, professionally known as Agua Tinta, knew that attending Berklee College of Music would help launch her songwriting career. “I had the mindset of, ‘This is what I want. This is what’s going to happen,’” Tinta said over Zoom from Mexico City, which is both her hometown and current home base.

 “And I did everything I could to make sure that happened.”

She started by gaining work authorization in the US as an international student and pitching herself to Rodney Alejandro, now the dean of the Professional Writing and Music Technology Division, as his assistant. “He was one of the few teachers that was still working both in the Latin and American music industries,” she explained. Once she secured the job, “I was in his office 24/7. We were pitching songs and I was helping him with charts,” which deepened her understanding of the business. 

Then, in 2023, as part of a class taught by Alejandro, groups of students sent their compositions to a real music label. “We pitched the song, and it got selected, recorded, and released,” Tinta said. “And that was the beginning of everything. I started pitching songs to that label and I haven't stopped since then.”

She also linked with Claudia Brant while the Grammy– and Latin Grammy–winning artist was the 2023 Herb Alpert Visiting Artist for Berklee’s Songwriting Department. Brant was so impressed by Tinta’s talents that she helped sign her to Warner Chappell Music Latin America, part of WMG’s global music publishing company, before she even graduated. “If I hadn't taken that class, I wouldn’t have been signed,” Tinta said, shaking her head.

Today, her former Berklee College of Music teachers are among her many colleagues. Tinta considers her college network among her most powerful tools for success. “I didn’t have 20 different friends at Berklee. I had five good ones,” she said. “But with those five good ones, I had enough. That’s all you need.” Having a good teacher like Alejandro by your side doesn’t hurt, either. “That was the best thing I could have done, to connect with him,” she mused. “And to this day, we still talk. It’s one of the best relationships I have. I think we’re going to write a song next Friday.”

Featured Song: “Take Me Home” by mari

When asked which song she was most excited to discuss, the songwriter didn’t reach for her most recognized track. Tinta and mari wrote “Take Me Home” over Zoom while mari was on the road, and even though it was their first song together, Tinta said that they had an easy connection right away. Released in November, the song already has more than 650,000 streams on Spotify. 

“It surprises me a lot because I work with plenty of signed artists, yet somehow an independent artist that has no budget and is emerging had a better outcome than all of these other artists who have 10 people behind them and a huge budget,” she said. “And that’s because of her hustle. The amount of work that this girl has put into marketing this song is amazing.”

“I’m especially proud of this one because it shows that you don’t need a huge team behind you,” she added. “You just need a really good song and to work a lot."

In her day-to-day, Tinta collaborates with other songwriters and artists in sessions or “song camps.” In those sessions, she connects through conversations and takes notes on key phrases. “It’s really important to pay attention to their language and how they see things.”

And even though she’s writing from another person’s perspective, everything she creates has a little bit of Tinta in it. “Most of the time I am pulling from my own life and experiences, even if the song’s not about me,” she shared. “I ask myself, ‘Can I relate to this story somehow? How and when did I feel this way?’ Because that’s going to take me to feel it and feel more related and connected to the song and to her.”

Her work is already earning recognition: She’s a 2026 recipient of the Abe Olman Scholarship from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And within just two years of graduating from Berklee, she managed to snag a Latin Grammy Award nomination for Best Regional Song with “¿Seguimos o No?,” performed by Lupita Infante. “I was not expecting it. I had just graduated!” Tinta recalled. “Of course, it was a goal of mine, but not for that year.” 

Five Things Every Songwriter Should Know

1. Write every day. “I write a song every day. And if I can’t write a song today, I’m going to write at least three good phrases. I don’t need to make the song, I just need to be creative every day.”
2. Read the room first. “In sessions, I try not to write for at least an hour—I try to procrastinate the writing process as much as possible. My job is knowing how to read a person. The main focus is that the artist feels a connection and is comfortable in that room with me.”
3. Know the business. “One music business class is not enough to know everything you need to know if you’re going to be a professional songwriter in this industry. When my first songs started getting recorded and I started getting contracts, I didn’t have a clue what those contracts meant.”
4. Location matters. “I’m signed in the US, and I have access to every single Warner Chappell office in the world. If I was with Mexico Warner Chappell, I could only be in Mexico. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible if you do it somewhere else, just harder. Being in the US, going to Berklee, opens doors. It allows you to go anywhere.”
5. Just go for it. “I always sent the email. I always sent the songs. I double texted. I triple texted. I still do that to this day. Last week I went to a coffee shop and saw a manager that I’d been trying to meet for a while. I waited for her call to be over, and I went up to her. Now we’re connected.”

Tinta is now splitting her time between Los Angeles and Mexico City, which she calls the current epicenter of Latin music: “Everyone’s here. There are sessions happening every day, at all times.” And her name, Agua—chosen by her father after walking the Camino de Santiago and passing a river—fits the flow of her career so far. “It’s a blessing to be busy,” she said. 

Follow Agua Tinta on Instagram and check out her songs on Spotify.