Grupo Frontera's Payo Initially Ignored Juan's Message to Join the Band — So They Texted His Dad (Exclusive)

Grupo Frontera's Adelaido "Payo" Solís almost missed an opportunity of a lifetime.

The six-piece norteño group, who joined Bad Bunny onstage at Coachella to perform their hit "un x100to," kicked off their music careers with the release of their debut album El Comienzo.

Speaking to PEOPLE about their rapid rise to stardom, they revealed how a group of guys from McAllen, Texas came to be Grupo Frontera.

"Me and Beto Acosta, the quinto player, we got together and wanted to make a band to play in quinceañeras and weddings to make a little extra cash," says Juan Javier Cantú, 29 (vocalist and accordionist). "That was about two years ago. So we talked to Julian, he came along, Carlos, and then also Brian, and then at the end, Payo."

Julian Peña, 26, (percussionist and animator) adds, "We met Payo January of 2022 and Juan sent him a message saying, 'Hey man, we have a band. I know you sing, [we've] seen a couple videos. I don't know if you want to join.' Payo did not answer. So what did Juan do? Juan called his dad."

Payo, 20, (vocalist) steps in to clear up his side of the story: "Juan looked my dad up on Facebook and texted him. My dad texted me and then told me to answer Juan, and the rest is history."

When asked why he didn't answer, Payo says "stranger danger!"

Now they're great friends: "We've been on the road for two weeks. I'm pretty sure by the time we make it home, we'll probably not talk to each other for a day and then the next day after that it's like, 'What are we going to do? Let's go barbecue. You want to hang out?' I guess that's what helps out a lot that you're traveling not just with friends, you're traveling with your brothers, so you already know what to expect," Peña says .

El Comienzo, which translates to "The Beginning," features 12 tracks and includes collaborations with big names Latin music like Yahritza y su Esencia, Grupo Firme, Junior H — and none other than Bad Bunny.

With "un x100to," Edgar Barrera, the group's songwriter wrote it as a single — until Cantú suggested Bad Bunny, 29, joins in on it. Barrera told him he needed to "calm down" because he was "shooting for the stars." The idea then proved to be not so far-fetched when Barrera showed Bad Bunny's producer the song. He was all in.

"The day of the video recording comes up, and we do one take of the song that we recorded and Edgar says, 'You know what? I don't like it. We're going to change it.' And we're all shocked. We're like, 'What do you mean? This is the song we have. We don't know what you're talking about.' And then we see Bad Bunny walking up with his dead mug, serious face and we're all scared," Payo explains.

"Like, 'What's Bad Bunny doing here? What's going on? Is that him?' He gets in front of us and he just goes 'Qué dice muchachos!' Payo says with a smile.

After a whirlwind couple of months, Grupo Frontera only plans to go up from here and continue to make music that makes people happy. They also hope to serve as an inspiration for people to follow their dreams.

"I feel like I get a lot of mentions and comments on social media saying that people look up to me and they get inspired. I'm like, 'Bro, I'm just some guy from Texas Valley.' It's really cool because when I was younger, in high school, I would look up to a bunch of the artists that I work with now that are my friends and colleagues," Payo says.

He adds, "I just want people to know that if I can do it, you can do it. Follow your dreams. Never give up. Because if any of us didn't follow our dreams, we wouldn't be here right now."

El Comienzo is out now.