Remember when music videos were as important as the music itself?

While the emphasis on music videos has certainly changed over time, watered down by reality TV, more artists are getting creative with graphics and animation to complement their music online.

We've seen this integration of music and animation in the past -- from A-Ha's 1985 hit "Take On Me" and Dire Straits' "Money Ain't For Nothing," to Paula Abdul's 1989 hit "Opposites Attract," and more recently with Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" and Gorillaz's "Clint Eastwood."

Now Grammy-winning, L.A.-based, Mexican-American band La Santa Cecilia is reconnecting with this animated trend, but with a different spin and message.

With the help of San Juan, Puerto Rico-born and New York City-raised digital artist Jose Andres Gutierrez Rivera, the band recently released its animated music video for "Strawberry Fields Forever," an English and Spanish spin on the iconic 1967 Beatles' tune. "Strawberry Fields Forever" is the second single from the band's critically-acclaimed new album, "Someday New."

Rivera was floored when he heard the news of the collaboration and even more so when he learned about the message behind it.

"When [La Santa Cecilia] came to me with the idea of the music video, they always had the focus of the migrant worker, especially with the title 'Strawberry Fields Forever,'" Rivera told Latin Post in an exclusive interview.

"The idea was to have a migrant worker from a strawberry farm ... they wanted to keep it a little bit light-hearted, so we came to this middle point where it became really colorful. The message is there is always someone who's behind what you're eating. There is always this complicated process of migrant workers ... I guess it was just more of a window to a strange world that we live in," he added.

La Santa Cecilia, who won a 2014 Grammy for Best Latin Rock and Alternative album for "Treinta Dias" (30 Days), is made up of lead vocalist Marisol "La Marisoul" Hernandez, accordionist and requintero Jose "Pepe" Carlos, bassist Alex Bendana and percussionist Miguel Ramirez. The bilingual band's members are "first generation children of immigrants" as well as an "undocumented dreamer" (Carlos) -- and because of this, they have become ambassadors for immigration reform using both their musical and personal platforms.

The sequence of the scenes in the video for "Strawberry Fields Forever" was purposely executed from a unique perspective.

"I presented the concept of doing the story in reverse of how a strawberry gets into the hands of the person who is going to eat it. I came up with the idea of just trying to keep it as simple as possible -- that's where we came up with the strawberry in the middle of the screen the whole time, from the point of view of the strawberry. It came out really great, thankfully," Rivera said.

Besides the simple yet vibrant animation in the music video, if you look closely, there are hidden messages, or secret tributes to The Beatles with their song titles translated in Spanish.

"There are things written on the walls," he said, such as "Campos de Fresas Por Siempre" ("Strawberry Fields Forever." There is also a plane in the sky that reads, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in Spanish, as well as a call out to "I Am the Walrus," among others.

A huge Beatles and Bob Marley fan since he was a kid, thanks to his parents, Rivera says his favorite Beatles tune is "The Fool on the Hill."

Also inspired by animated videos from Radiohead, Gorillaz, Tool and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Rivera adds, "Since I'm a '90s kid, I am going to fall back on all of the Beastie Boys videos ... the 'Sabotage' video is my all-time favorite and Red Hot Chili Peppers videos," he said.

Rivera was born to Puerto Rican parents, including his father, Juan J. Gutiérrez, who is a musician in the popular folkloric Puerto Rican band Los Pleneros de la 21, which has around for 35 years.

"They have been pretty ingrained in the Puerto Rican culture here in el barrio, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They learn how to dance and play the folkloric music of Puerto Rico...That has always been a thing for me growing up, they have always exposed me to different cultures and different music," Rivera explained.

The combination of music and a passion for graphic arts, design and animation has been the perfect formula for Rivera, who was asked to help create "Strawberry Fields Forever" by Producciones Cabeza, a company that focuses on audio-visual projects from conception to post-production.

"During that time, La Santa Cecilia won the Grammy, and I saw that as a great opportunity to do something with a really great, up-and-coming musical band, especially a Mexican-based, California group that is doing really great work with their music," Rivera said.

While Rivera has animated other "Latin rock-pop" music videos for bands such as Navegante, Avionica and the Puerto Rican-based group Sie7e, this marked the first time that he's worked with La Santa Cecilia.

With over a decade of experience under his belt collaborating with creative designers, producers, cinematic and commercial directors and recording artists, Rivera has worked his magic through creative designs, illustrations, storyboards, and 2D animations.

"Almost all of my work that I do currently is done digitally through the computer. My background is in graphic design and concept design, so every time I start an animation project, I always try to focus on the graphic side of it before the animation theory-type of work. I try to get to a middle ground where it's much more stylistic than organic animation," he explained.

"It just starts to appeal to people, especially now when you see a lot of media work using that style. I have benefited a lot through that. That's one of the things that I love doing, very simplistic, geometric shapes and images. That's one of the things that I presented to [La Santa Cecilia]. It was a marriage made in heaven."

Check out Rivera's and La Santa Cecilia's animated music video for "Strawberry Field Forever."