November 4, 2025 • 58 mins
Cami welcomes Grammy award winning singer/songwriter Ile to Hasta Abajo (Meli is away covering futbol!). Ile talks about growing up in a household full of musicians, how her brothers convinced her to join Calle 13 and how she was able to launch a successful solo career. Ile also discusses why it’s so important to her to speak out about social issues in Puerto Rico, her surprise appearance at Bad Bunny’s residency, and the empowering message behind her new boleros album “Como Las Canto Yo”.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, everybody, Welcome back to the show. It's Camilla. I'm
here alone today because Melissa has been on eighty five
planes in the last forty eight hours pretty much. She
is away covering some incredible football as we know. But
today I'm really pumped to be here with an incredible artist.
As you know, I love to highlight artists that I
(00:23):
feel like you should know or music that you should
be listening to. Today we have El in the house.
She is a Puerto Rican Grammy Award winner, singer, songwriter,
overall badass who stands up for the Puerto Rican community.
We love her. You may know her voice from Kaye
Tresse a while back. She was in there for over
(00:44):
a decade or around a decade. I'm so pumped to
be here with her today and we're going to dive
deep into her routine, her new music journey and everything
in between.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is Astabajo. Drop the beat.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How do you feel being happy? Happy to be here
in New York?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I did very late late at night.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And are you a morning person or.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
A night you don't know?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think I play around both. It depends on how
well rested I feel, but I think that I am
both I can be a morning person, but like it
depends some nights or cozy.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Also love that. I want to start off this episode
by getting a little bit into your like routine.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So I know that you're.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Traveling right now, and you probably travel a lot when
you're home. What does your like morning routine look like?
Or I don't know what time you wake up, but
what does that look like for you?
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Well, I am, I have to have coffee. It's the
first thing, and it's then after that it's like how
I start my day. So yeah, I mean sometimes sometimes
I don't have coffee and I don't feel like bad
or anything. I can go with the flow, but I
(02:16):
feel that I just need it. Is something that I
don't know. I'm not addicted to it, but I feel
that I need it.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And it's a small.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Romantic see probably it has a lot to do with that.
And I don't know, like a good strong coffee, it's nice.
So yeah, I just I don't know. I start working
like from my phone, and then little by little I
start like going into the computer like after the coffee.
(02:48):
And I also work out during the week.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, what are your workouts looking like? Dry routine?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's like weird for.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Me because I I am not an exercise person, but
I started in the pandemic and I started boxing, so
I do boxing since.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I just I think I love the.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Technica because it's so it's so fun. Like I'm lazy
for exercise, so I feel that boxing like I work
out a lot of things at the same time, and
I feel that I do a lot of things. So
it's just like I feel satisfied, like, Okay, I feel
that I did and sometimes I try to balance it
(03:33):
out with weights and everything, but like slow exercises don't
motivate me as much. And I feel that boxing is
so energetic.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And you know what I love about boxing that I
feel like a lot of people overlook it's that it's
meditation too, because then you know, like you miss the
met or you get hit in the face, so it's
like you have to be present while you're boxing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I mean, I I'm not like I don't fight yet,
like with anybody.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I just like with my she's a partner.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Just with your partner, yeah, because we take the class
together and I feel like like I'm more confident, Like
you know, sometimes we hit each other and it's like
cool because there's a lot of adrenaline and you don't
feel I mean, it's it's not tough, but like you
suddenly like when you have a person in front of you,
everything changes, Like everything that you learn separately, that the
(04:32):
technic technicalities like changes when you have the person in
front of you.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Like it's totally different.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So that's why I enjoy so much that part, because
like I feel that this is the important part, like
when you actually have someone in front of you, like
and I always think, like as a woman, this is sad,
but you know, like sometimes we get scared walking around
the street. It's like at least I don't know if
I actually am going to dare to do something because
(04:58):
maybe at the time of truth, hope not. But maybe
I get scared, but I hope that my natural instincts
do something about it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I feel like you might. Even every time I
get scared, I just fall on the floor.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
So yeah, you never know, Yeah, exactly, you never know,
but I just hope that it I don't have to
get there any time. But but yeah, I really enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
And I and I go.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Well two sometimes three times a week, and I balance
it out with with weights at my house and other
top to keep going.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But I do love it.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
And the trainer is also super nice, Crick Tim Petro,
He's like the best.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I love that I went there. Yeah, I loved.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I went there without not knowing anything about boxing. I
used to like it when I was with my brothers,
you know, messing around, but like I was scared because
I wasn't up.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
To yeah go and he was.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He went along with me just like no pressure, sure,
just learning little by little, and now I feel that
I've learned so much. I still have a lot to learn.
I feel that I'm totally a beginner, but I enjoy.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Like it's like therapy.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It's like I release a lot through boxing.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I love that you box because I have been watching
a lot my my husband is very into like jiu
jitsu unfortunately, which means that I have to watch a
lot of like fight videos all the.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Time in my house.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But the good thing about like MMA and fighting and
like boxing is that you have we have seen a
big rides and like females participating in that sport, like
women in the sport. And one something I will never
get over is how Amanda Sarano got robbed and we
were just talking about this. Yeah, do you follow boxing,
Puerto Rican boxing?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Yeah, I think it's something very cultural in Puerto Rico,
even though maybe nowadays it got a little slower maybe,
but yeah, when I was little, Trinda, I was like, well,
lived nearby where.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
His house used to be. Well, we live in through Hi.
It is close to.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Kupey Alto, from where Tito is from. And I remember
like the cars and everyone receiving him and the whole
like country, like stopped and just watched Tito's fight, and
also with Miguel Koto.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
But like having female boxers, it's great, like to have
that space.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I think it's needed, you know, And I'm happy for Amanda,
like now she finally has like the recognition she deserves
and and a lot of people now like admire her,
and I feel that it's more I feel that I
admire that she is not all about herself, you know,
(07:45):
as a as a boxer is about women, like women
in sports, you know, Like I know that I appreciate
that that she doesn't make it about herself. It's just
and she's super talented. And yeah, those fights were very intense,
and I feel that I'm on the one but but yeah,
(08:07):
I feel that she turned it around into this is
women's boxing, like we can feel stadiums and it's and
that's nice like to have that message.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, I love that, and I think that we do
see it a lot in women in sport, Like if
you're a woman and you're a professional athlete, I think
the message is always that like women sport, more women
in sport. And I think that something that you're doing
which is really cool, which we will get into later.
I want to go in order, but is really owning
Boleros as an empowered female in the space rather than
(08:39):
talking about like pain and stuff, which we will get
into because it has a huge project Sequeson Boles Butos
write their covers which we will get into later. But
I want to ask you one more thing about training.
What do you listen to?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, it depends, you know.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I like it's nice to listen to music that's aggressive,
but I feel that I enjoy listening like to jazz,
like really holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, you're not the first person to say this.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Because I feel that it compensates a little, like what
is happening And yeah, it's just to balance out because
everything is so fast and like I feel that my
brain is like all over the place, and then like
listening to something more soothing balances out a little bit
unless I'm in another energy that I can be as well.
(09:36):
And I also I can listen to salsa, and I
enjoy almost everything with salsa, like old school sarsa.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
But but yeah, like rap or whatever.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
But it's just like when I listen to more soothing songs,
it's it's nice, Like suddenly, it's it makes like I
can be longer in the training and just not be
so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Like training for a marathon, and like choosing to go
with like an audiobook or like classical music rather than
like idim the whole time. So I feel that like
once you're like doing it for a while, it's like
nice to have that balance. So we have like the
self care physically that also translates mentally. Do you do
any other kind of self care like journaling or anything
(10:20):
like that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I try.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
I try, but I feel that my family is so
big and we talk a lot, so I.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Feel that that's you're journaling, I think, so Jesus Jesus, yeah,
And it's because it can get very psychological and when
we talk and with girlfriends as well, like suddenly the
conversation can get very deep.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And most of.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
The time I'm in those types of conversations so much
that when I'm not in the mood and I just
get a glimpse of the girl conversation and it's too
deep for me, I say no, like not today, Like
I'm not in this mood today, because I feel that
every time it's normal for me to get deep into
the psychology of many things. So I feel that naturally
(11:04):
it's sort of a journaling. But I do try, like
sometimes to do journaling. I do like to cook, nothing
super pro or anything, just take my time to just cook.
It also relaxes me, Like when I'm home, it doesn't
matter what I'm cooking. Is just like cutting things and
(11:26):
just like the order of cooking things.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Like you need to do that because like creatively, like.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
There's many things at the same time happening, and like
most of the time I'm like like overwhelmed in so
many different directions. Yeah, so like when I do this
more things is soothing, It's nice. What about washing the dishes, Oh,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That's not your job.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
If you're cooking, somebody else to take.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Care of that. But that rule I am a bad person,
Like I don't even apply it when someone else is cooking.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I try if I'm in the mood.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
But it's like I can leave it for the next
day if it's not too bad.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
If it's too bad, it's like no, like I try to.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
It was just busy doing soda mesa, you know, like
connecting with the family.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Yeah, and I prefer maybe in the next morning. I
even if I get angry about it, maybe I'm in
a better mood of cleaning and doing the day.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I should also do that, which I hate about myself
because it's like you could have wake up in your kitchen,
could be super nice, but you know what, we're gonna
do it in the morning, and that's okay exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
So I want to dive a.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Little bit deeper into your music, but I kind of
want to go into order. So I want to start
from the beginning. Like you were literally born into a
family of musicians. Can you tell me a little bit
about what the atmosphere was like at home for you
growing up?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, it sounds funny, but it was.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
It was.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
There was a lot of music, Like.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
It made sense to me when I saw that my
dad made a cassette when I was born of just
different type of songs and and I know because my.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Dad loves me music. What's that he composed?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
No no, No, that like a playlist, like a mixtape.
So it was like funny because like I remember waking
up and listening to music like my dad, my mom's,
my brothers, my sister, and I'm the little one from
the from that house where we grew up, So it
was very normal for me to have music all the time,
like in the car like constantly.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And what were.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You listening to?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Everything like salsa boletros, but also like queen and rap
and heavy metal and Silo Rodriguez Merces.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It was like a lot of things at the same time.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
And maybe that's why I just when I do music,
I don't limit myself into genres because like for me,
it's just about exploring obviously keeping your own essence. But yeah,
like it's about you know, knowing more about yourself and
what you can do. So yeah, music has always been
(14:15):
a very important part of art itself in my house
where I grew up.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
When did you like start making music with your family
because your Auela wrote music, recorded music, So were you
just like always singing with your Auela, like when did
you start making music?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well, yeah, weela. She loved music. She composed a lot of.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Songs, but she had always had this I mean she
passed away like in twenty eleven, but she always had
this resentment.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
With her dad because like her dad didn't let her
fulfill her dreams.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
She was she got a grant for a study in
a university outside Puerto Rico, and like her dad didn't
let her and it was sad.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So she kept writing.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And she kept trying to sing her songs and trying
to record. But the last time I think she told
she told us that when she felt that the guy
was interested in something else with her, she stopped and
she didn't record anything. So it was like frustrating for her.
But I think that watching us all girl so interested
(15:33):
in music, it gave her like.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
A motivation, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
And my sister one day said, why don't we get
together with her? So we listened to her songs and
she recorded a cassette a tape with her compositions.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Some of them were with her.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Recordings that she from in the seventy eight but like
in a life bohemian place and the other ones. Was
her voice like older, just letting me know stuff. While
she was singing the songs like a cappella so special,
I'm able.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
To cry, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, and she was. She taught me a lot of music.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
She was very strict, so every time I was messing
around singing and imitating voices, she.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Didn't like it.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
And I say, I come on, I'm just messing around,
Like I know that's I say.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Last Like she always wanted me to.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Sing like myself, like not imitating other people's voices.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
But I was a teenager, you know, I was growing up.
But that stayed.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
In my head when I was when I was singing
more professionally, I understood what she was talking about. And yes,
like those people already did what they had to, Like
why would you want to sound like somebody else like
you have to? There's obviously influences, but it's important to
find your own way of singing and telling these stories
(17:02):
through songs.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And your voice is beautiful? Might I say thank you?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So I assume it was probably a very like seamless
transition into what then became or is cadarese with your brothers? Right?
How did that come about? That you guys were just like,
let's make a music group.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, since I'm the little one, they were like, come here.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Yeah, sort of because in the house we used to
do like this. Like it wasn't like a proper talent show,
but it was sort of like because it was very
just just.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
To make us.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
It was kind of funny and shameful in a way,
just to mess around.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, they made me perform and we might.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They used to make my husband perform, Phil Collins. Oh
and he's not a singer, so I feel you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, well that was it. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
It was normal for us just to make each other
laugh about our else in the house, and we since
were so many, it was funny and just it started
like that.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And I remember my brother.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Eduardo, he had groups before, like music groups, and so
for me watching him making music was super normal and rene.
Even though he was studying art, animations and everything. I
remember him always writing songs, rap songs, So it was
natural for me when they decided to do something together.
(18:31):
I didn't know I was going to be part of
it until one day. I mean, I loved to sing
when I was little, it was like but then I
started playing the piano. Piano was sort of my thing
for so many years. But now I don't know how
to play the piano anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Because I decided to sing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So I don't believe that.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
No, yeah, I mean yes, please like for real, Yeah,
it's for real. Maybe if I take classes again, something
will write the memory. But no, no, no, I never
was that good and piano. But I felt that everything
connected somehow because singing for me was something that was
more fun and I saw it more as a hobby.
(19:10):
But then was when this happened, it made sense.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
It was like, yeah, like singing is where I.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Feel most like myself, like where I feel I can
express music better.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
So thanks to my.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Older brothers because maybe they had like a vision of
myself I didn't have yet at that ar sixteen. When
I was sixteen and Renee picked me up at school
one day and he said, yeah, let's go to Eduardos
And I was like everything was weird because it wasn't
he wasn't used to picking me up at school.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So I said, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (19:42):
And he started putting me some music in the car
and he said singing like he started telling me to
imitate other people and then he said, okay, now singing
like yourself and I say, I don't know, I don't
know how to sing like myself and said try and
and that's when when we started the song like Catona
from Diatris's first album. We did the demo in Eduardos,
(20:04):
the Lardo's mom a closet.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
We recorded that.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
These are great spaces to record, Yeah, definitely, So that's
where we did the demo of Flaa Catalona.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And then we started a little by little and it.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Was like the same for me, it was the same
as the messing around a home, but then it got professional.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and then it just blew up from there.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What's like one of your favorite memories from that time.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
There's so many.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Ah, well, the beginning was nice, but at the same time,
it was overwhelming and we were learning so many things
at the same time, and it was like weird because
we didn't know exactly what was going on. So maybe
it could be maybe those times.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Where we were already like we.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Processed things a little better and we got better at
it and everything sounded good. And then we had like
more audience and traveling a lot and getting to know
so many cultures and countries, like it was. That was
very special, and I feel that I learned a lot
and I feel so lucky because like I got to
(21:20):
tour since I was very young, but touring with my
brothers and my family was even more special. So I
mean those times were super great and I'm super grateful
for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I wanted to ask you because you're somebody who was
very young starting in the music industry and like very
forward facing obviously with and you guys did start speaking
out about like social topics. What was it like for
you to receive because I'm sure that you also got
a lot of hate as well, and how are you
(21:54):
able to like process that at such a young age.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Well, it was weird. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
For me, I mean from Puerto Rico. I think it
all started more in Puerto Rico and I was more
used to that. So maybe knowing that type of hate
from Puerto Rico got me to understand better the other
hate from other countries. But yeah, I feel that in
(22:29):
the urban genre there wasn't so many I mean in
Latin America at least, I feel there wasn't so many
outspoken mainstream artists and that was like shocking for many people,
and I think it was a process for everybody because
I know that many haters got to became fans afterwards,
(22:51):
and that was cool because it was there was also
a space for debate, and there was also a space
for trying to for understanding.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
You know, it's not.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
About imposing anything, it's just about opening up the picture
a little bit more because like suddenly you realize that
we have only most of the things we know are
based on one small part of things. So it's like,
for me, it's important to try to absorb as many
as you can and create your own criterio's.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Journal in conversation, psychological journal in conversations.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
But yeah, it's just I feel that it's it's important
to to you know, if you feel the need to
do it and you're being honest about it, then for me,
it's it's important that you say what you feel, like
in your songs about things that surround you, like it's
not everything about you, you know, like we're just a
(23:52):
small part of a bigger thing. And it's important to
also like to to talk about uncomfortable things as well.
I like to open doors in that way and see
in what discussion we can be you know, and try
to respect the differences and try to understand the perspectives
instead of just accusing and just not getting deeper into things.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, I have a lot of respect for that, and
I always have from all the things that I've heard
you guys put out. Do you currently feel a responsibility
to continue kind of like on that path or is
this something that's very organic for you that just comes
on when like you're talking about something specific, or do
you feel like that pressure because obviously, like you're kind
of known for somebody who like speaks out about these
(24:40):
kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, I didn't, like I felt that.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I when I started my own project, Like I I
was so ready to start like on my own, like
from zero and obviously not super zero, because luckily I
already had like a fan base from Cayetrece. But of
course I know most of them expect me to do
something similar from care and you know, but I was
(25:05):
just very chill with that.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
I was wanting very focused on my own thing, on
my own instinct, So I didn't want to pressure things unnecessarily.
So I think it naturally, like I grew up in
a family where these topics, like social topics were spoken about.
And also in school, I remember wondering myself why some
(25:31):
things that I was taught at home were not were
more censored at school, and like that made me wonder.
But I never felt like a pressure or like in
position in my house where you have to believe in this.
It was I went on my own, like and everything
kind of made sense to me in a way, like
differently from maybe it's most similar from my family, but
(25:55):
maybe we.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Might have differences somehow.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
I don't know, but I feel everything it's transformed throughout
the years and people you know that generations see things differently,
and that's interesting also to analyze.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So yeah, I feel that I.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Just if I feel the need to or if I
feel uncomfortable about something and I need to speak out
about it, I do so respectfully. But it's just something
that I need to because I need to try my
best to understand at least things a little better. And
if I don't speak about it, it's just they're all
(26:34):
messed up.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, I feel about it. When you launched your solo
career in twenty sixteen, making the decision as like come
out as a solo artist, how was it that you
made came to the creative decisions that you came to
(26:55):
when you launched your first album.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Well, my first was very fun. I had in my
first album, I have two songs of my grandmother's and
part of my creative team.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I love wait, I love that you have your weather
songs in there. Yeah, it makes my heart so happy.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
And when I feel when people sing them, it's so special,
like because I mean, I say all the time, but
still a lot of people don't know it's my grandmother's composition.
So it's when I tell them, it's like no, like
it feels so new, like suddenly, it's nice to feel
that connection. I feel like she's present somehow always. But yeah,
(27:38):
like part of my creative team is my sister, Milena
Perez Solard, which I also have compositions of her in
my albums and in as well, and Gabrielle, my other brother.
They're part of my creative team, so we work everything together.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So I feel that we all.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I mean, I always felt that I wanted to play
around with poles and more traditional music, but I didn't
want it to stage just there, so I explored with
other things. I wanted to know myself from another perspective,
not staying in this comfort zone. And it was super fun.
But I mean it was so ambitious, like I recorded
(28:20):
so many musicians, and I decided to do the mix
an analog mix that is so different from the digital
and so it made my my head like a little
crazy because like you you have to perceive.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
So many things.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But it was like it was great at the same time,
like I had that experience and and yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So it was it was very fun.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
It was like more from the heart, so literally, that's
why the album has a lot of connection with the heart,
like from the heart to them the l Kora song,
we have so many Spanish expressions that are from like
very raw from the heart.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So that's what that album was mainly about.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
NPR said that you're a first class interpreter of the
classic sounds that flow through Latin America. I was just
watching a video as we all do on social media,
which was talking about how historically in Latin America we
have in many countries, there has been like this like
praise of external cultures in Latin America within like our communities.
(29:35):
But I feel personally like within the past couple of years,
even though I feel like this is something that you've
always done. Especially within the past couple of years, there
has been a little bit more of that, like internal
discovery from musical artists and that connection back to the
roots of like where we came from and the sounds
that come from our countries and ar Tierra. Is this
(29:57):
something that you purposefully did always with your music, because
I feel like that has always been a part of
like what you've done.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
I feel that it's so necessary to reconnect with like
our musical history.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Wherever we are from or I mean.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I think Latin America is all connected. So it's just
nice to feel that we are a family because, like
I always say, like Puerto Rico being a colony and
being an island and having these complexities, like we felt
that we have no identity sometimes that like where do
we belong? So like I think, little by little we've
(30:36):
come to realize that Latin America is our true family,
you know, and we feel like a very deep connection
with Latin America.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I mean, we are Latin Americans. But that's that's the
level of thinking, you know that, Like the colony works
that way, like you suddenly literally feel that.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
You don't know where you're at so like we are
Latin Americans, but sometimes we don't we're not sure about it.
So when you listen to music, I mean, that's when
you say this is obviously connected, Like it's obviously there's
a very deep route in between Caribbean music Latin American music,
Like it's all a big family. And it's so sad that,
(31:18):
you know, history and everything has made us try, has
tried to make us like disconnect from each other. But
it's so nice to see art and music, especially to
have that reconnection with with that history for us to
you know, to transform it in the present we'reat and
(31:41):
for it to keep being part of us today not
being forgotten. You know, it was like a hard work
for those people to do those songs, I mean, and
most of those songs speak about their truths from other
times that that can be connected to the times we're
living now, and suddenly, like it makes us feel a
little less alone. And it's nice to find those connections
(32:03):
with where we're from and also with other countries that
are nearby.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
For sure. I've also heard you talk a lot about
like rock National Argentino, which I grew up listening to
my dad is a big sweet generally is fun. Like, so,
I like, Charlie Garcia, did you spend a lot of
time in Argentina or no.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
I mean we have a connection with Argentina because we've
always loved Argentina music. But when we went there for
the first time with it was like a very special connection.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Like we love you there.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, no, it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
It was crazy, like we went to Argentina a lot
of times and it became like our second home, you know,
like we felt like so much love and so much energy,
and it was crazy, and you know, like Argentina is
it's just it's always here.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Oh okay, And that wasn't even an Argentina who said that,
So let's go.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Yeah, Argentina is like the if not the top, one
of the top audiences.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Oh really okay.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I did see a video from the Kendrick Lamar concert
in Aina that just happened. I was like insane, absolutely crazy. Yeah,
so we do kind of pop off for certain things.
There's not that much Perreo out there though. I went
to like a concert out there and I was like
peril and I was like kind of like one of
the few ones and I was like, y'all need to
step it suck up.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
But yeah, but it happened with I remember No One,
and by that time it was like something weird.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
And I feel that national rock is so stubborn.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah that I mean it's just like no, yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I mean from Puerto Rico, you can listen to rock
nacional and also listen to Pereo, so it's a good.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah, I leave one.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I always say that I am an onion. I have layers,
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So let's get it to.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Your new project, Camola Canto, which are all boleto covers
or old to boulettles.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Why bolettles bles.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Are just part a part of me? I mean it's
it's it's just like, yeah, it's something that I grew
up listening to and I loved the runnas about it,
and oh it's just like a space for me to
be dramatic without justification.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So I feel that it's just I can and and whatever.
If someone says something, you know it's music from another time,
it doesn't matter, like I went, did.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You feel that way when you were thirteen and you
were dreaming of this as well?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Or I did, like I felt that when my dad
taught me like more like this is like a female
Bulleto artist, like with La Loupe.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
And I started listening to her songs, it was like, so.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
There are female Bullletto singers and she's speaking about this
stuff and it's so oh, it's so out there and
and I loved I love that. And I was a teenager,
so I felt everything connected with that teenager energy, with.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
With that rage you have.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Yeah, so it was it was very fun. And also
La Lupe was very high literally like all the time.
So it was like like her sounds and her and
and everyone told me that when she sang live, she
used to take her shoes.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Off and and.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Like like she had a lot of energy and like
it was expressed through her songs and her interpretation was amazing.
So so it was like nice to learn to started
learning bolets with with her, you know, I mean listening
to her songs because it was it was life changing
(35:51):
for me.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
So wait for people who don't know what botles are,
can you like explain it to them a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:59):
It I mean is that there was a time with
Ballada Ballada started, and Ballada is like more of nineties eighties, yeah,
type of slower songs but Bolettos are older and my
type of little My favorites are the ones that started
in Cuba, and most of Bolettos is like a slow
(36:24):
version but it's kind of more tropical.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
It has like a psychedelic vibe to it. But it's
like very intimate for me. But a lot of people
associateble letters like with formality because it used to be
that way, you know, it was kind of formal. But
for me, Bolettos are more street wise, you know, And
that's what I tried to do with this album, like
more informal.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
It feels like very like like it's they're that mystique like,
but it feels grounded, like it feels like like you're
a badass, like Mafia a bit. Like that's what I
feel like when I listen to it, Like I feel
so empowered and like ready to fuck it up.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Yeah, that's transparently, that's nice and because that's the energy
because people hear Boletos and most of people, oh, yeah,
my Grandma's songs that are cute and they're nice, but
but these are toxic Boletos, most of them from.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The album, right, So let's talk about that, because you
are covering a lot of bolettos that were performed written
by men.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Right, well, there's a married there, there is varied and
the only original song was written by my grandmothers.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
It's the only Wait.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I heard a little bit of it earlier because I
was watching an interview.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
She's just Una Susia.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, I really love her.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
She reminded me. She reminds me so much of my grandma,
because my grandma Amayael Rosa, Like she would come back
in the street, like I would tell her, like something
about my husband. She would like always try to get
into these like dirty details.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
I'm like, ala, relax, like.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
That's the same that happened with us, Like it was
like no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
No, but she she enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So not the thing has is because she wants him
to kill going.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yeah exactly know I think us don't stop, like I
want you to keep going.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
So I can't wait to listen to that.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Yeah, And it's nice because the the it's like one
of the prettiest musically, it's like very pretty, but but
it's like sexual at the same time.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
So it's like.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
About that beautiful moment of enjoying the sexual thing happening.
So yeah, but yeah, these albums have different like men
and female compositions, but some some songs are kind of
twisted the perspective male female, but are there are also
(38:39):
like a lot of composers that I admire, like like
a very famous Puerto Rican composer, Silvia Re Sash that
also Puerto Rican composers that are like one of the biggest,
so I admire them a lot. Their their songs are
so beautifully written written and and also some songs songs
(39:00):
are like salsa salsa artists that did some boletos songs
and I did like a version of their reference, you know,
so it's it has a mix of different types of
boletros but with a minimal instrumentation, because.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I also love those very.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Very intimate sort of singing in your ear type of
boletros that just makes you melt it's hot.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, I loved it. And the visuals for the music videos,
did you come up with like the creative behind that
or like can we talk about that creative too, because
I saw a couple for the tracks that I've seen
that have dropped so far, and I'm telling you, like
Mafia Boss, like men in the Back, like it doesn't matter,
like it's about you and your friends so far that
(39:48):
I've seen and I really stand, so tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Well. I think this album since the beginning I thought
about it, I was very connected to these female bar
street energy because sometimes I still feel like I like
to play pool in bars, and I still feel not
always because we're in another time, but I still feel
(40:15):
kind of a weird thing when the female plays pool.
There's like people can be most of the men can
be very condescending, and and I feel that still women
in bars is very like it's it's still something that
is a taboo, you know, like like we can enjoy
ourselves as well, and and that's why I.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Was very connected to.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
This forbid girl likes a beer exactly.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
And it's crazy to think that nowadays these things are
still happening, because sometimes you stay in your bubble and
you feel, no, that doesn't happen anymore, but then you
actually like go out and and you feel like it's
still the patriarchy is still very present. So yeah, so
I wanted to play around that, especially with Bolet that
I feel that that was sort of the energy back then,
(41:04):
but it was way more censored than it is now.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I think I don't even know anymore.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
But that's why the all the visuals are in the
bars and different energies, because the boletos speak about different things.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
But they have a very different energy.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Yeah, but I but I like that there is something
freeing about it, Like even if she's sad in the bar,
like she's free and sad. You know, she's just processing
her sadness on her own and then she processed it
with friends in another energy. But it's just like herself
(41:43):
giving her space, like giving herself space to process however
she feels in a bar openly.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
So it's nice. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
I've been enjoying this so far because it's a little
part of who I am normally, Like I like playing
pool and go into bars and singing in bars, like
my dad as well, like he has done that, he
still does it, like he still sings in bars, and
so it's kind of like what I like to do.
And Puerto Rico is so small and there's so many
(42:15):
beautiful bars like in the mountains in the beach that
you just go and relax, even if you're drinking or not.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
It's just I'm gonna get some recommendations for next time.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I go to Puerto Rico. Yeah, because I know you
know all the good bars.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, I still have more to know, but I can
give you.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
A lot perfect perfect When you recorded these tracks too,
A couple of them you did in a single take, Yeah, yeah,
because you did them live, right.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
I try to, but it's difficult, And some of them
I just said, no, it's I better have like this
moment and just think it through. But others were like,
there's some songs that just don't fit when everything is
so perfect and so polish, and especially the ones that
are just guitar and voice, like when the most intimate
(43:01):
ones we did it in like live, and it was
very special because the guitarists are guitars from my band,
so we have a very special connection already.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
So it's like.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
We weren't even singing at each other because I was
like with my mic and they were sitting in another
like in the same space, but we weren't looking at
each other. But it was all feeling, you know, like
they were following me and I was following them, and
it's just as if we were in a place live
singing it.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
So that was very special.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
That's awesome, And also like one take is crazy.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Yeah, how many did you do that for?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Though one song was the first take okay, and the
other one it starts the song saying take eight okay.
So it was that take eight the one that was perfect,
because sometimes it's just silly things like oh, like a
stupid sound from other stuff, or like that interrupts every thing,
(44:00):
or maybe you know, like.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Everything's perfect, and then all of a sudden.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
Yeah, there's an energy that you feel that you say,
this is the take. And when the song that was
just the first take, like it was a feeling was
like is it possible? We did some more afterwards just
in case, but then we said no, the first one
was it.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
It's just a magical vibe that you feel.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Were there any tracks that you potentially like, any songs
as a bulleto connoisseur if you will, Were there any
tracks that you wanted to put on an album that
didn't end up making it, or anything that like didn't
make the cut.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
Yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
I don't know if I didn't record them, but I
had like a list. Some of them are songs that
maybe I mean, I love them, but maybe.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
It were a little too lineal for me. So I started,
I started started picking you know, the ones that I.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
Felt that I feel that I CA had a little
more dynamic and I could rearrange more with my voice.
But yeah, there's so many songs that you know, I
can keep going into that.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Hole.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, so it's gonna be com part two.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I don't know, that's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (45:20):
My team said, oh, like already part two, and I say,
let's start with the part one and see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Incredible, incredible. You also recently performed residency, which was so special.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
I went, I went two days in a row. Oh no,
I had fun. Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
But you had the honor of presenting locally Hawaii. What
was that like for you?
Speaker 5 (45:54):
It was amazing, Like I was with with a whole,
Like I was dressed up as a Puerto Rican nationalist
female leader, so it was like controversial, but I felt
that I was It was very from my heart, like
I felt that I needed to pay like an homage
(46:17):
to to female leaders that I loved Puerto Rico and
did something about it and you know, try their best.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
You know. So I.
Speaker 5 (46:29):
Like that that song has like a duality because it
is like very sad because it speaks about the plasa
meento and colonialism and things that we are going through
in Puerto Rico and in many countries as well. But
it also has like a strong message for me that
(46:53):
I think it it's like motivational for us to like
to do something and take action. So I I gave
more of that energy and I just went with it
because I felt like it because like yeah, and it
was so emotional to feel that people connected with it
a lot, and it was very special because people are
singing these songs, but like we actually have to analyze
(47:16):
what we're saying and how powerful these words are for message.
So it was very moving to feel that, you know,
and I feel super grateful to have been a part
of that.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Of course I saw it from home on Instagram. Unfortunately
I wasn't there live for that performance, but it was
extremely moving, and I have to say that as somebody
who's not even from Puerto Rico, like I just felt
so honored to be there in that space, although like
it wasn't a night that I had the luck to
(47:50):
see you perform that track, but it was just so
nice to see like the unity, the celebration, the empowerment
and everyone just like elebrating, and I was like, I
was singing, like like I'm fucking Puerto Rican, like you know,
like it. It's a big time for Latinos, especially today,
(48:11):
to like have these spaces to be able to talk
about these things and to connect in this way with
everything that's happening in the world. So thank you for
always being a vessel and a voice for that. Where
are you at right now in the world, Like, because
you are a person who is very outspoken about these things.
Obviously we've mentioned that a couple of times. But for
(48:32):
people who like might be losing hope about, you know,
their identity with everything that's happening in the world, do
you have any like motivation or anything for people that, like,
For example, I feel like, especially in the United States,
people are feeling a little bit more ashamed to express
themselves and to be Latina. Whereas I'm showing up on
camera and teaching my classes, be like here, I fucking am,
(48:55):
I'm the most Latina. But you ever met, you know,
and you continue to show up in the way that
you've always shown up, But you have any message for
anybody else?
Speaker 5 (49:03):
How it's so I will turn my best not to
get psychologically and deep, but I think it's so hard,
and I think I understand people that can feel intimidated
by many things, especially what is going on today, And
I like, as I keep learning things, I realized that
(49:27):
that it's a privilege to go out on the streets.
It's a privilege to show up like yourself and say
out loud, I'm from Puerto Rico and Latina. Like for
many people, they just don't. I mean, it's too risky
for them, and it's and it's so sad, like it
like life, the world shouldn't be like this, Like it's not.
(49:51):
It doesn't have to be. I mean, it doesn't have
to be necessarily an utopia and utopia it would be nice,
but like but at least, you know, like give space
for each other to just be, you know, feel free
about themselves. And it's just so ironic that, especially like
(50:12):
in the land of the freeze, where we.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Feel less free.
Speaker 5 (50:15):
So I feel that I like something motivational in these times.
It's very hard, but but yeah, taking risks is powerful,
is scary, it's necessary. But I think that the important
(50:39):
thing for me is to to have community to to
to at least seek for people trustworthy and and you know,
try to find ways to look up more for each
other and instead of just turning away and just feeling
(51:00):
farther from each other. And I feel nowadays, especially more
now than ever, I feel that with so much distraction
that is going on, like it's so important to disconnect
a little and just just be human and just hug
more and just feel more. And I feel afraid that
(51:23):
sometimes we are forgetting how to feel. We are not
so connected with our emotions and our feelings and not
giving so much.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Credit for it.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
And we don't have to allow that, we don't have
to settle for that. Like, so, yeah, fine, community even
if it's one person, and you know, and try to
taste take risks if you can.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, I think something beautiful that you mentioned too, is
like disconnecting to connect, yeah, with yourself, to like feel
your feelings, because it's very easy when we're just like
scrolling to just like become so desensitized to all of
the things that are happening in the world, and it's
very confusing. And also like when you take a step
(52:14):
back and you give yourself, like I'm not saying like
five ten minutes an hour I'm saying, like a couple
of days where you just like choose to give yourself
space to be with yourself, and then you are able
to process things and feel things in a way that's
a little bit more differently, and you can have deeper
conversations with yourselves with family members when you're present rather
(52:37):
than when you're just like moving on autopilot. Yeah, and
you also have the opportunity to like sit down and
listen to music, but like actually listen to music and
to the lyrics and to digest like what an artist
is trying to communicate and the feeling that they have.
And sometimes you just want to get lost and feel
like a baddie listening to bolitos or like or like
(53:02):
hip hop or Espanol, whatever it might be. But those
moments are more special, and every day I feel like
they're happening less and less where we just get to
like sit down or just like have even just like
have fun for a moment when we're just disconnected. So
I hope that there's more of that. And I know
that you have a couple of performances coming up to
(53:23):
even in New York as well, But we are honestly,
unfortunately running out of time, so I'm gonna ask you
a question that we ask everybody before we get into
our last section, which will be quick, I promise, But
what do you think was the main factor that has
contributed to your success? I know in your whole life,
(53:47):
your oh my voice, let's go see period, that's it. Iconic,
that's it, that's it. You're what I would be so proud. Okay,
(54:08):
so let's move on to our last leession. This last
lesson is called as where Mede and I normally talk
about music and sport and what's going on. We have
you here today, so.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
I want you to give us.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
First off, I want you to tell me, like what
your favorite tracks from your new album are Hard Okay,
we'll start there, Okay.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Being salo ing me and this being slow Ing because
it's like a.
Speaker 5 (54:32):
Very guitarssychedelic kind of trance ish song for me, it's
very slow and it's like has a nice rhythm and
me and this is like very dramatic and like with
guitars requinto and and it's like it is I think
it was a tango. Actually it's kind of tango ish
(54:53):
but at the same time, so it's a nice mix and.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
So many would you do'n up floor?
Speaker 5 (55:05):
Because it was a song that I learned from my mother.
It was composed by Silvia Resash and it's so sad
and beautiful love.
Speaker 4 (55:14):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
So make sure that you start you can start there right,
and then if you have any like up and coming
artists or anybody that you're you personally are really listening
to right now that you would recommend to our listeners.
Speaker 5 (55:28):
Oh, I'm super bad at this normally, but I see
a first one that came to mind, Silviacruz from Spain.
Speaker 3 (55:36):
Also from Spain, yeah, and from Puerto Rico Chui. That
has been like they're like a group.
Speaker 5 (55:46):
Yeah they are, and they're super nice.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
So so yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
I have to ask you one last question because as
a fitness instructor, there has been a lot of different
times that I have heard.
Speaker 4 (56:04):
And so many different remixes.
Speaker 5 (56:06):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
How do you feel that you're on so many wa chads?
Speaker 5 (56:10):
It's so funny, Like sometimes I'm like hanging out somewhere
and they.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
Oh not Fit're like whoa.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
It's so funny, Like you're on the boats in dr
and like they be playing you in a Wada Chad
all the time.
Speaker 5 (56:25):
Nice yeah, and also like a techno ish like all
of them. Yeah, every possible is so funny. But I
never thought that was possible until you just hear and
I say, oh, of course, yeah totally.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Well it works for me, I know inside your heart
it made me you feel a certain way, but it
really works for us fitness and structures.
Speaker 3 (56:44):
It's funny. I do enjoy it. It's just that I
never expected it to be that way, but I do
enjoy it. It's just like suddenly you see like a sea.
Speaker 5 (56:52):
Of possibilities with that, with that part that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Right, Where can people find you if they want to
connect with you?
Speaker 5 (57:00):
Well, in Instagram and TikTok TikTok and learning I just
watch it.
Speaker 4 (57:07):
But your last name is is very cunty.
Speaker 5 (57:13):
Yeah, thank you, uh and in X I don't know.
I also like I I'm just not so good on
social media, but I do Instagram the most, but I'm
at at that and dot com if that is usable today.
(57:36):
But there's everything like very well well organized there. But
but yeah, I'm that's that's it.
Speaker 4 (57:43):
I think love that.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
And you can find her on Spotify All Music streaming services.
Make sure that you guys stream her album. You're gonna
love it and watch all the videos because they're so good.
Speaker 4 (57:53):
I promise you like incredible.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
I thank you so much for joining us here, and
we'll catch you next week. We do this thing at
n It goes at the at the at the mammy
Is and iHeart Women's Sports production and partnership with Deep
(58:17):
Blue Sports and Entertainment. For more podcasts, listen to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows
Hi, everybody, Welcome back to the show. It's Camilla. I'm
here alone today because Melissa has been on eighty five
planes in the last forty eight hours pretty much. She
is away covering some incredible football as we know. But
today I'm really pumped to be here with an incredible artist.
As you know, I love to highlight artists that I
(00:23):
feel like you should know or music that you should
be listening to. Today we have El in the house.
She is a Puerto Rican Grammy Award winner, singer, songwriter,
overall badass who stands up for the Puerto Rican community.
We love her. You may know her voice from Kaye
Tresse a while back. She was in there for over
(00:44):
a decade or around a decade. I'm so pumped to
be here with her today and we're going to dive
deep into her routine, her new music journey and everything
in between.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
This is Astabajo. Drop the beat.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
How do you feel being happy? Happy to be here
in New York?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I did very late late at night.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And are you a morning person or.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
A night you don't know?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I think I play around both. It depends on how
well rested I feel, but I think that I am
both I can be a morning person, but like it
depends some nights or cozy.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Also love that. I want to start off this episode
by getting a little bit into your like routine.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So I know that you're.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Traveling right now, and you probably travel a lot when
you're home. What does your like morning routine look like?
Or I don't know what time you wake up, but
what does that look like for you?
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Well, I am, I have to have coffee. It's the
first thing, and it's then after that it's like how
I start my day. So yeah, I mean sometimes sometimes
I don't have coffee and I don't feel like bad
or anything. I can go with the flow, but I
(02:16):
feel that I just need it. Is something that I
don't know. I'm not addicted to it, but I feel
that I need it.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And it's a small.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Romantic see probably it has a lot to do with that.
And I don't know, like a good strong coffee, it's nice.
So yeah, I just I don't know. I start working
like from my phone, and then little by little I
start like going into the computer like after the coffee.
(02:48):
And I also work out during the week.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, what are your workouts looking like? Dry routine?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's like weird for.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Me because I I am not an exercise person, but
I started in the pandemic and I started boxing, so
I do boxing since.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I just I think I love the.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Technica because it's so it's so fun. Like I'm lazy
for exercise, so I feel that boxing like I work
out a lot of things at the same time, and
I feel that I do a lot of things. So
it's just like I feel satisfied, like, Okay, I feel
that I did and sometimes I try to balance it
(03:33):
out with weights and everything, but like slow exercises don't
motivate me as much. And I feel that boxing is
so energetic.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And you know what I love about boxing that I
feel like a lot of people overlook it's that it's
meditation too, because then you know, like you miss the
met or you get hit in the face, so it's
like you have to be present while you're boxing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I mean, I I'm not like I don't fight yet,
like with anybody.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I just like with my she's a partner.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Just with your partner, yeah, because we take the class
together and I feel like like I'm more confident, Like
you know, sometimes we hit each other and it's like
cool because there's a lot of adrenaline and you don't
feel I mean, it's it's not tough, but like you
suddenly like when you have a person in front of you,
everything changes, Like everything that you learn separately, that the
(04:32):
technic technicalities like changes when you have the person in
front of you.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Like it's totally different.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So that's why I enjoy so much that part, because
like I feel that this is the important part, like
when you actually have someone in front of you, like
and I always think, like as a woman, this is sad,
but you know, like sometimes we get scared walking around
the street. It's like at least I don't know if
I actually am going to dare to do something because
(04:58):
maybe at the time of truth, hope not. But maybe
I get scared, but I hope that my natural instincts
do something about it.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I feel like you might. Even every time I
get scared, I just fall on the floor.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
So yeah, you never know, Yeah, exactly, you never know,
but I just hope that it I don't have to
get there any time. But but yeah, I really enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
And I and I go.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Well two sometimes three times a week, and I balance
it out with with weights at my house and other
top to keep going.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But I do love it.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
And the trainer is also super nice, Crick Tim Petro,
He's like the best.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I love that I went there. Yeah, I loved.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I went there without not knowing anything about boxing. I
used to like it when I was with my brothers,
you know, messing around, but like I was scared because
I wasn't up.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
To yeah go and he was.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He went along with me just like no pressure, sure,
just learning little by little, and now I feel that
I've learned so much. I still have a lot to learn.
I feel that I'm totally a beginner, but I enjoy.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Like it's like therapy.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It's like I release a lot through boxing.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I love that you box because I have been watching
a lot my my husband is very into like jiu
jitsu unfortunately, which means that I have to watch a
lot of like fight videos all the.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Time in my house.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But the good thing about like MMA and fighting and
like boxing is that you have we have seen a
big rides and like females participating in that sport, like
women in the sport. And one something I will never
get over is how Amanda Sarano got robbed and we
were just talking about this. Yeah, do you follow boxing,
Puerto Rican boxing?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Yeah, I think it's something very cultural in Puerto Rico,
even though maybe nowadays it got a little slower maybe,
but yeah, when I was little, Trinda, I was like, well,
lived nearby where.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
His house used to be. Well, we live in through Hi.
It is close to.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Kupey Alto, from where Tito is from. And I remember
like the cars and everyone receiving him and the whole
like country, like stopped and just watched Tito's fight, and
also with Miguel Koto.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
But like having female boxers, it's great, like to have
that space.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I think it's needed, you know, And I'm happy for Amanda,
like now she finally has like the recognition she deserves
and and a lot of people now like admire her,
and I feel that it's more I feel that I
admire that she is not all about herself, you know,
(07:45):
as a as a boxer is about women, like women
in sports, you know, Like I know that I appreciate
that that she doesn't make it about herself. It's just
and she's super talented. And yeah, those fights were very intense,
and I feel that I'm on the one but but yeah,
(08:07):
I feel that she turned it around into this is
women's boxing, like we can feel stadiums and it's and
that's nice like to have that message.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, I love that, and I think that we do
see it a lot in women in sport, Like if
you're a woman and you're a professional athlete, I think
the message is always that like women sport, more women
in sport. And I think that something that you're doing
which is really cool, which we will get into later.
I want to go in order, but is really owning
Boleros as an empowered female in the space rather than
(08:39):
talking about like pain and stuff, which we will get
into because it has a huge project Sequeson Boles Butos
write their covers which we will get into later. But
I want to ask you one more thing about training.
What do you listen to?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, it depends, you know.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I like it's nice to listen to music that's aggressive,
but I feel that I enjoy listening like to jazz,
like really holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, you're not the first person to say this.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Because I feel that it compensates a little, like what
is happening And yeah, it's just to balance out because
everything is so fast and like I feel that my
brain is like all over the place, and then like
listening to something more soothing balances out a little bit
unless I'm in another energy that I can be as well.
(09:36):
And I also I can listen to salsa, and I
enjoy almost everything with salsa, like old school sarsa.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
But but yeah, like rap or whatever.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
But it's just like when I listen to more soothing songs,
it's it's nice, Like suddenly, it's it makes like I
can be longer in the training and just not be
so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Like training for a marathon, and like choosing to go
with like an audiobook or like classical music rather than
like idim the whole time. So I feel that like
once you're like doing it for a while, it's like
nice to have that balance. So we have like the
self care physically that also translates mentally. Do you do
any other kind of self care like journaling or anything
(10:20):
like that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I try.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
I try, but I feel that my family is so
big and we talk a lot, so I.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Feel that that's you're journaling, I think, so Jesus Jesus, yeah,
And it's because it can get very psychological and when
we talk and with girlfriends as well, like suddenly the
conversation can get very deep.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And most of.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
The time I'm in those types of conversations so much
that when I'm not in the mood and I just
get a glimpse of the girl conversation and it's too
deep for me, I say no, like not today, Like
I'm not in this mood today, because I feel that
every time it's normal for me to get deep into
the psychology of many things. So I feel that naturally
(11:04):
it's sort of a journaling. But I do try, like
sometimes to do journaling. I do like to cook, nothing
super pro or anything, just take my time to just cook.
It also relaxes me, Like when I'm home, it doesn't
matter what I'm cooking. Is just like cutting things and
(11:26):
just like the order of cooking things.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Like you need to do that because like creatively, like.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
There's many things at the same time happening, and like
most of the time I'm like like overwhelmed in so
many different directions. Yeah, so like when I do this
more things is soothing, It's nice. What about washing the dishes, Oh,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
That's not your job.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
If you're cooking, somebody else to take.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Care of that. But that rule I am a bad person,
Like I don't even apply it when someone else is cooking.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I try if I'm in the mood.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
But it's like I can leave it for the next
day if it's not too bad.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
If it's too bad, it's like no, like I try to.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
It was just busy doing soda mesa, you know, like
connecting with the family.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Yeah, and I prefer maybe in the next morning. I
even if I get angry about it, maybe I'm in
a better mood of cleaning and doing the day.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I should also do that, which I hate about myself
because it's like you could have wake up in your kitchen,
could be super nice, but you know what, we're gonna
do it in the morning, and that's okay exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
So I want to dive a.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Little bit deeper into your music, but I kind of
want to go into order. So I want to start
from the beginning. Like you were literally born into a
family of musicians. Can you tell me a little bit
about what the atmosphere was like at home for you
growing up?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, it sounds funny, but it was.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
It was.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
There was a lot of music, Like.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
It made sense to me when I saw that my
dad made a cassette when I was born of just
different type of songs and and I know because my.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Dad loves me music. What's that he composed?
Speaker 5 (13:16):
No no, No, that like a playlist, like a mixtape.
So it was like funny because like I remember waking
up and listening to music like my dad, my mom's,
my brothers, my sister, and I'm the little one from
the from that house where we grew up, So it
was very normal for me to have music all the time,
like in the car like constantly.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
And what were.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You listening to?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Everything like salsa boletros, but also like queen and rap
and heavy metal and Silo Rodriguez Merces.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It was like a lot of things at the same time.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
And maybe that's why I just when I do music,
I don't limit myself into genres because like for me,
it's just about exploring obviously keeping your own essence. But yeah,
like it's about you know, knowing more about yourself and
what you can do. So yeah, music has always been
(14:15):
a very important part of art itself in my house
where I grew up.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
When did you like start making music with your family
because your Auela wrote music, recorded music, So were you
just like always singing with your Auela, like when did
you start making music?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Well, yeah, weela. She loved music. She composed a lot of.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Songs, but she had always had this I mean she
passed away like in twenty eleven, but she always had
this resentment.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
With her dad because like her dad didn't let her
fulfill her dreams.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
She was she got a grant for a study in
a university outside Puerto Rico, and like her dad didn't
let her and it was sad.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So she kept writing.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And she kept trying to sing her songs and trying
to record. But the last time I think she told
she told us that when she felt that the guy
was interested in something else with her, she stopped and
she didn't record anything. So it was like frustrating for her.
But I think that watching us all girl so interested
(15:33):
in music, it gave her like.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
A motivation, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
And my sister one day said, why don't we get
together with her? So we listened to her songs and
she recorded a cassette a tape with her compositions.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Some of them were with her.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Recordings that she from in the seventy eight but like
in a life bohemian place and the other ones. Was
her voice like older, just letting me know stuff. While
she was singing the songs like a cappella so special,
I'm able.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
To cry, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, and she was. She taught me a lot of music.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
She was very strict, so every time I was messing
around singing and imitating voices, she.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Didn't like it.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
And I say, I come on, I'm just messing around,
Like I know that's I say.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Last Like she always wanted me to.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Sing like myself, like not imitating other people's voices.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
But I was a teenager, you know, I was growing up.
But that stayed.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
In my head when I was when I was singing
more professionally, I understood what she was talking about. And yes,
like those people already did what they had to, Like
why would you want to sound like somebody else like
you have to? There's obviously influences, but it's important to
find your own way of singing and telling these stories
(17:02):
through songs.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And your voice is beautiful? Might I say thank you?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So I assume it was probably a very like seamless
transition into what then became or is cadarese with your brothers? Right?
How did that come about? That you guys were just like,
let's make a music group.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, since I'm the little one, they were like, come here.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Yeah, sort of because in the house we used to
do like this. Like it wasn't like a proper talent show,
but it was sort of like because it was very
just just.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
To make us.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
It was kind of funny and shameful in a way,
just to mess around.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, they made me perform and we might.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They used to make my husband perform, Phil Collins. Oh
and he's not a singer, so I feel you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, well that was it. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
It was normal for us just to make each other
laugh about our else in the house, and we since
were so many, it was funny and just it started
like that.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And I remember my brother.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Eduardo, he had groups before, like music groups, and so
for me watching him making music was super normal and rene.
Even though he was studying art, animations and everything. I
remember him always writing songs, rap songs, So it was
natural for me when they decided to do something together.
(18:31):
I didn't know I was going to be part of
it until one day. I mean, I loved to sing
when I was little, it was like but then I
started playing the piano. Piano was sort of my thing
for so many years. But now I don't know how
to play the piano anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Because I decided to sing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So I don't believe that.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
No, yeah, I mean yes, please like for real, Yeah,
it's for real. Maybe if I take classes again, something
will write the memory. But no, no, no, I never
was that good and piano. But I felt that everything
connected somehow because singing for me was something that was
more fun and I saw it more as a hobby.
(19:10):
But then was when this happened, it made sense.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
It was like, yeah, like singing is where I.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Feel most like myself, like where I feel I can
express music better.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
So thanks to my.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Older brothers because maybe they had like a vision of
myself I didn't have yet at that ar sixteen. When
I was sixteen and Renee picked me up at school
one day and he said, yeah, let's go to Eduardos
And I was like everything was weird because it wasn't
he wasn't used to picking me up at school.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So I said, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (19:42):
And he started putting me some music in the car
and he said singing like he started telling me to
imitate other people and then he said, okay, now singing
like yourself and I say, I don't know, I don't
know how to sing like myself and said try and
and that's when when we started the song like Catona
from Diatris's first album. We did the demo in Eduardos,
(20:04):
the Lardo's mom a closet.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
We recorded that.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
These are great spaces to record, Yeah, definitely, So that's
where we did the demo of Flaa Catalona.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And then we started a little by little and it.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Was like the same for me, it was the same
as the messing around a home, but then it got professional.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and then it just blew up from there.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What's like one of your favorite memories from that time.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
There's so many.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Ah, well, the beginning was nice, but at the same time,
it was overwhelming and we were learning so many things
at the same time, and it was like weird because
we didn't know exactly what was going on. So maybe
it could be maybe those times.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Where we were already like we.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Processed things a little better and we got better at
it and everything sounded good. And then we had like
more audience and traveling a lot and getting to know
so many cultures and countries, like it was. That was
very special, and I feel that I learned a lot
and I feel so lucky because like I got to
(21:20):
tour since I was very young, but touring with my
brothers and my family was even more special. So I
mean those times were super great and I'm super grateful
for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I wanted to ask you because you're somebody who was
very young starting in the music industry and like very
forward facing obviously with and you guys did start speaking
out about like social topics. What was it like for
you to receive because I'm sure that you also got
a lot of hate as well, and how are you
(21:54):
able to like process that at such a young age.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Well, it was weird. I mean I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
For me, I mean from Puerto Rico. I think it
all started more in Puerto Rico and I was more
used to that. So maybe knowing that type of hate
from Puerto Rico got me to understand better the other
hate from other countries. But yeah, I feel that in
(22:29):
the urban genre there wasn't so many I mean in
Latin America at least, I feel there wasn't so many
outspoken mainstream artists and that was like shocking for many people,
and I think it was a process for everybody because
I know that many haters got to became fans afterwards,
(22:51):
and that was cool because it was there was also
a space for debate, and there was also a space
for trying to for understanding.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
You know, it's not.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
About imposing anything, it's just about opening up the picture
a little bit more because like suddenly you realize that
we have only most of the things we know are
based on one small part of things. So it's like,
for me, it's important to try to absorb as many
as you can and create your own criterio's.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Journal in conversation, psychological journal in conversations.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
But yeah, it's just I feel that it's it's important
to to you know, if you feel the need to
do it and you're being honest about it, then for me,
it's it's important that you say what you feel, like
in your songs about things that surround you, like it's
not everything about you, you know, like we're just a
(23:52):
small part of a bigger thing. And it's important to
also like to to talk about uncomfortable things as well.
I like to open doors in that way and see
in what discussion we can be you know, and try
to respect the differences and try to understand the perspectives
instead of just accusing and just not getting deeper into things.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, I have a lot of respect for that, and
I always have from all the things that I've heard
you guys put out. Do you currently feel a responsibility
to continue kind of like on that path or is
this something that's very organic for you that just comes
on when like you're talking about something specific, or do
you feel like that pressure because obviously, like you're kind
of known for somebody who like speaks out about these
(24:40):
kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, I didn't, like I felt that.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I when I started my own project, Like I I
was so ready to start like on my own, like
from zero and obviously not super zero, because luckily I
already had like a fan base from Cayetrece. But of
course I know most of them expect me to do
something similar from care and you know, but I was
(25:05):
just very chill with that.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
I was wanting very focused on my own thing, on
my own instinct, So I didn't want to pressure things unnecessarily.
So I think it naturally, like I grew up in
a family where these topics, like social topics were spoken about.
And also in school, I remember wondering myself why some
(25:31):
things that I was taught at home were not were
more censored at school, and like that made me wonder.
But I never felt like a pressure or like in
position in my house where you have to believe in this.
It was I went on my own, like and everything
kind of made sense to me in a way, like
differently from maybe it's most similar from my family, but
(25:55):
maybe we.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Might have differences somehow.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
I don't know, but I feel everything it's transformed throughout
the years and people you know that generations see things differently,
and that's interesting also to analyze.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So yeah, I feel that I.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Just if I feel the need to or if I
feel uncomfortable about something and I need to speak out
about it, I do so respectfully. But it's just something
that I need to because I need to try my
best to understand at least things a little better. And
if I don't speak about it, it's just they're all
(26:34):
messed up.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, I feel about it. When you launched your solo
career in twenty sixteen, making the decision as like come
out as a solo artist, how was it that you
made came to the creative decisions that you came to
(26:55):
when you launched your first album.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Well, my first was very fun. I had in my
first album, I have two songs of my grandmother's and
part of my creative team.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I love wait, I love that you have your weather
songs in there. Yeah, it makes my heart so happy.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
And when I feel when people sing them, it's so special,
like because I mean, I say all the time, but
still a lot of people don't know it's my grandmother's composition.
So it's when I tell them, it's like no, like
it feels so new, like suddenly, it's nice to feel
that connection. I feel like she's present somehow always. But yeah,
(27:38):
like part of my creative team is my sister, Milena
Perez Solard, which I also have compositions of her in
my albums and in as well, and Gabrielle, my other brother.
They're part of my creative team, so we work everything together.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So I feel that we all.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I mean, I always felt that I wanted to play
around with poles and more traditional music, but I didn't
want it to stage just there, so I explored with
other things. I wanted to know myself from another perspective,
not staying in this comfort zone. And it was super fun.
But I mean it was so ambitious, like I recorded
(28:20):
so many musicians, and I decided to do the mix
an analog mix that is so different from the digital
and so it made my my head like a little
crazy because like you you have to perceive.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
So many things.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But it was like it was great at the same time,
like I had that experience and and yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
So it was it was very fun.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
It was like more from the heart, so literally, that's
why the album has a lot of connection with the heart,
like from the heart to them the l Kora song,
we have so many Spanish expressions that are from like
very raw from the heart.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So that's what that album was mainly about.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
NPR said that you're a first class interpreter of the
classic sounds that flow through Latin America. I was just
watching a video as we all do on social media,
which was talking about how historically in Latin America we
have in many countries, there has been like this like
praise of external cultures in Latin America within like our communities.
(29:35):
But I feel personally like within the past couple of years,
even though I feel like this is something that you've
always done. Especially within the past couple of years, there
has been a little bit more of that, like internal
discovery from musical artists and that connection back to the
roots of like where we came from and the sounds
that come from our countries and ar Tierra. Is this
(29:57):
something that you purposefully did always with your music, because
I feel like that has always been a part of
like what you've done.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
I feel that it's so necessary to reconnect with like
our musical history.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Wherever we are from or I mean.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I think Latin America is all connected. So it's just
nice to feel that we are a family because, like
I always say, like Puerto Rico being a colony and
being an island and having these complexities, like we felt
that we have no identity sometimes that like where do
we belong? So like I think, little by little we've
(30:36):
come to realize that Latin America is our true family,
you know, and we feel like a very deep connection
with Latin America.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I mean, we are Latin Americans. But that's that's the
level of thinking, you know that, Like the colony works
that way, like you suddenly literally feel that.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
You don't know where you're at so like we are
Latin Americans, but sometimes we don't we're not sure about it.
So when you listen to music, I mean, that's when
you say this is obviously connected, Like it's obviously there's
a very deep route in between Caribbean music Latin American music,
Like it's all a big family. And it's so sad that,
(31:18):
you know, history and everything has made us try, has
tried to make us like disconnect from each other. But
it's so nice to see art and music, especially to
have that reconnection with with that history for us to
you know, to transform it in the present we'reat and
(31:41):
for it to keep being part of us today not
being forgotten. You know, it was like a hard work
for those people to do those songs, I mean, and
most of those songs speak about their truths from other
times that that can be connected to the times we're
living now, and suddenly, like it makes us feel a
little less alone. And it's nice to find those connections
(32:03):
with where we're from and also with other countries that
are nearby.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
For sure. I've also heard you talk a lot about
like rock National Argentino, which I grew up listening to
my dad is a big sweet generally is fun. Like, so,
I like, Charlie Garcia, did you spend a lot of
time in Argentina or no.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
I mean we have a connection with Argentina because we've
always loved Argentina music. But when we went there for
the first time with it was like a very special connection.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Like we love you there.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah, no, it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
It was crazy, like we went to Argentina a lot
of times and it became like our second home, you know,
like we felt like so much love and so much energy,
and it was crazy, and you know, like Argentina is
it's just it's always here.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Oh okay, And that wasn't even an Argentina who said that,
So let's go.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Yeah, Argentina is like the if not the top, one
of the top audiences.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Oh really okay.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I did see a video from the Kendrick Lamar concert
in Aina that just happened. I was like insane, absolutely crazy. Yeah,
so we do kind of pop off for certain things.
There's not that much Perreo out there though. I went
to like a concert out there and I was like
peril and I was like kind of like one of
the few ones and I was like, y'all need to
step it suck up.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
But yeah, but it happened with I remember No One,
and by that time it was like something weird.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
And I feel that national rock is so stubborn.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah that I mean it's just like no, yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I mean from Puerto Rico, you can listen to rock
nacional and also listen to Pereo, so it's a good.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah, I leave one.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I always say that I am an onion. I have layers,
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So let's get it to.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Your new project, Camola Canto, which are all boleto covers
or old to boulettles.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Why bolettles bles.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Are just part a part of me? I mean it's
it's it's just like, yeah, it's something that I grew
up listening to and I loved the runnas about it,
and oh it's just like a space for me to
be dramatic without justification.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So I feel that it's just I can and and whatever.
If someone says something, you know it's music from another time,
it doesn't matter, like I went, did.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You feel that way when you were thirteen and you
were dreaming of this as well?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Or I did, like I felt that when my dad
taught me like more like this is like a female
Bulleto artist, like with La Loupe.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
And I started listening to her songs, it was like, so.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
There are female Bullletto singers and she's speaking about this
stuff and it's so oh, it's so out there and
and I loved I love that. And I was a teenager,
so I felt everything connected with that teenager energy, with.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
With that rage you have.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Yeah, so it was it was very fun. And also
La Lupe was very high literally like all the time.
So it was like like her sounds and her and
and everyone told me that when she sang live, she
used to take her shoes.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Off and and.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Like like she had a lot of energy and like
it was expressed through her songs and her interpretation was amazing.
So so it was like nice to learn to started
learning bolets with with her, you know, I mean listening
to her songs because it was it was life changing
(35:51):
for me.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
So wait for people who don't know what botles are,
can you like explain it to them a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:59):
It I mean is that there was a time with
Ballada Ballada started, and Ballada is like more of nineties eighties, yeah,
type of slower songs but Bolettos are older and my
type of little My favorites are the ones that started
in Cuba, and most of Bolettos is like a slow
(36:24):
version but it's kind of more tropical.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
It has like a psychedelic vibe to it. But it's
like very intimate for me. But a lot of people
associateble letters like with formality because it used to be
that way, you know, it was kind of formal. But
for me, Bolettos are more street wise, you know, And
that's what I tried to do with this album, like
more informal.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
It feels like very like like it's they're that mystique like,
but it feels grounded, like it feels like like you're
a badass, like Mafia a bit. Like that's what I
feel like when I listen to it, Like I feel
so empowered and like ready to fuck it up.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Yeah, that's transparently, that's nice and because that's the energy
because people hear Boletos and most of people, oh, yeah,
my Grandma's songs that are cute and they're nice, but
but these are toxic Boletos, most of them from.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The album, right, So let's talk about that, because you
are covering a lot of bolettos that were performed written
by men.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Right, well, there's a married there, there is varied and
the only original song was written by my grandmothers.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
It's the only Wait.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I heard a little bit of it earlier because I
was watching an interview.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
She's just Una Susia.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, I really love her.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
She reminded me. She reminds me so much of my grandma,
because my grandma Amayael Rosa, Like she would come back
in the street, like I would tell her, like something
about my husband. She would like always try to get
into these like dirty details.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
I'm like, ala, relax, like.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
That's the same that happened with us, Like it was
like no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
No, but she she enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So not the thing has is because she wants him
to kill going.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yeah exactly know I think us don't stop, like I
want you to keep going.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
So I can't wait to listen to that.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Yeah, And it's nice because the the it's like one
of the prettiest musically, it's like very pretty, but but
it's like sexual at the same time.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
So it's like.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
About that beautiful moment of enjoying the sexual thing happening.
So yeah, but yeah, these albums have different like men
and female compositions, but some some songs are kind of
twisted the perspective male female, but are there are also
(38:39):
like a lot of composers that I admire, like like
a very famous Puerto Rican composer, Silvia Re Sash that
also Puerto Rican composers that are like one of the biggest,
so I admire them a lot. Their their songs are
so beautifully written written and and also some songs songs
(39:00):
are like salsa salsa artists that did some boletos songs
and I did like a version of their reference, you know,
so it's it has a mix of different types of
boletros but with a minimal instrumentation, because.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I also love those very.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Very intimate sort of singing in your ear type of
boletros that just makes you melt it's hot.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, I loved it. And the visuals for the music videos,
did you come up with like the creative behind that
or like can we talk about that creative too, because
I saw a couple for the tracks that I've seen
that have dropped so far, and I'm telling you, like
Mafia Boss, like men in the Back, like it doesn't matter,
like it's about you and your friends so far that
(39:48):
I've seen and I really stand, so tell me about that.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Well. I think this album since the beginning I thought
about it, I was very connected to these female bar
street energy because sometimes I still feel like I like
to play pool in bars, and I still feel not
always because we're in another time, but I still feel
(40:15):
kind of a weird thing when the female plays pool.
There's like people can be most of the men can
be very condescending, and and I feel that still women
in bars is very like it's it's still something that
is a taboo, you know, like like we can enjoy
ourselves as well, and and that's why I.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Was very connected to.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
This forbid girl likes a beer exactly.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
And it's crazy to think that nowadays these things are
still happening, because sometimes you stay in your bubble and
you feel, no, that doesn't happen anymore, but then you
actually like go out and and you feel like it's
still the patriarchy is still very present. So yeah, so
I wanted to play around that, especially with Bolet that
I feel that that was sort of the energy back then,
(41:04):
but it was way more censored than it is now.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I think I don't even know anymore.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
But that's why the all the visuals are in the
bars and different energies, because the boletos speak about different things.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
But they have a very different energy.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Yeah, but I but I like that there is something
freeing about it, Like even if she's sad in the bar,
like she's free and sad. You know, she's just processing
her sadness on her own and then she processed it
with friends in another energy. But it's just like herself
(41:43):
giving her space, like giving herself space to process however
she feels in a bar openly.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
So it's nice. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
I've been enjoying this so far because it's a little
part of who I am normally, Like I like playing
pool and go into bars and singing in bars, like
my dad as well, like he has done that, he
still does it, like he still sings in bars, and
so it's kind of like what I like to do.
And Puerto Rico is so small and there's so many
(42:15):
beautiful bars like in the mountains in the beach that
you just go and relax, even if you're drinking or not.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
It's just I'm gonna get some recommendations for next time.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I go to Puerto Rico. Yeah, because I know you
know all the good bars.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, I still have more to know, but I can
give you.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
A lot perfect perfect When you recorded these tracks too,
A couple of them you did in a single take, Yeah, yeah,
because you did them live, right.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
I try to, but it's difficult, And some of them
I just said, no, it's I better have like this
moment and just think it through. But others were like,
there's some songs that just don't fit when everything is
so perfect and so polish, and especially the ones that
are just guitar and voice, like when the most intimate
(43:01):
ones we did it in like live, and it was
very special because the guitarists are guitars from my band,
so we have a very special connection already.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
So it's like.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
We weren't even singing at each other because I was
like with my mic and they were sitting in another
like in the same space, but we weren't looking at
each other. But it was all feeling, you know, like
they were following me and I was following them, and
it's just as if we were in a place live
singing it.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
So that was very special.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
That's awesome, And also like one take is crazy.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
Yeah, how many did you do that for?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Well?
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Though one song was the first take okay, and the
other one it starts the song saying take eight okay.
So it was that take eight the one that was perfect,
because sometimes it's just silly things like oh, like a
stupid sound from other stuff, or like that interrupts every thing,
(44:00):
or maybe you know, like.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Everything's perfect, and then all of a sudden.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
Yeah, there's an energy that you feel that you say,
this is the take. And when the song that was
just the first take, like it was a feeling was
like is it possible? We did some more afterwards just
in case, but then we said no, the first one
was it.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
It's just a magical vibe that you feel.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Were there any tracks that you potentially like, any songs
as a bulleto connoisseur if you will, Were there any
tracks that you wanted to put on an album that
didn't end up making it, or anything that like didn't
make the cut.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
Yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
I don't know if I didn't record them, but I
had like a list. Some of them are songs that
maybe I mean, I love them, but maybe.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
It were a little too lineal for me. So I started,
I started started picking you know, the ones that I.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
Felt that I feel that I CA had a little
more dynamic and I could rearrange more with my voice.
But yeah, there's so many songs that you know, I
can keep going into that.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Hole.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, so it's gonna be com part two.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
I don't know, that's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (45:20):
My team said, oh, like already part two, and I say,
let's start with the part one and see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Incredible, incredible. You also recently performed residency, which was so special.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
I went, I went two days in a row. Oh no,
I had fun. Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
But you had the honor of presenting locally Hawaii. What
was that like for you?
Speaker 5 (45:54):
It was amazing, Like I was with with a whole,
Like I was dressed up as a Puerto Rican nationalist
female leader, so it was like controversial, but I felt
that I was It was very from my heart, like
I felt that I needed to pay like an homage
(46:17):
to to female leaders that I loved Puerto Rico and
did something about it and you know, try their best.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
You know. So I.
Speaker 5 (46:29):
Like that that song has like a duality because it
is like very sad because it speaks about the plasa
meento and colonialism and things that we are going through
in Puerto Rico and in many countries as well. But
it also has like a strong message for me that
(46:53):
I think it it's like motivational for us to like
to do something and take action. So I I gave
more of that energy and I just went with it
because I felt like it because like yeah, and it
was so emotional to feel that people connected with it
a lot, and it was very special because people are
singing these songs, but like we actually have to analyze
(47:16):
what we're saying and how powerful these words are for message.
So it was very moving to feel that, you know,
and I feel super grateful to have been a part
of that.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Of course I saw it from home on Instagram. Unfortunately
I wasn't there live for that performance, but it was
extremely moving, and I have to say that as somebody
who's not even from Puerto Rico, like I just felt
so honored to be there in that space, although like
it wasn't a night that I had the luck to
(47:50):
see you perform that track, but it was just so
nice to see like the unity, the celebration, the empowerment
and everyone just like elebrating, and I was like, I
was singing, like like I'm fucking Puerto Rican, like you know,
like it. It's a big time for Latinos, especially today,
(48:11):
to like have these spaces to be able to talk
about these things and to connect in this way with
everything that's happening in the world. So thank you for
always being a vessel and a voice for that. Where
are you at right now in the world, Like, because
you are a person who is very outspoken about these things.
Obviously we've mentioned that a couple of times. But for
(48:32):
people who like might be losing hope about, you know,
their identity with everything that's happening in the world, do
you have any like motivation or anything for people that, like,
For example, I feel like, especially in the United States,
people are feeling a little bit more ashamed to express
themselves and to be Latina. Whereas I'm showing up on
camera and teaching my classes, be like here, I fucking am,
(48:55):
I'm the most Latina. But you ever met, you know,
and you continue to show up in the way that
you've always shown up, But you have any message for
anybody else?
Speaker 5 (49:03):
How it's so I will turn my best not to
get psychologically and deep, but I think it's so hard,
and I think I understand people that can feel intimidated
by many things, especially what is going on today, And
I like, as I keep learning things, I realized that
(49:27):
that it's a privilege to go out on the streets.
It's a privilege to show up like yourself and say
out loud, I'm from Puerto Rico and Latina. Like for
many people, they just don't. I mean, it's too risky
for them, and it's and it's so sad, like it
like life, the world shouldn't be like this, Like it's not.
(49:51):
It doesn't have to be. I mean, it doesn't have
to be necessarily an utopia and utopia it would be nice,
but like but at least, you know, like give space
for each other to just be, you know, feel free
about themselves. And it's just so ironic that, especially like
(50:12):
in the land of the freeze, where we.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Feel less free.
Speaker 5 (50:15):
So I feel that I like something motivational in these times.
It's very hard, but but yeah, taking risks is powerful,
is scary, it's necessary. But I think that the important
(50:39):
thing for me is to to have community to to
to at least seek for people trustworthy and and you know,
try to find ways to look up more for each
other and instead of just turning away and just feeling
(51:00):
farther from each other. And I feel nowadays, especially more
now than ever, I feel that with so much distraction
that is going on, like it's so important to disconnect
a little and just just be human and just hug
more and just feel more. And I feel afraid that
(51:23):
sometimes we are forgetting how to feel. We are not
so connected with our emotions and our feelings and not
giving so much.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Credit for it.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
And we don't have to allow that, we don't have
to settle for that. Like, so, yeah, fine, community even
if it's one person, and you know, and try to
taste take risks if you can.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yeah, I think something beautiful that you mentioned too, is
like disconnecting to connect, yeah, with yourself, to like feel
your feelings, because it's very easy when we're just like
scrolling to just like become so desensitized to all of
the things that are happening in the world, and it's
very confusing. And also like when you take a step
(52:14):
back and you give yourself, like I'm not saying like
five ten minutes an hour I'm saying, like a couple
of days where you just like choose to give yourself
space to be with yourself, and then you are able
to process things and feel things in a way that's
a little bit more differently, and you can have deeper
conversations with yourselves with family members when you're present rather
(52:37):
than when you're just like moving on autopilot. Yeah, and
you also have the opportunity to like sit down and
listen to music, but like actually listen to music and
to the lyrics and to digest like what an artist
is trying to communicate and the feeling that they have.
And sometimes you just want to get lost and feel
like a baddie listening to bolitos or like or like
(53:02):
hip hop or Espanol, whatever it might be. But those
moments are more special, and every day I feel like
they're happening less and less where we just get to
like sit down or just like have even just like
have fun for a moment when we're just disconnected. So
I hope that there's more of that. And I know
that you have a couple of performances coming up to
(53:23):
even in New York as well, But we are honestly,
unfortunately running out of time, so I'm gonna ask you
a question that we ask everybody before we get into
our last section, which will be quick, I promise, But
what do you think was the main factor that has
contributed to your success? I know in your whole life,
(53:47):
your oh my voice, let's go see period, that's it. Iconic,
that's it, that's it. You're what I would be so proud. Okay,
(54:08):
so let's move on to our last leession. This last
lesson is called as where Mede and I normally talk
about music and sport and what's going on. We have
you here today, so.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
I want you to give us.
Speaker 1 (54:16):
First off, I want you to tell me, like what
your favorite tracks from your new album are Hard Okay,
we'll start there, Okay.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Being salo ing me and this being slow Ing because
it's like a.
Speaker 5 (54:32):
Very guitarssychedelic kind of trance ish song for me, it's
very slow and it's like has a nice rhythm and
me and this is like very dramatic and like with
guitars requinto and and it's like it is I think
it was a tango. Actually it's kind of tango ish
(54:53):
but at the same time, so it's a nice mix and.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
So many would you do'n up floor?
Speaker 5 (55:05):
Because it was a song that I learned from my mother.
It was composed by Silvia Resash and it's so sad
and beautiful love.
Speaker 4 (55:14):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
So make sure that you start you can start there right,
and then if you have any like up and coming
artists or anybody that you're you personally are really listening
to right now that you would recommend to our listeners.
Speaker 5 (55:28):
Oh, I'm super bad at this normally, but I see
a first one that came to mind, Silviacruz from Spain.
Speaker 3 (55:36):
Also from Spain, yeah, and from Puerto Rico Chui. That
has been like they're like a group.
Speaker 5 (55:46):
Yeah they are, and they're super nice.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
So so yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
I have to ask you one last question because as
a fitness instructor, there has been a lot of different
times that I have heard.
Speaker 4 (56:04):
And so many different remixes.
Speaker 5 (56:06):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
How do you feel that you're on so many wa chads?
Speaker 5 (56:10):
It's so funny, Like sometimes I'm like hanging out somewhere
and they.
Speaker 3 (56:15):
Oh not Fit're like whoa.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
It's so funny, Like you're on the boats in dr
and like they be playing you in a Wada Chad
all the time.
Speaker 5 (56:25):
Nice yeah, and also like a techno ish like all
of them. Yeah, every possible is so funny. But I
never thought that was possible until you just hear and
I say, oh, of course, yeah totally.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Well it works for me, I know inside your heart
it made me you feel a certain way, but it
really works for us fitness and structures.
Speaker 3 (56:44):
It's funny. I do enjoy it. It's just that I
never expected it to be that way, but I do
enjoy it. It's just like suddenly you see like a sea.
Speaker 5 (56:52):
Of possibilities with that, with that part that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Right, Where can people find you if they want to
connect with you?
Speaker 5 (57:00):
Well, in Instagram and TikTok TikTok and learning I just
watch it.
Speaker 4 (57:07):
But your last name is is very cunty.
Speaker 5 (57:13):
Yeah, thank you, uh and in X I don't know.
I also like I I'm just not so good on
social media, but I do Instagram the most, but I'm
at at that and dot com if that is usable today.
(57:36):
But there's everything like very well well organized there. But
but yeah, I'm that's that's it.
Speaker 4 (57:43):
I think love that.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
And you can find her on Spotify All Music streaming services.
Make sure that you guys stream her album. You're gonna
love it and watch all the videos because they're so good.
Speaker 4 (57:53):
I promise you like incredible.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
I thank you so much for joining us here, and
we'll catch you next week. We do this thing at
n It goes at the at the at the mammy
Is and iHeart Women's Sports production and partnership with Deep
(58:17):
Blue Sports and Entertainment. For more podcasts, listen to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.