On ‘Se Amaba Así,’ Buscabulla fight to keep romance alive

Anyone that’s ever been in a long-term relationship knows how hard it can be opening up to your partner when you’re going through it. Doubts and disagreements inevitably test the strength of any relationship, no matter how steadfast.

Now, imagine putting the complexities of those difficult conversations into a song for the entire world to hear.

“I was a little hesitant at first because we’ve never really talked about ourselves in the music,” says Luis Del Valle, half of the Puerto Rican band Buscabulla. “It’s always been either an introspective thing or exterior subject matter. Getting down and dirty is intimidating, but all of the artists that I admire do that.”

As Buscabulla, Del Valle and Raquel Berrios had more experience tackling the big picture in their music. Their debut album, 2020’s Regresa, was inspired by their return to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and it explored the complicated nature of that return, the gentrification of the island and their shared identities as Borinqueños.

Their latest album, Se Amaba Así, stands in stark thematic contrast.

“We wanted to make a romantic record,” Berrios says. “We’d never really made one. We also feel that romance is sort of dead nowadays. So we decided to take inspiration in ourselves.”

Berrios had already been exploring that space on her own, writing songs about the emotional hardships she and Del Valle had experienced as a couple and as parents of an 11-year-old child.

She wanted Del Valle to take the creative plunge with her.

“I said, ‘I feel that you should write and sing on this record, so that you can sing songs from your side of the story’,” Berrios recalls.

Despite his initial hesitance, Del Valle dove in.

“I think what convinced me was the music,” Del Valle says. “Usually, she’d come up with a seed of an idea and show it to me to develop it together … They were strong. They had some weight, and there were some really good songs you wrote all by yourself. So it was kind of undeniable … I sort of followed the weight of the music.”

In this session, Berrios and Del Valle join us to talk about making Se Amaba Así; about the expansive musical catalog of Raquel’s late father; and about the fateful DM that led to their life-changing collaboration with Bad Bunny.

Berrios on her father’s musical influence

“My dad was just a crazy music fan and record collector. When I was young, he’d play me a lot of LPs. My dad had a very big collection — like, salsa, calypso, trio music, rock and Dylan … He played guitar and played cuatro — like, a traditional guitar from Puerto Rico.

“I think that, when he passed away, I had both of these feelings where I felt that I started observing a little bit about how his love life had been with my mom and his family and the choices that he had made; then, I was also looking at all the music that he sort of left me. Both things really influenced me.

“I think that’s what sort of triggered wanting to make this album about bringing stuff from the past and how much of the way people loved we still have nowadays. How much of that we have to reject. How much do we take with us.”

Del Valle on taking inspiration from Lindsey Buckingham

“I watched a lot of Lindsey Buckingham videos because I’ve always loved Fleetwood Mac, and I’ve always admired Lindsey Buckingham and what he did on Rumours and Tusk …

“I wanted to see what his experience was like because it was similar, in a way, to what we had been going through … Lindsey had to sort of navigate a situation where, essentially, Stevie [Nicks] became this household name, and he was sort of in the background, as a producer.

“They were breaking up the whole time, and they were having this really intense relationship dynamic, which they would leave out on stage every night, singing at each other. They sound like they’re having an argument on stage, but it’s powerful, you know? I felt like it was important to harness that.”

Berrios on “Andrea,” their collaboration with Bad Bunny

“I think it was very validating to me, honestly. I think it was validating that we were on the right path. It was interesting because when we would speak to Benito — Bad Bunny — he said, ‘You guys really touched me with [Regresa].’

“He was just touched by the fact that we made a record about coming back home. The message was telling people, ‘Yes, everybody wants to leave the island, but we want to come back.’ I think he was touched by that…

“The fact that we could touch somebody at that level, that could really amplify that message, meant a lot … I think my dad was able to see us in that light right before he passed away. To me, it was sort of saying that I think this is our calling — I think this is what we should be doing, even though it’s clearly very hard and it takes a lot of sacrifice.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.