Season 2, Episode 5: “We Got on the Bad Bunny Bus” ft Buscabulla
NARRATION: Big breaks are the myth that secretly show up inside every artist’s dreams. You can’t help but wonder, is mine around the corner? What will it be like? Are these even real? Deep inside, you know that dedication, and consistency, having a practice, these are far more important than random chance, but then you hear the stories.
Like how Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, got discovered when she saw a famous record label exec in the bathroom of a dance club, and sang them a song on the spot. Or how Bobby Brown’s bodyguard slipped the demo of a then-unknown Usher to his boss, leading to his first ever record deal. We hear these stories, and much like the “happily ever after” ending of a fairy tale, we say, and the rest is history. Only, we know five word conclusions are never the whole truth.
Buscabulla is the wife and husband duo of Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo Del Valle..
Their music is dreamy, lush, electronic, with splashes of salsa and samba. It's definitely indie or alternative, if that means anything, but their songs always have a pop sensibility. Buscabulla is one of those indie bands who feel like they are just one lucky break away from going massive.
And then that break, it happened. The lightning strike was real. Within a three week span, they went from a small band with a loyal following, to being featured on one of the most record shattering hit albums of all time. My simple, or maybe not so simple question was, And then what? What comes after a success even bigger than your wildest dreams?
My name is Meklit, and this is Movement, music and migration, remixed.
Raquel and Luis met in New York, but they both grew up in Puerto Rico, and in 2018 they decided it was time to move back. The island had just been devastated by Hurricane Maria. They had followed the destruction from far away, scrolling through posts on social media about windows blown out, or seven friends crowded into a single bathroom. It was awful, and still raw. But now they wanted to be part of the island's recovery.
Meklit: I'm just wondering, looking back now, has moving to the island been what you imagined, or is it something that you could have never imagined?
Raquel: Yes it was.
NARRATION: This is Raquel, she's the lead singer in the group.
Raquel: I don't know, it felt like we moved at a time where it like, things were sort of going through a crazy reset. You know, it's almost like everything that we knew about Puerto Rico, like it was like back to zero in a way, like people were rebuilding, the rent was super cheap. You know, it really felt like a rebirthing of the island.
NARRATION: Raquel didn't want to just help rebuild things to the way they were. She wanted to make it a better place for independent musicians. With more venues, more infrastructure, more community. So she and Luis, as well as some other community members, started a non-profit called PRIMA. Puerto Rican Independent Musicians and Artists. They raised money, they organized showcases, they gave out grants to musicians who needed support.
Raquel: There was a lot of excitement and energy right after Maria, I think it really galvanized people. A lot of people came and moved to the island or invested in the island. It was for those beginning years, it was really lovely. You know, up until the pandemic came and after that, you know, everything sort of changed.
NARRATION: Maria, for all its horrors, had somehow energized people. COVID did the opposite. Buscabulla released a full-length album in 2020 called Regresa, “Return", but they couldn't even perform live for the people they had returned to. It was not the triumphant homecoming they had pictured.
At the same time, prices went up, the island was becoming less affordable, less of a home for working artists. They had moved back with one vision of change, and now were living in a totally different vision.
Raquel: At least for the next two years, things kind of like stalled as they did.
NARRATION: The band didn't perform for two years. Raquel turned 40, and started to wonder what it would even mean to return to the stage. Can I still do this?
Luis: Definitely a strange moment, you know, where you sort of question a lot of, a lot of why you're doing what you're doing.
NARRATION: This is Luis, the other half of Buscabulla.
Luis: But things did take a turn.
NARRATION: The turn came because something else was happening on the island. Yet another wave of transformation, this one, a musical transformation, Reggaeton.
This was a wave that had been gathering strength for a long time. There were hits spread over decades, like Gasolina and Despacito. But in 2020, the ears of the world turned collectively towards Puerto Rico, following the sound of a young star named Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, AKA, Bad Bunny.
Bad Bunny was the most streamed artist of the year in 2020, and the year after. But what is really special, is that he didn't want to keep all that attention for himself. He wanted to use his platform to showcase the island's talent, which is how Raquel and Luis got the call.
Raquel: The funny thing is that the request came through on Easter Sunday. Bad Bunny called on Easter Sunday of 2022
Luis: He was a good bunny.
Raquel: Yeah, he was a very good bunny.
NARRATION: At 11:11pm on Easter Sunday, Raquel got a message from Bad Bunny's producer, who she was connected to on Instagram. When the message arrived, she and Luis were already in bed, in their pajamas.
Raquel: I think my face turned pale and I was like, nauseous.
NARRATION: She turned to Luis, and gave him the news. Bad Bunny, the biggest artist in the world, wanted to collaborate.
Raquel: Within a matter of, like, a half an hour, we received the track via email, we heard it, we
Luis: Listened to it in the dark, in our pajamas.
NARRATION: And for a moment it seemed like that might be all the night had in store, listening to a Bad Bunny demo in the dark.
Raquel: We never thought that we were going to talk to him. We thought it was just going to be, you know, talking to the producer and it was like, well, tell us what you want. and he was starting to explain. He's like, I think it's better if we just call you guys. And I was like, yeah, sure. And then just like literally a minute after I'm getting a FaceTime request and it's, like Benito, like FaceTime and we're in our pajamas.
Meklit: On Easter Sunday? This is still the evening of Easter Sunday?
Raquel: Yes! And I think we spoke to him for half an hour. Went through the details, sort of nerded out on, you know, things we were listening to and he just said you guys got two weeks to turn it in.
NARRATION: Two weeks to create a track for the biggest artist in the world. Two weeks to change their lives, or the whole opportunity would pass by.
Luis: The producer would joke, he would be like
Raquel: Are you guys getting on the bus?
Luis: You're not getting on the bus.
Raquel: Like, that bus is going at like 150 miles per hour and we got on the bad bunny bus.
NARRATION: They got to work right away.
Raquel: There is something exciting about working at the speed of reggaeton.
Luis: Wooh!
Raquel: You know what I mean? And it's, it was intense but that's the way that they do it. And honestly, the pressure it really makes you hyper focus and, its magic sometimes, you know?
Raquel: You have no idea the amount of sort of like, obsessiveness and how we were working. And, of course, this sort of insecurity about like, is this going to really make it to this record? Is this guy going to like it?
NARRATION: Raquel and Luis didn't even know when this new Bad Bunny album was coming out. When they asked Benito, he didn't know either. It was just happening. The album would drop as soon as it was ready, with or without their track.
Raquel: Very of the moment, completely different to the way that we work.
NARRATION: Right at the two week deadline, they turned in the song.
Raquel: And right on the next day, Luis and I were bedridden with COVID. We get, we got like really bad covid.
NARRATION: It's like their bodies knew they could not get sick until this song was done, but now they could collapse.
Raquel: We were like in bed for probably about two weeks after that.
NARRATION: Meanwhile, the Bad Bunny bus did not stop. The album, "Un Verano Sin Ti" came out immediately, and the Buscabulla collaboration was on there. It's called "Andrea."
Meklit: So between hearing from the producer and the release of the album, it's like four weeks.
Luis: Three.
Raquel: Three weeks. Yeah we turned it in and the record was out like a week later or something. Yeah and, and the rest is just wild.
NARRATION: Now they literally got on the Bad Bunny bus, performing in Puerto Rico, in the mainland US and Mexico. Raquel and Luis were used to playing clubs. These were stadiums. The show in Mexico City was in front of eighty thousand people.
Luis: You know, all it was a sea of lights, you know? You went out and you saw stars, you know? It was, it wasn't people. It was like a lot of tiny little stars and The stage was trembling. everything was, you know, vibrating from this crazy energy. It was wild.
NARRATION: The album, "Un Verano Sin Ti," became the most streamed album ever. It still is. Bad Bunny opened up the next year's Grammys with a medley of hits. It was the musical story of the year, and it all came out of their island, out of Puerto Rico.
Raquel: I don't even know how to describe it. I mean, the energy around that record, the way that it showcased Puerto Rico, the whole Bad Bunny thing felt like something sent from the heavens. Like something that doesn't really happen to you. Like every day, every year, like sort of these rare moments in life where you kind of get lucky and both we enjoyed it and it was also like really heavy and like strange for us, like small independent band.
NARRATION: Of course, with all that exposure, all the praise and excitement, came pressure. What were they going to do with this rare moment? Any label or record executive would say you've got to seize it. Release an album, do a press tour, move at the speed of Reggaeton.
Raquel: I was definitely feeling this pressure of having to put another album out immediately. And I think that after the Bad Bunny thing, everybody was sort of asking like, now's the time, like now that everyone's attention is on us, but it really didn't feel genuine at all to me. It's almost like I needed to kind of live more. Time needs to pass. Like I need to kind of evolve. I need to kind of feel that I'm renewing myself and I need to sort of live through experiences that I feel are worthy of putting into songs.
NARRATION: Raquel and Luis were just not ready. So they let the moment pass. And they spent time focused on their family, and life on the island.
Raquel: And then about a year after, very close to the same Easter Sunday, my father passes away. And I remember, you know, I'm, I'm sort of going through it, I'm dealing with everything. And my dad used to play baseball. And when I started pulling out his baseball jerseys, I realized that he was the number 11 and I started just pulling out all of these t shirts with the number 11.
NARRATION: Of course, it wasn't the first time that number had appeared to her at a weighty, fateful moment.
Raquel: It’s funny because, kind of around the time before Bad Bunny called, I kept seeing 11:11 everywhere on the clock.
NARRATION: Including at the moment when that first message arrived from Bad Bunny's producer. And now, looking at those baseball jerseys, the universe was once again telling her, it was time.
Raquel: You know, at that moment, like I kind of felt like, I think I'm ready to write a new album. I think this is sort of a new story.
NARRATION: That story is about time, and the recognition that in one way or another, we are all running out of it.
Raquel: Every year that I get older It's almost like oh wow, this is what life is like at this age, I wonder what's my life gonna be like when I'm 60? Or, you know, what it's gonna be like if I get to be 80, you know? It's like, I think that's what makes to me, like, the art more compelling, you know, because you sort of have to really find healing and transformation and, we really have to be open to our spiritual side and the messages of the universe and to really not lose faith.
NARRATION: In June of this year, Buscabulla released their new single. It's called "11:11."
And to me it perfectly captures the fears and pressures of being a middle aged artist. Questions like, why am I still struggling to do this? Am I really an artist at this point or a housewife? And how much time do I have left to get out the music that's inside of me?
In the video, we see Raquel endlessly cleaning the floors, washing the dishes and scrubbing toilets. But instead of getting cleaner, her world gets filthier and filthier. Piles of dirt appear on the floor and black grime runs down the walls.
Until the moment a clock strikes 11:11.
Raquel: And it's not until that 11:11 hits that I stop.
NARRATION: Suddenly soap bubbles fall from the ceiling. Raquel takes a powerwasher to the house. And in the final shot we see her posed like a Greek statue, clean and radiant with a blue facial mask.
Meklit: I think, like it's so interesting to hear the two experiences contrasted. Like the experience of you have two weeks and you have to make something amazing that the whole world is going to hear. And then this other experience where you're giving yourself the time to have life kind of tell you what needs to come through you. It's like they both can be part of, like, this artistic whole that is you all.
Raquel: I never thought about it that way, but it's true. We definitely went the extreme opposite.
Luis: We can,maybe we can find a midpoint, you know?
Raquel: Yeah.
Luis: Maybe we can find a midpoint.
Raquel: Yeah.
NARRATION: With the new record, they have decided to impose some of that time pressure on themselves. The single came out in June, but as of this interview, the rest of the album is not done. It's still in production, and now they have no choice but to finish it.
Raquel: There is something about this sort of working under pressure
Luis: We’re putting ourselves in a Bad Bunny situation is what we're saying.
Meklit: Got you. Yes, you're making the process work for you.
NARRATION: And in a way, the timing might be just right. While Buscabulla has been working on that new album, the ground has continued to shift beneath their feet. All that hype and attention on reggaeton, has started to spill over into other styles.
Raquel: Like festivals are booking both urban artists and alternative artists. So like smaller artists are getting more attention. So it feels exciting in that sense.
Luis: That's different to when, when we were growing up for sure. And, people really, they have an eye on Puerto Rico in a different way.
Meklit: it became a center. It became like a, like a global music center.
Luis: Sure, there's Argentinians rapping in Puerto Rican dialect, you know? There's Spaniards doing the same, you know? It's like very, this is unprecedented, you know. This is not something that has been the case forever. You know, it's a cool moment.
NARRATION: The question now is, can they seize this moment?
Raquel: When the 11:11 happens, it's almost like when the universe tells you that it's time. And you see the opportunity and you jump.
Movement is produced by Ian Coss and myself, Meklit Hadero. Our co-creator and podcast godmother is Julie Caine. Our broadcast partner is The World. We are supported by the Mellon Foundation and distributed by PRX.
If you enjoyed this story, consider sending it to a friend, or leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. Believe me, this stuff really does help people find the show. And if you happen to be curious about my albums, or performances, you can learn more at meklitmusic.com. Movement will be back with new episodes every Tuesday through the summer and fall.