For his latest release, Bosq gave us an in depth look at the project and the influences behind it:
It feels kind of poetic that this record, the first one that Bosq started fresh when me and my wife moved to Colombia, happened to drop exactly 3 years to the day that they first arrived here with a few suitcases and two duffle bags filled with music gear. It certainly wasn’t the plan to wait three entire years to start releasing projects in our new home, but at the same time I really didn’t want to rush it. Working with teachers and musicians here directly has helped me so much in terms of understanding local rhythms and styles but there is also a certain amount of ambient absorption that happens with music just like it does with language, and a lot of that cannot be rushed! There is also the relationships and connections you build with collaborators that really can’t be forced, and to me you can hear the difference between a one off session with someone you sent the files to online vs. people you work with continuously and spend time with… I met the crew from La Bogota Orquesta Afrobeat after seeing them live here in Medellín and we clicked right away because they all have great taste in music and are good people too. I went to Bogota with the Rumbero instrumental basically as it is now but without horns (have to shout out Max Perez Coymat for his guitar work on that, he has a great understanding of Disco & Funk styles which is harder to find here than in the US) and Beto who laid down the Djembe including that wicked solo in the middle. We recorded horns on I think 4 tracks that day in their studio, Mambo Negro Records and I’ve been back a bunch of times since as well. They are also the ones who put me in touch with Nidia. Something that I really respected about Nidia is that she wanted to meet up and talk about the project before agreeing to work on it, we talked about music and the track but much more so about politics and human rights. I was nervous and still embarrassed about my Spanish but it was clear we saw eye to eye on things and Rumbero was born!
Corazon was a lot more of a solitary effort in terms of the music since I played everything, but it was really dope to work with Camilo again after having remixed a track for Mr Pauer featuring his vocals a few years back. I love that his style falls somewhere between an MC, classic roots reggae, dancehall, and even salsero at times. He’s super dynamic and writes really well too. I want to include what he wrote about his lyrics as well (especially helpful if you don’t speak Spanish) “This lyric focuses on keeping love in your heart and staying connected with nature and its many teachings. We are part of nature as it is within us and all around us. The bomba rhythm really transported me to my childhood home town of Utuado, Puerto Rico where I was surrounded by nature. Love is when you can nurture yourself and connect with your source which is our amazing planet. From there everything manifests the way it should. Keep love in your heart and you will see!”
