Photo courtesy of Eric Rojas.
iLe, a Puerto Rican singer and composer, joined us by phone to discuss new ways of self-expression in the pandemic, the necessity of rage, and her upcoming tour through the Northeast. This interview has been lightly condensed.
Your most recent album, Nacarile, straddles so many different genres, from ethereal folk to reggaeton. What was it like working on it?
I’m actually transcending from that album now. I started working on it in 2020, and it was released in October 2022. It was a pandemic-made album, made in the middle of those chaotic moments, and transitioning from them. Working on this album was new in every way, because the style was different from what I was used to, and I had to work on myself, trying to make songs, and trying to feel okay in the process in the middle of so many things that were not okay at the moment. It was uncomfortable, but it was nice to learn a new process in the middle of that discomfort. I like to say that Nacarile is the album that has taught me more than the others, because I had to deal with something new at the time, worldwide, and trying to make new songs was kind of weird, but at the end it made sense when I started to embrace it. That’s when the work flowed better.
So you see Nacarile as a pandemic album. What was your quarantine like?
Before the pandemic, even if I didn’t have everything clear in my mind, I was used to having a structure in my writing process, and with Nacarile I felt that there was never a structure. My mind was off all the time. But I kept writing. My creative love happens all the time, but it was a different creative love, it felt different, it was heavier. It’s normally heavy, because life can be heavy, but in those moments it felt like you had no escape, and it was tough. Quarantine was a time when I just tried to keep writing and keep proposing and just let it all out, and afterwards see if something made sense. I tried that and it was good. I was anxious because I was afraid that it was not gonna make sense at the end and I’d have to start all over, but at the end I felt that it did make sense. I felt like I had connected to the moment, and at the end I said to myself, “Yeah, this is how I was feeling, and it’s okay.”
Nacarile seems very focused on this palpable sense of isolation, especially in songs like “A la deriva,” and “Ningún Lugar.” Your earlier work has been more interested in collaboration, as your career started in Calle 13 with your brothers, and activism, with “Afilando Los Cuchillos,” the protest song that helped catalyze the resignation of Rosselló. I’m curious about how you weave between the individual and the communal in your music.
I don’t see who I am every day and who I am as an artist as two separate things. I feel that they connect with each other. I just write and compose and think of things that I feel like expressing, you know, things that worry me about society and the world we live in. Sometimes it can be more realistic and sometimes it can be more like a fantasy. I like to play with all that, play around with reality and fantasy, how I would like things to be. I think that in society and in community, we often need to remind ourselves what we can do and the power we have as human citizens. The system that we live in can feel so oppressive, like an invincible monster, and I feel like, at the end, we have a lot more power than we think. We need to acknowledge that power and use it, as a community, and fight for the world we expect to live in, which I hope will be a happy, understanding world. I play with that with my work, but as a human citizen, I’m also worried about where we’re at. It’s a way for me to channel my emotions and my thoughts through my songs. I do what I feel.
Where does your power come from?
In one word, rage. It’s something we try to control, and obviously it’s something that needs to be managed, but it’s also something that we need to release. If we try to control rage too much, it will explode. But if we manage it, it’s okay to feel rage and to use it. It’s necessary to feel rage. Especially as women, we feel that we need to have too much control over ourselves. It’s important for us to feel angry towards the things that happen to women in this world. Use rage wisely and carefully, but use it. It isn’t wrong to feel. I feel empowered when I feel rage.
Rage from looking at the world around you.
From many things. But I feel better when I release it. It makes me think better as well. You can release the rage writing, or singing, or doing exercise, or having a conversation. There are so many ways of releasing rage that don’t have to be violent. We haven’t learned enough how to manage it.
I’d love to know more about your writing process.
It varies. I think through Nacarile, I learned to play around more with my process. I learned it doesn’t have to be one specific way just because I feel comfortable with it. I’m trying to explore new ways of writing. I like to keep learning new exercises as well. But it depends. Sometimes when I feel blocked with words, I compose, and I explore with music and textures and sounds. When I’m writing with words, I can never have too much of a plan. I always have to understand what I’m thinking at first, and maybe it can be confusing, but then it starts getting clearer, and it’s nice to let it all out without judging myself. That’s something I’ve learned throughout the years. I used to judge myself way too much, and I wasn’t enjoying the process because I was judging myself. Now I judge myself less, and I’m trying to enjoy myself more. I know what I need to do to let the process flow better and let myself feel better. It’s nice. You discover new things about yourself when you just let your mind fly.
Are you working on new music now? What’s it like?
I am, and I’m enjoying it. After the pandemic, I think we learned to enjoy everything more. I had one start, but I’m starting again now in another place. The first start was kind of a vomit of everything, and now I’m trying to understand everything more, little by little, and trying to organize everything. I’m in the middle of it now.
Playing Nacarile, my third album, now, suddenly there are more songs in the show, and I’m enjoying it. I feel grateful. It’s been very nice to work with these three albums, and I’m enjoying the live shows a lot now, and I’m also ready to be working on new music.
What’s the atmosphere you try to create when you’re performing?
I love the flow of a whole show. Now the show flows a lot better because there are three albums. I like that it’s a mix of all the songs together, and I’m just vibing with the whole show. I really enjoy each of the songs with their whole particularity, and their own whole worlds.
Nacarile has this dreamy vibe, but at the same time, each album has its own feeling. The first one [iLevitable] was more intimate, more orchestral, more elegant. The second album [Almadura] was more raw and more direct, and Nacarile is kind of a mix of both, but it’s a little more airy, it floats more. I like the shows so much because I feel like I can play with all of that at the same time, and I love the contrast of all the albums. Maybe it’s more that it’s a contrast of different energies and feelings, just how we are as human beings. We flow and we’re hormonal and we have different energies.
Listening to your music almost feels like you’re playing with different natural environments, like in a desert or underwater. You do a lot with your accoustic landscapes.
I get bored easily. That’s what I like about being a woman, actually. It’s weird in the moment, but it’s nice to feel that we change so much. I try to connect even more with those times when we’re feeling very energetic and very passionate about something, and making music helps me to explore that and understand it more. That’s why I go with different flows in my music. It depends on the way I feel. Why should I need to go somewhere else if I’m not feeling that way? I try to accept the way I’m feeling at the moment, and not let myself be pressured by things that are not part of who I am and how I feel.
Who are your inspirations?
My inspirations are mostly Puerto Rican writers. I love boleros and salsa. I like poetry that’s direct and raw, and when boleros and salsas feel that way, I connect with them more. Some of my favorites are Tite Curet Alonso, who was a Puerto Rican composer who wrote many salsa and bolero songs, Sylvia Rexach, who was a poet from Puerto Rico as well, and has written very beautiful boleros, and Julia de Burgos, who is one of our most famous woman poets in Puerto Rico. Our writers are not afraid to speak out and say how they feel and be vulnerable. I like that energy, when you’re just saying very beautifully something that can be so visceral.
Are you looking forward to your upcoming tour?
I’m always excited to play live. I’m working on new music, and normally I’m just in my cave, but I like doing shows because it gives me a boost of energy and it’s necessary and it’s nice. Every time I feel that connection with Latin American people and Puerto Rican people I feel so happy. It boosts my energy to keep working, because sometimes when you’re too deep in your cave it’s not that healthy. I’m excited to do these shows. I love to feel the energy from the Puerto Ricans in Boston, because I know there are a lot of people that miss their country, and suddenly feeling that connection is nice. When I know they feel it, I feel it too, and it’s a very special moment.
iLe performs February 17th at Somerville Theater. Tickets and more information can be found at globalartslive.org.
2025