Buscabulla offers electro-Caribbean music for the pandemic

Buscabulla, a Puerto Rican duo playing electro-Caribbean music, is promoting a “hymn of belonging” to lift spirits during the pandemic.

The video of the group’s latest single, “Mío,” includes images of the Carnaval de Ponce and the Day of the Holy Innocents, also called the Fiesta de las Máscaras de Hatillo, known for pranks, floats, drinking and loud music.

“It speaks to the Puerto Rican who is here to feel proud, to embrace a sense of belonging, to defend what is theirs,” said lead singer Raquel Berrios via videocall from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, a small town visited by surfers two hours west of San Juan.

“The sense of belonging transcends money. Sometimes it’s really hard to conceive of that now, when ... spirituality and traditions seem to go to a secondary plane,” she said.

Berrios is also the group’s designer, composer and DJ, while Luis Alfredo Del Valle, the other half of Buscabulla, is DJ and instrumentalist. They met in 2011 while living in Brooklyn, New York, and now have a 6-year-old daughter, Charly,

The word “buscabulla” is Puerto Rican for “troublemaker,” someone looking to start fights at parties.

“I realized that sometimes things happen in life that we didn’t plan, that end up being a hidden blessing,’’ said Berrios. She called the song “an exercise of faith.”

Buscabulla had planned a tour after launching “Regresa,” but everything changed with the coronavirus.

“It was a shock at the beginning, but to be honest, I also felt relieved. Having a 6-year-old girl, we would have been away from her all summer,” said Berrios.

She thinks the pandemic deepened the album’s message. “In the end, the album is about accepting yourself with your mistakes and imperfections,” she said.