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John Schaefer: From newsounds.org and the studios of WNYC in New York, this is Soundcheck, our series of live performances and interviews. I'm John Schaefer. Cuban singer Daymé Arocena has built up a sizable reputation for her combination of traditional Afro-Cuban music with jazz and soul. Her latest album, Alkemi, adds a healthy dose of pop without ever losing sight of her musical roots. The record features guests and sounds from around the Caribbean, but the focus is, as always, on Daymé's remarkable voice. She's here with her band to play some of the songs from that new record. This one is called American Boy.

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John Schaefer: That is Daymé Arocena and her band here in our studio with her song American Boy. You heard Daymé singing; what you didn't hear is the dancing that went along with this. A lot of bailando happening in that song. Let me introduce the rest of the band. Aymé Canto on voice and percussion. Claudia Rodriguez on voice as well. Degnis Bofill playing percussion, and behind our drum set and triggering the backing tracks is Lasko. Daymé, it's great to have you here with us.

Daymé Arocena: It is a pleasure for me to be here.

John Schaefer: It's been five years since the last record.

Daymé Arocena: Sonocardiogram.

John Schaefer: Sonocardiogram. There's a very different sound to this record. Sonocardiogram had songs like Oyá and Oshún and Yemayá. You know, songs to the orishas, the deities of Yoruba.

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This record has a pop sheen to it. What was the reason for that change?

Daymé Arocena: The main reason was that I wanted to fill the gap that we have in the Latin music industry for women like me. I believe that I step away since I was a kid from pop music. Even though I love it so much. I never saw a woman like me in the pop scene in the Latin side. I thought that, that world wasn't for me, so I decided to step away. Now, I'm not afraid anymore to do what I want. Now, I'm trying. Let's see.

John Schaefer: That song, American Boy, I understand that you actually wrote that some years ago.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, yes. I wrote it 10 years ago to a New York guy.

John Schaefer: Really? Okay.

Daymé Arocena: [laughs] Yes.

John Schaefer: How'd that work out?

Daymé Arocena: Oh.

[laughter]

John Schaefer: Wow. What a look. What a look.

Daymé Arocena: That was a beautiful story. That was a beautiful story, but it's a story.

John Schaefer: Okay, so you wrote the song 10 years ago, and you just felt like, as you say, there wasn't a place for you to do this kind of music.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, exactly.

John Schaefer: Now, you're making that place for yourself.

Daymé Arocena: Yes. Now nobody's going to turn me down. I love jazz music, and I love rumba music, but I love this music too. Now I feel ready to face what it means.

John Schaefer: There are all kinds of guests coming and going. Vicente Garcia, who's been here on our show, is on A Fuego Lento. And Eduardo Cabra from Calle Trece produced the record.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, that's the producer of the whole album.

John Schaefer: How did that happen? How did you decide to work with him?

Daymé Arocena: Eduardo was the perfect choice for me because he knows how pop music works. At the same time, he knows folkloric music; he know Caribbean music; he know genres, rhythms, and instruments. He knows how to blend both things, both worlds.

John Schaefer: We were mentioning some of the. The songs to the orishas that were on the last record, American Boy, and a couple of other tracks on this record. At the beginning, they have that, the call and response vocals and the drums. You still get that feel of the deep roots of Afro-Cuban music.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, full. That's part of my DNA. Nothing that's not going to be different in my music. Even tomorrow, I make an album with a DJ, and you're going to hear that. For sure, it's me.

John Schaefer: Were you trained in a conservatory in Cuba?

Daymé Arocena: Yes.

John Schaefer: We had the. The duo Okan here in the studio.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, of course.

John Schaefer: They mentioned you when they-- [crosstalk]

Daymé Arocena: Those are my sisters. Like my real sisters.

John Schaefer: One of the things that they were talking about was how when you go through the conservatory, they're very strict about the kind of music you are allowed to do.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, exactly. It's a Russian system.

John Schaefer: Russian system, right.

Daymé Arocena: Focus on European classics and all of that. We are not allowed to play the music of our ancestors, which is so weird.

John Schaefer: When you got out of conservatory, obviously the training has been great for your voice.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, of course. Yes.

John Schaefer: As soon as you were out, was it just like. "All right, that's it."

Daymé Arocena: Oh, before that, if you wait to be out of the conservatory to start doing your own, you are late.

John Schaefer: Too late.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, so you have to do both. You have to get the technique at the conservatory and get the real school at the street.

John Schaefer: Right. So it's not just that you went for a more pop sound. You went for a kind of pan-Caribbean pop sound.

Daymé Arocena: Yes.

John Schaefer: Vicente Garcia is from Dominican Republic. Eduardo is, of course, from Puerto Rico, the song you're going to do next. Cómo Vivir Por Él. This has a kind of Jamaican reggae. Or with the horns, maybe it's more like ska.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, for sure. I never sang this kind of genres before, but this is Eduardo's influences.

John Schaefer: More than a little influence. Didn't he get you to move to Puerto Rico?

Daymé Arocena: Oh, of course I moved to Puerto Rico. He just invited me to record the album, but the island invited me to stay.

John Schaefer: That's where you're living now?

Daymé Arocena: Yes.

John Schaefer: You're here in New York with the band, so let's put them to work and hear another live performance. The song Cómo Vivir Por Él from Daymé Arocena.

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John Schaefer: Once again, Daymé Arocena and her band live with Cómo Vivir Por Él from the new record called Alkemi. A-L-K-E-M-I. Does it simply mean alchemy, the same word in English?

Daymé Arocena: Yes, it means exactly the same, but I rather use in Yoruba.

John Schaefer: The Yoruba spelling.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, the spelling. Exactly.

John Schaefer: The idea of transforming--

Daymé Arocena: Transforming everything to--

John Schaefer: Into gold.

Daymé Arocena: Into gold. Exactly.

[laughter]

John Schaefer: In medieval times, alchemists were trying to turn base metals, like lead, into gold.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, I know, but I decided to name the album in Yoruba because I was actually focused on the alchemy that is even older than that one. The one that is coming from Africa, especially from the Egyptians and all of that. That's the first Black magic

John Schaefer: Right. Well, the idea of alchemy, I mean, music is alchemy.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, of course.

John Schaefer: You put notes together and-

Daymé Arocena: Many elements.

John Schaefer: -people have sung these notes before. If you do it just right, it's like something brand new has come out of it.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, exactly, exactly.

John Schaefer: Let me ask you about your name, Daymé.

Daymé Arocena: [laughs] This a good one.

John Schaefer: Do you know the Cuban rapper Telmary Díaz?

Daymé Arocena: Oh, of course.

John Schaefer: Some years ago, Telmari was here on the show, and I asked her about her name, and she said in Cuba, her parents' generation, there were certain names that were the only names you were allowed to use. Her parents took Tel from one name and Mary from another name and smashed them together.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, exactly the same with me.

John Schaefer: That's what happened?

Daymé Arocena: Yes. My dad's name is Dagoberto, and my mom's name is Mercedes, so they unified Da from Dagoberto and which is Y, Mé from Mercedes, so that's how they created the name.

John Schaefer: So it's a made-up name.

Daymé Arocena: Yes. They did the same with my brother because my mom has two names, so my brother is called Dayang, but it's because Angela, the first name of my mom.

John Schaefer: Is that still a rule, that there are still certain names that you're supposed to use?

Daymé Arocena: No, no. We have more rules to deal with.

[laughter]

John Schaefer: You're not living on the island right now.

Daymé Arocena: No. I left the island five years ago.

John Schaefer: You didn't go straight to Puerto Rico. You went to Canada.

Daymé Arocena: No, I went to Canada.

John Schaefer: We mentioned Okan before. They're up there.

Daymé Arocena: Yes, but let me tell you a little story.

John Schaefer: Yes.

Daymé Arocena: Magdalis, one of the girls, she was the percussionist of my very first band.

John Schaefer: In Cuba?

Daymé Arocena: In Cuba. The name of that band was Alami. It became Maqueque then.

John Schaefer: Oh, the Canadian band?

Daymé Arocena: Yes. Then the Cuban and Canadian band. Then, we all flew together from Havana to Canada. That's how she met Elizabeth, who studied with me at school. She had already left the island, and that's how they met, and they married and all of that. I know the girls since a long time ago. Especially Magdalis and I; we made so much music together, and we traveled a lot together. Then, Elizabeth, when they married, she became like my best friend in Canada. My closest friend, my family. The person that I will always support. She just called me a few minutes before we started.

John Schaefer: Oh, okay. We had a great time with them when they were here in the studio.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, they are amazing.

John Schaefer: Yes. Check out Okan, their session on Soundcheck, wherever you get podcasts, because it's definitely worthwhile. Daymé's name comes up in the conversation then. There is this Cuban community north of the border, it seems, in the Toronto area.

Daymé Arocena: It is. I saw the Cuban community when we had a big political movement in the island. The only time that the Cuban people took the streets asking for freedom. I was in Canada at that time, and we all went out to the streets to try to help our family and friends back in Cuba. I saw many Cubans, and I was like, "Where were you?"

John Schaefer: They're just coming out of the woodwork.

Daymé Arocena: You don't see Latin people in Canada, and then you're like, "You all live here? Really?" Like, "Yes."

John Schaefer: [laughs] So on. On Alkemi, most of the songs, including songs like American Boy, which have English titles, are in Spanish. When you get to the end of the record, the last two tracks are sung in English.

Daymé Arocena: Yes.

That is control

And I call it jealousy

When you say yeah, yeah

For me, say no, no, no

I'm sick of arguments

I'd rather let it go, yeah

John Schaefer: How different does that feel to you to write in a second language?

Daymé Arocena: Honestly, I do my best in English, but since I was a kid, I really wanted to sing and write music in English. Now, I believe it happened to me since I was a kid because my references who are Anglo artists. I will look at Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. Since I was so little, I will interview myself in English.

John Schaefer: [laughs]

Daymé Arocena: When I was taking my shower. In my own English. [laughs] In my family, in my household, nobody speaks in English. I always wanted to write music in English. When I started singing at the big band of my school, I had to learn properly how to sing and perform. That's how I got some skills to actually write music in English. But the way music comes to me, the music tells me which language it wants.

It always comes to me in scat, so I follow the scat. If the scat has a flow in English, I do it in English. If it has a flow in Spanish or in Portuguese or in French, that I don't speak those languages. But I go to Google Translate, and I find the lyrics for the songs, because the songs are asking me for that language, and I follow their lead.

John Schaefer: So if a song feels Brazilian to you, it has to be in Portuguese.

Daymé Arocena: Yes. I always wrote music. I have not memories. My early memories are of writing songs. It came with me in the same package.

[laughter]

When I got my orisha crowned.

John Schaefer: So when you were initiated into Santeria?

Daymé Arocena: Yes, exactly. I started dreaming songs. Now I am even more careful with the message because I believe those are messages that I get, and I follow the way they come. I try to be, just stay as truth as I can. But for example, my biggest song, La Rumba Me Llamo Yo, is a dream.

John Schaefer: Really?

Daymé Arocena: Yes.

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John Schaefer: I love that song. The rumba is calling me. Does the rumba still call you?

Daymé Arocena: Of course. I'm a rumba woman. I'm a Caribbean woman. Yoruba woman. That's the way it is.

John Schaefer: So, as we said before, moving into the world of pop, but not leaving any of those older sounds, those traditions behind.

Daymé Arocena: No, because they are all related to the same people. They are all connected. Music is just one. We just put genres on it, but music is music.

John Schaefer: Daymé Arocena's latest record is called Alkemi. Let's hear another performance. You want to do Por Ti?

Daymé Arocena: Yes if we're asking about rumba.

John Schaefer: Yes?

Daymé Arocena: Let's see.

John Schaefer: Let's see what happens. Live performance from Daymé Arocena and her band.

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John Schaefer: Wow. That is Por Ti from Daymé Arocena and her band. You'll find a version of that on the record called Alkemi. What is it about Cuba? It's a country with fewer than 12 million people, but it's such a heavyweight musically in the fields of jazz and Latin pop, and increasingly world music. It's become a global powerhouse. What is it about music in Cuba?

Daymé Arocena: Well, it was always a powerhouse. We don't have industry to show up anymore, but many genres that everybody dance now, like cha cha cha or mambo. All of that is coming from Cuba. The answer is Africa is because we are the bigger island of the Caribbean. We got, they say that around 12 million people who were brought from Africa to the side of the world. Over a million stayed in Cuba.

John Schaefer: The African influence is very strong.

Daymé Arocena: It's huge. It's more than many other countries. You can compare Cuba with the States, or you can compare it with Brazil, and we all have the same music. Music, music, music. That's the way Black people heal. That's the way we are. That's the way we live. Music is just a daily basis thing to have. It's like water or food, music.

John Schaefer: So you grow up with it.

Daymé Arocena: Oh, yeah.

John Schaefer: You grow up singing and dancing.

Daymé Arocena: I grew up in a house that were 14 people. I had to share my house with-- No brothers and sisters.

John Schaefer: Cousins?

Daymé Arocena: With cousins and uncles and aunts and all of that. I was born in 1992. That was the special period in Cuba. No electricity, no food, nothing, and they will sing and dance every single day. That was the way it was. I used to think they were crazy, but now I think no. People that came directly from Africa, they were enslaved, and they weren't allowed to have a free life and all of that. They sang every single night. That's just the way we are.

John Schaefer: Hence the special period. That's literally what they call it after the Soviet Union, crush.

Daymé Arocena: Just a crisis, but they didn't want to call it crisis.

John Schaefer: Right, so the special period. It must have been special when music and dance was all you had and became even more essential to your life.

Daymé Arocena: Yes. Now, even now, you go to Cuba, and you see people in the worst circumstances and they don't need instruments; they start singing. Even in the worst circumstances. That's the way we are.

John Schaefer: Yeah. Well, I hope these weren't the worst circumstances, because you did a bit of dancing and not needing any instruments.

Daymé Arocena: No, this is a great cycle. This is the wildest dream of my ancestors. I can say. Trust me.

John Schaefer: Well, Daymé, it's been a real pleasure having you and the band here with us today. Thank you so much.

Daymé Arocena: It was a pleasure for us to be here. I want to thank my band and everybody that is putting this together and supporting me in my dream.

John Schaefer: Down the hall, our producer, Caryn Havlik, shot video, so you can actually watch all the singing and dancing that happened here in the studio today. Behind the plexiglass in the control room, Irene Trudell, our technical director. I'm John Schaefer. You can keep up with everything we're doing on New Sounds by subscribing to our free weekly newsletter. Text New Sounds to 70101 or sign up on the website at newsounds.org.

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