Lyrics in most Vale! ULB songs are more than half in Spanish. Learning the language is not necessary, but when you listen to their new single “Devorame,” you might want to.
It is a high speed, high energy party song from a five-member band that has created its own genre in which the primary language is Fun.
“The band made a new genre called Cabana Bounce, right? So, most of our songs are party songs,” said Val, the lead vocalist. “This is one of them.”
She is from Colombia, the daughter of Dante Vargas, a multi-winner of the Latin Grammy Award as musician and producer. He is from Peru, so her tradition has both influences.
She has a power voice, strong and expressive, and she can make it do whatever she wants, whatever the song calls for.
The title, she said, means “devour me.”
“It’s not a romantic song. I’ll tell you that,” said Emi.
Come take a bite of me now
Before it’s too late papi
Come take me down
Baby devorame ya
“Ya” translates to “already,” but the musical context makes it mean “Right now!”
The music and the genre they have created come from their richly varied backgrounds: Val, with her Peruvian and Colombian background. Emi, an Argentine, is the trumpeter. Anier, the percussionist, is from Cuba. Friki, guitar, is the son of a founder of the Cuban collective Buena Vista Social Club. Deezle is the bassist as well as the producer and a vocalist with a rich bass voice.
The ULB in the band’s name stands for United Latin Band. Vale! is colloquial Spanish for “Let’s go!”
Said Val, “The point is that the band is mostly party. We are from Miami. Our producer is from New Orleans. So, New Orleans plus Miami equals party.”
Deezle, the producer Val was talking about, said, “We all love so much different music, and are all capable of playing a bunch of different styles. Were like, take some Black Eyed Peas, some No Doubt, some Santana, some Stevie Wonder, and then pour gumbo juice on it.”
Individual members come with credentials, too.
Deezle has three Grammys as a producer for Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj. Emi is a Grammy winner. His trumpet was in the movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and he has toured with Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony. Anier is a repeat winner of Cuba’s Fiesta del Tambor (Festival of Drums).
And then there is the band’s manager, Carlos (Los for short) Battey, from Savannah, Georgia. He is a Grammy winning songwriter, composer and music executive. He says he is the coffee-getter, the barista, the “whatever they need” guy.
But, said Emi, “We don’t have just a regular manager in Los. Los is an amazing writer. He’s written for the biggest artists in the world. He’s always with us in the studio, and he collaborates with us as well. So, he’s not a barista. He doesn’t like to say it, but, you know, he’s written songs with Justin Bieber. This guy’s the real deal.”
Emi could also have added that Carlos has written hit singles for Madonna, Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo, David Guetta, Chris Brown, Peter Andre, Ron Isley, and Charlie Wilson.
The five musicians began to come together when an agent called Deezle. She had a couple of musicians, and she wanted someone to help her figure out what to do with them.
“Well, make music. I think that would be smart,” Deezle told her. “They flew me to LA, we got a band house, and we ordered a bunch of equipment. The next thing you know, we’re loading in the gear. Then I sat down at the piano, Anier said here’s congas, and we made our first song — had it written in 30 minutes. That was our first time working together, but it was like, boom. We decided we would work on an album.”
Deezle called Emi to be the music director. They needed a singer, and Emi called Val, who he had known for years. The first guitarist left, Friki joined, and the band was born.
“We all complement each other very well. Everything clicked, and we all fit together,” said Emi. “It was like a puzzle.”
“Our band,” said Deezle, “shows how people from different walks of life, different ethnic backgrounds, different communities, different places, people with different tastes, with different opinions, can all come together and make music and have a good time.”
Emi concluded, “We got that chemistry unlocked, that’s for sure.”
Which is obvious in the music and in the videos. Clearly, they are joyfully in sync with each other.
“Cabana Bounce is like a pool cabana, fun, like sunshine, like a party,” said Deezle. “It’s a mix of all of our flavors from all the countries and cities we are from. That’s the Cabana Bounce.”
“Devorame” is the fourth single Vale! has released this year. The plan, said Carlos, is to push this song as far as it will go, then release more singles, more videos, and eventually an EP and then an album.
He is working on setting up a virtual show, probably on Discord or Patreon, where “anybody can just click on the link and be able to watch.”
Val said, “For me, that’s one of the goals with the band, doing more shows.”
“We’re limitless,” said Deezle. “We’ve never wanted to be a one-style band. We’re musicians, and we make music, so, we could make our own genre, add the elements and not be held by the limitations of what someone says a rock song is, or someone says a pop song is.”
Bounce with them in the universal language of music. Connect to Vale! ULB on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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