Back in 2022, Álvaro Díaz released Felicilandia, an album named and inspired by a fictional amusement park he dreamed up that represented a safe, euphoric world. Earlier this year, when he shared the artwork for his latest LP Sayonara, fans were surprised to see that the cover illustration pictured Felicilandia, with all its rides and cheerful mascots, completely destroyed.
Both albums – and the two universes on them – are intrinsically linked, showing that Díaz methodically planned Sayonara with the release of Felicilandia. While Feliclandia was a story rooted in finding happiness and enjoying the highs that come with love, Sayonara explores the toughest parts of romance and the painful journey of letting go.
“Sayonara is about saying goodbye to the happiness you thought you found,” Díaz tells Rolling Stone. “It’s about a Puerto Rican-style break up because as soon as you’re single again, people in P.R. will say, ‘Forget about that, vamos pa la calle!’ and you ultimately end up distracting yourself and ignoring how you feel. That’s what I capture in the album: The first part is all perreo and trying to ignore the pain but the second half gets more emotional and is about choosing to move on.”
Díaz had originally teased Sayonara two years ago, but there were a number of obstacles that caused the album to be delayed. Frustrated, Díaz didn’t want to sit around and wait for his next move. Instead, he spent the past two years writing music for Karol G and Daddy Yankee, touring through Latin America and Spain with sold-out shows, and even joined Tainy’s unforgettable concert at El Choli in Puerto Rico. He also scored gold and platinum certifications for Felicilandia as well as his singles “Problemón,” featuring Rauw Alejandro and “A Donde Van,” featuring Sebastián Yatra.
“I hoped 2023 would be a good year but I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. I’ve been doing music for a long time, and I feel like people weren’t ready for my sound previously – but timing is finally on my side,” he tells Rolling Stone.
Sayonara brings together an all-star cast of producers, like Tainy, Yensanjuan, Caleb Calloway, Kenobi, Orteez, Hassi, and plus artists such as Paopao, Feid, Rauw Alejandro, Nsqk, Quevedo, and more. Díaz stood at the helm of it all, drawing on his own experiences as a songwriter and a creative thinker to unite the project. “I make sure to keep myself involved in every step of the process when creating an album,” he says. “The producers that I work with are very receptive when I ask to change small details or when I want to experiment with sounds, I think it inspires them to do something different. That’s the trick to keeping my sound unique.”
Often, Sayonara feels like it was pulled out of a vintage arcade, filled with colorful neon Eighties sounds, anime references, and heavy synth experiments all at the same time. It’s also packed with old-school, tambor-heavy reggaeton, early hip-hop, alternative and punk rock, Latin trap, and house. The album opens with “Te Vi En Mis Pesadillas” where Díaz uses blaring, alarm-like noises and distortions to create a melody that resembles emotional panic, representing an old romance that’s haunting him. From there, Díaz gives listeners a non-stop parade of number of perreo tracks to get people on the dancefloor, heartbroken or not. “I usually imagine who each song is for and create them as if I’m speaking to that specific person. Then, I include a movie or game reference of who they remind me of. I also think about my younger self and wonder ‘What could an artist do or include in their music that would get 16-year old Álvarito excited?’”
During the process of creating the album, Díaz linked up with his good friend Nsqk. It wasn’t until he was explaining the project to Nsqk that Díaz realized that the album was a living documentation of his life. Some tracks, like “Lentito,” “1000 Canciones,” and “PLN,” go back several years, serving as markers of significant moments he went through. “Ultimately, I felt like these tracks were part of this story. I think that when people enter the Sayonara universe, they’ll be able to appreciate them more as part of the whole project,” Diaz explains. The album chronicles a lot of difficult moments and challenges. (The rollout was also fraught: Singer Audri Nix took to social media in May and accused Diaz of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse during their relationship several years ago. Diaz denied the claims on Twitter, calling the claims “totally false” and citing longtime legal disputes with Nix. Diaz declined to comment further.)
To tell his story, Díaz worked with artists like RaiNao, Taichu, Kenia OS, and Papi Sousa. Some of those collaborations were a long time coming: “The song “Suki” with RaiNao was more of a situation where we kept running into each other and felt like it was about time we made a song together. But it was a way to keep people engaged and excited and also to collaborate with cool rising artists at the same time,” Diaz says.
“Golden Gun” is a special dedication to manager and promoter Alex Malverde, who passed away in 2021 due to complications from COVID-19. Malverde was one of Díaz’s very first supporters and eventually became a very close family friend. “[Malverde] always loved when I would freestyle in the studio, he’d be the first to say, ‘Yeah, talk your shit!’” The song ends with a voicemail message from Malverde playfully begging Díaz to get back in the studio by whatever means necessary.
He’s still drawing attention with the album. Just this week, he released a Tiny Desk Concert that delighted fans, and he’ll spend some time playing shows in Spain and Mexico this summer before touring in the U.S. Right now, Díaz isn’t interested in making music for the moment, “I want to make music that will make my kids proudly say ‘yeah, that’s my dad!’ in school. I want to make music that can be revisited in 10, 20, 30 years and still connect.”
