Latina rockstars DARUMAS are taking no “Ex-Cusas” with the release of their expanded debut album “DARUMAS+” on May 22.
Last year, trio female powerhouses Aldana (bass), Ceci (lead vocals), and Vedala (guitar) kicked down the doors of the alternative music scene with their pop-funk sound, debuting as DARMUMAS–the Japanese word signifying endurance, happiness, and luck–under SONY Music Latin. With the release of their extended album, DARUMAS tells amNewYork that they want to showcase their musical evolution as a group.
“We’re calling it like the B side of our debut album. When we first released the first half of the album, we were still super, super new as a group and as friends, but we were not nearly as comfortable with each other as we are now,” Ceci said. “We started adding our little flavors here and there [for the first album], but the second half of the album, all of the songs started and ended with the three of us, from beginning to end. So, it was much more it was a much more collaborative process.”
Starting off with their single, “Ex-Cusas,” DARUMAS says that over the past year, their bond as friends has become even stronger as they’ve ridden the rollercoaster of fame. Together, they shared in the joy of their triumphs, the stress of grinding for their work, and even laughed at their romantic snafus. It was with this newfound comfort and honesty that they created a song about failed relationships, the lingering pain of heartbreak, their friendship that helped power them through the frustrations, and candidly laughing it all off by dating new flings to forget past mistakes.
“Ex-cusas is about a friend…when you have a crush and he’s not what you thought,” Vedala said, looking at Ceci with a coy smile.
“Like giving all these promises…there is no follow-through,” Aldana added, laughing.
“You are not even an Ex, you don’t exist,” Ceci said, nudging her friends in embarrassment. “They will literally tell me the truth like if the person [I like] sounds stupid…that’s how you know we are friends and that’s real.”
The extended album adds eight new tracks, inviting the group to combine the sounds of their respective cultural backgrounds with their unique voices to create something unapologetic and empowering. Miami guitar player and vocalist Ceci combines her Cuban roots with their alternative melody, lead vocalist Vedala imbues her soulful rhythms from Haiti and Chile, and Aldana includes rocking beats from Argentina.
“I feel like we learned a lot about each other and each individual culture and cultural influences.
I’m from Miami, and my whole family is Cuban, so I grew up listening to a lot of Celia Cruz, salsa, stuff like that. Vedala is from Haiti, so she introduced me and Aldana to reggae and Kompa. Aldana, being from Argentina, we’ve listened to a lot of tango…so we’ve learned so much about each other through our own music tastes, and that shows through the album,” Ceci said.
Since 2024 DARUMAS have garnered acclaimed fame with their Latin Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, two nominations for Pop/Group of the Year and Pop/Rock/Urban Female New Artist of the Year, Rolling Stone en Español’s “Future of Music,” perofomred at numerous festivals and have captured the hearts of fans around the globe.
“We really hope that this [album] opens up opportunities for other women in the industry, whether they’re musicians or producers or writers or engineers. Whatever it may be, on stage or being the scenes because women have been involved in the music industry for so long but haven’t been given the space that they really deserve. So to be able to start and be a part of a movement that normalizes women in music is really special,” Ceci said.
