“The romantic music, the sad music—I know people miss that,” Jay Wheeler tells Apple Music. “It’s not that I forgot about it; it’s just that I was so caught up in doing features and other stuff.” Though the Puerto Rican rising star has gained extraordinary attention and an ever-expanding fanbase off the strength of his 2020 breakthrough hit, “La Curiosidad,” his day-one fans were clearly craving the deep and emotional resonance of his earlier works. Naturally, so was Wheeler, who spent the past two years working on El Amor y Yo specifically as a way of returning to themes he feels most at home exploring in his music. “This is one of the most special projects for me in my life.” Read more about the songs on El Amor y Yo, in Jay Wheeler’s own words, below.
“Carita Triste”
“I wanted to talk about something that everybody goes through in life. The name is ‘Carita Triste’ because, when you hear the song, it’s almost impossible to not have a sad face. You cannot listen to the song and smile or laugh. I remember when we first did it, we wanted to put a beat in, drums and stuff. But I was like, ‘Nah, it’s too powerful in what it’s saying. I don’t want to mess up what I’m saying with something else in the instrumental.’ I wanted to keep it lightweight and let the people sing with me when I’m doing a show.”
“Canción Para Mi Ex”
“Everybody has an ex in their life, but I went through a lot of stuff with all of my exes. I don’t have a lot—just have three in my life. I remember it was a little bit crazy with some of the stuff one of them put on social media. I’m not mad, but I remember it went viral and people were talking to her. And I was like, ‘If I’m going to answer you, I’m going to answer you in the song.’ The song is not talking bad about her. The song is not slamming her in any single way. The song is about: I’m done. I wasn’t happy and I had to leave, and I couldn’t be no more the person that you wanted me to be. Everybody wants us to fight or wants to have controversy. No, she was a special person in my life for six years, and it’s over. It didn’t work. That’s it.”
“Antes”
“I got a lot of inspiration from Sin Bandera and Camila, people that I got inspired by when I was in high school or when I was in primary school. And I was like, ‘I have to put this sort of vibe in the beat. I have to put out a song that has this vibe.’ ‘Antes,’ if you listen to it, you can kind of get that vibe of Sin Bandera and those songs that are very beautiful. A song that you would not expect on a reggaetón album.”
“La Canción Más Triste”
“I always write the title how the song makes me feel. When I first listened to it, I was in the hotel, when I was done recording it. I didn’t feel sad. I didn’t feel nothing because I was just recording. I recorded that song with, like, a karaoke mic. I recorded the whole song with that mic, right here in my face—no booth, no nothing, just me laying in the bed. My producer was next to me with his computer, and he was done mixing a bit. So, he hit play, and I was like, ‘Damn, this is a very sad song.’ I started crying. I was like, ‘This is the saddest song in the world.’”
“¿Quién Carajo?”
“‘¿Quién Carajo?’ is one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite titles too. It’s something that we say in Puerto Rico, but this time I’m saying it in a way like, ‘Who told you that I love you? Who told you that I still suffer for you or that I still think about you?’ I had that song for a long time because I knew that one day, I was going to do a special project for my people, and I was going to put that song there. When COVID started, we were all staying in a place where there was a studio. We did ‘¿Quién Carajo?’ with just the melodies. That is the first song that I recorded—and I did not stop. If you listen to that song from top to bottom, and if you really hear it, my voice changed in a lot of stuff. Sometimes, I go out of time because I sang that whole song completely straight through. I told my producer, ‘Leave it like that. I want people to feel the realness that I felt when I did that song.’”
“Eazt”
“It’s called ‘Eazt,’ like north, west, east, you know? When I first met my girlfriend, I was in a hotel in Miami called East. And I changed the ‘s’ for the ‘z,’ because her first name starts with ‘z’—Zhamira. My fans know my girlfriend because I put her on my social media. And I remember when she told me how do I feel about her, I didn’t have the words. I was on my way to Orlando. It’s not that I didn’t feel it. It’s that I didn’t know how to say it. And I was like, ‘I have to write a song for her.’ I think it’s one of the most beautiful songs I ever wrote for somebody. She has made me very, very happy in a very short time.”
“Soñando Despierto”
“I don’t know why, but it became one of songs that I have to put on in my car every single day. It’s a sad song, but at the same time, it’s a hype sad song. It obligates you to sing back the chorus. We did it with some of my friends from Venezuela. I like collaborating with people that have the same vision, and they helped me a lot in that song. I just listen to that song, and I always get hyped. I always start singing the chorus. It’s crazy. I got high hopes for that one.”
“Anda Sola”
“Obviously, you have to put on something reggaetón. You have to put songs that people can dance to. You know what I’m saying? ‘Anda Sola,’ it’s a song for girls, it’s a song for people that can dance and sing. At first, I remember I was like, ‘I’m not so sure.’ But then I recorded the second verse, and I was like, ‘OK, I love this song. This song’s crazy.’ It’s one of my favorite songs, too—I won’t deny it.”
“Pensando En Ti”
“I think we all have someone that we always think about no matter what, no matter how much time that goes by. So, that song has a special meaning that I’m always thinking about that special somebody, that feeling exactly.”
“Canción Para Ellas”
“I wanted to do a song just for the girls. I had the melodies, but I didn’t know where to start. But then, I started listening to it for a long time. I listened to the beat for an hour. I did nothing, just listened to the beat, over and over again. And then, I was ready to record. It’s a special song because I wrote that song thinking about a friend. She is my best friend, living in Puerto Rico. She went through a lot of stuff in her past relationship. She’s tired of her ex. And now she wants to party. She wants to have fun. She just wants to be herself, and she just wants to love herself. That’s it. I did ‘Canción Para Ellas’ for the girls that the men did not appreciate.”
“Te Quiero Así”
“I remember my girlfriend, she was like, ‘I have to put makeup on because I look ugly.’ I’m like, ‘No, you look beautiful, natural, like you are and with makeup too.’ She inspired me to do that song. I had to do a song to make people—the girls and the guys—feel like there’s nobody ugly in this world. There’s always somebody that’s going to like you, no matter what. No matter what color or race, no matter how you are, no matter how tall, there’s always going to be someone that likes you. You don’t have to change anything.”
“Gracias Al Cielo”
“It was the last one I recorded, but it is very special. In Venezuela, they say gracias al dios or thank God. But I put ‘Gracias Al Cielo’ down as the very last song because it is a way of me saying thank you to him for putting me in this place. The song has nothing to do with saying thanks to God, but the title does. I felt like I’m here because of him, so I have to find a way to say thank you.”