INTERVIEW: How Otto Botté Let Divine Timing Finish “Dos Mundos”
A lot of songs trap moments in amber, preserving a heartbreak or a high exactly as it felt when it happened. On his new single “Dos Mundos,” Colombian-born, NYC-raised producer and artist Otto Botté offers something rarer. A song can outlive the moment that inspired it, only to return years later carrying a completely different weight. Written in 2019 and held back for years, “Dos Mundos” now arrives with a story its younger self could never have known.
Otto Botté built much of his reputation behind the mixing console, earning a Grammy nomination for engineering work on multi-platinum releases for artists including 21 Savage and Enrique Iglesias, alongside his tenure with genre-blending collective Pool Cosby. When he produced the beat for “Dos Mundos” in 2019, he was processing a relationship that was coming apart, turning that tension into a song about two people from different worlds trying to walk the same path.
Even with a pristine master and a finished music video directed by Andrew Tomayko in hand, Botté chose to hold the song back, trusting an internal instinct that the narrative was far from complete. That patience paid off when the woman who inspired the heartbreak track re-entered his life in late 2020, leading to their marriage the following year. Now dropping “Dos Mundos” as a commemoration of love, patience, faith, timing, and personal evolution, Botté sat down with us to reflect on the years behind the record and how life ultimately rewrote the ending for this deeply personal track.
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“Dos Mundos” began as a deeply personal song in 2019, long before you knew how its story would unfold. Looking back now, five years into your marriage, what does the song mean to you today that it couldn’t have meant when you first wrote it?
That’s a profound question. The art I make rarely morphs into new meanings—in that regard, “Dos Mundos” is unique. It’s one of the rare few that morphed inadvertently. To me, it now carries a refreshing breeze of ease, the kind of ease that reminds you life is best lived in the moment: setting free everything we hold close to the chest and want to tightly control, no matter how challenging the season might be—mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or financially.
How does it feel singing a breakup song that was written about a person who is now your wife of five years?
Like a juxtaposition—life is full of those. The irony of it all is what makes it magical. People love a good plot twist. I heard early in life that God can meet me in the waiting, in the quiet, and in the loneliness. Yet I struggled, like many other single people, to understand why my time hadn’t come—a time when I could build a life with a partner I could trust, truly lean on, and love well. Turns out that even when you meet that person, the mission continues. For me, the search is to make it all the way to the end, until death do us part. Every day I get to make the choice to rise to the occasion I’m called into: to support her, become more and more trustworthy, create safety for her, and find ways to fall in love with every new version she becomes as we enter new life seasons. It’s the best way I’ve found to plant the right seeds in my marriage, watch them grow, and bear fruit that both my wife and I can be filled with. Singing this song reminds me to never take her for granted and cherish every moment we get next to each other.
Did writing about a relationship on the verge of falling apart help you process what you were going through at the time?
It was cathartic, especially dealing with strong feelings—loneliness, anger, and sadness. Music and the simple act of sitting down to check in with myself have allowed me to completely let go of overwhelming thoughts and fixations. It’s a matter of searching the library of feelings and picking out the one that’s recklessly driving the van and taking the rest of us into a spiraling state of mind. I truly believe music is a gift from God with a tremendous spiritual impact—it brings us closer to Him and more in tune with ourselves.
You’ve described meeting Nic Hanson as one of the great gifts of that year, and the two of you immediately connected over your shared love of salsa. When you invited him to write with you at Engine Room Audio, how did that chemistry shape the session that became “Dos Mundos,” and what do you remember most vividly about that day?
One of the most fascinating things about Nic is his true, honest, carefree attitude toward life and everything he does. It has borne so much fruit in his life as a creative—it’s contagious. One of the most vivid moments I recall is sitting at Engine Room in Studio A, looping the beat for “Dos Mundos,” and seeing the room light up. I was an audio instructor at the time, and we had intentionally built a session where aspiring engineers, artists, and producers could join Nic and me to shadow the songwriting process. As soon as Nic started mumbling melodies, typing lyrics into his phone, and—in just ten or fifteen minutes—mapping out a fully fleshed-out hook and bridge, the room full of students bobbing their heads with smiles on their faces burst the moment I hit record and Nic let out, effortlessly, vocal layer after vocal layer. We ended up with gorgeous stacks of harmonies, ad-libs, and all kinds of “ear candy” moments for fans to discover on repeat listens.
How do you two handle melodic ideas in the room when you both have such strong, distinct musical backgrounds?
I’ve never once been in the room and not liked one of Nic’s melodies—haha. He’s one of my favorite people to collaborate with; we found our flow state from day one. I love his taste for melody, and he understands the vision intricately when I bring him ideas I’m working on.
At times I’ve caught myself back at the drawing board, reworking lyrics to try to rise to the level Nic comes at. I’m first a drummer, then an engineer, then a producer—and the last muscle I’ve been growing is songwriting and singing. I know what I’m strong at and what I’m not; the latter is where I work hardest. I want everything I say and do to carry honor, respect, and integrity. I believe the world needs more of that, and we get the chance to shape it through art and culture.
Otto, what was it about that moment in 2019 that made you feel “Dos Mundos” wasn’t ready to be released, even though both the song and the video were already finished?
I wasn’t ready to release it because I knew I wasn’t in the right state of mind, and that can make or break a release (as an artist, your head needs to be in the right place to get in front of people and invite them to come along for the ride). Many things were going through my head. I realized early on that I still needed to build an audience, understand the social landscape better (in the middle of a pandemic), and see how people were actually being impacted. We were scared about the world folding in, and Black Lives Matter as a movement was the focus in our hearts, nothing else.
What I didn’t know at the time was that this song’s arc was going to transcend not because of industry metrics, but because of everything else happening in my personal life—the story my wife and I were writing together.
Otto, how do you keep the balance between house, Afrobeat, and salsa rhythms without making the track feel overcrowded?
It’s a beautiful, gentle dance and my favorite part of making records. I try to be frugal with how many parts/ideas I add—I truly believe less is more when it comes to making records. I reduce, trim, and cut back. I always go back to the same well: my childhood, my high school years, and the places I’ve traveled to. The music I make today is an amalgamation of artists like Totó la Momposina, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, La Fania, Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, and Jungle—for decades now, that mix has helped me time-travel to my most memorable experiences. Today, I hope my music can find its way into people’s lives and as they live out memorable experiences too.
Where does “Dos Mundos” fit into the broader sound and energy of the new music you are getting ready to drop?
Dos Mundos sits at the beginning of an arc. Today more than ever, I know what the most precious sounds I’ve collected along the way are, growing up in Bogota, Colombia, and moving to NYC at 17. Those sounds have purpose, to get us in the right mood and connect us to brighter and simpler times. I’ve been as true to myself as I can be, writing from a place of vulnerability and honesty all these years—never to fit a mold, but to break out of them. The world musicians are crafting together as a community of creators, welcoming that approach now more than ever. I don’t think there’s been a better time in my life to do this than now.
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Otto Botté discusses “Dos Mundos,” his collaboration with Nic Hanson, and how faith, timing, love, and personal growth changed the meaning of the song.
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Otto Botté, Dos Mundos review, Nic Hanson, Engine Room Audio, Pool Cosby, Latin house music 2026, Colombian reggaeton producers, Andrew Tomayko director, bilingual music releases
