The Story Behind “You Call Me By My Name”
🎙️ Background Context
Before responding as Rapula, it is important to understand who Arturo José Sánchez Hernández is.
Arturo is a medical psychiatrist.
For many years, he has accompanied human suffering through clinical listening, scientific understanding, and therapeutic experience. His work has focused on understanding pain, the loss of a sense of identity, and the possible paths toward inner restoration.
He currently works in Maun, Botswana, where his professional practice and his closeness to community life have deeply enriched his human and spiritual perspective.
Rapula does not emerge as a rupture from that identity, but as another way of expressing it.
Here, music does not appear as entertainment, but as a complementary language to the same work of restoration that has shaped his professional journey.
With that context, we begin this conversation.
On the Origin of “You Call Me By My Name”
Introduction
Rapula, your song “You Call Me By My Name” has generated significant interest since its announcement and has already touched many people.
We would like to ask you a few questions to better understand how this project was born and what it means to you.
How did this song truly begin?
The melody was born more than thirty years ago.
In my youth, I had the idea of creating choral work. I was drawn to the strength of united voices, to harmony, to that sense of something that transcends the individual.
I received formal piano training.
I studied percussion extensively.
Music was not foreign to me.
Music had always been present in my life.
And yet… I did not dare to create my own.
I saw it as something impossible to reach.
Just a beautiful fantasy.
It was not a lack of training.
It was fear.
Meanwhile, a melody began to accompany me. It would appear in moments of silence and then disappear again. It did not have a complete form. It was only a persistent intuition.
I kept it.
Life continued. I continued.
But the melody never truly disappeared.
What happened in Maun?
During shift handovers at Letsholathe II Memorial Hospital, people sing frequently.
And they sing from the heart.
They sing with strength.
Each time I listened to those choruses, something inside me moved deeply.
It is a genuine song.
A communal song.
A song that forms a living part of everyday life.
It is not singing for display.
It is singing to sustain one another — at least, that is how I perceive it.
The voices do not compete; they support each other.
In the churches I attended here in Maun, the singing also impressed me deeply. The conviction, the surrender, the naturalness… it is something you can feel in the air.
And little by little, that melody I once believed to be asleep began to move again within me, as if it were asking for space.
Was there a decisive moment?
Yes.
While speaking with an older woman who sang in one of the churches, I shared that I had carried this musical idea for many years but had never dared to bring it to life.
I spoke about it almost with resignation.
She listened calmly and then asked:
“Why not? What is stopping you?”
It was not a harsh confrontation.
It was a serene and direct question.
When I honestly asked myself what was holding me back… I discovered it was not a lack of ability.
It was fear.
And in that moment, I understood that the melody was not a fantasy.
It was something unfinished.
So I decided to do it.
So… is the song autobiographical?
Not in a literal sense.
For many years, I have accompanied the pain of others in my work as a psychiatrist.
I have witnessed deep suffering.
I have seen people who had lost their sense of who they are.
And I have also seen restoration.
I have witnessed how someone who once seemed defined by their wound can come to recognize themselves again.
“You Call Me By My Name” was born from accompanying those processes.
The song does not tell my personal story directly.
It speaks of something I have seen repeatedly: when someone is called by their name — when they are reminded of who they are beyond their trauma — something reorganizes inside.
And that is real.
What does the title mean?
It means restored identity.
When someone suffers deeply, they may begin to define themselves by their wound.
But when someone — or God — calls them by their name, they are not being defined by their pain, but by their identity.
I have witnessed that experience many times.
And that experience is the heart of the song.
And the name Rapula?
Rapula was not a name I chose for myself.
It was a Setswana name given to me when I arrived in Maun.
It means “the one who brings the rain.”
I did not ask for it.
I received it.
And I accepted it with respect.
For many years, I have been — and remain — Arturo José Sánchez Hernández:
a psychiatrist, a professional, someone who accompanies suffering through listening and science.
Rapula is not a different person.
It is another expression of the same identity.
If Arturo accompanies suffering in the consulting room,
Rapula expresses it through music.
They are not separate paths.
They are two facets of the same life.
One seeks to understand.
The other seeks to sing.
Both arise from the same desire: restoration.
I do not see the name as greatness.
I see it as responsibility.
If I carry that name, then may what I create bring something that nourishes.
May it bring relief.
May it bring restoration.
What do you feel now?
I do not feel euphoria.
I feel serenity.
That idea which once seemed only a fantasy… now has form.
And perhaps the lesson is simple:
If something is still alive within you,
it can still find its moment.
🎵 Listen to “You Call Me By My Name”
The song will be officially available on March 7 on all major streaming platforms.
You can pre-save and follow the release here:
🔗 https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/rapula1/you-call-me-by-my-name
Thank you for taking the time to read, to reflect, and to listen.
With respect,
Rapula 🌧️
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