AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Helado Tropical, that’s the name of the new collaborative album by our next two guests. Roberto Carlos Lange is known by a stage name Helado Negro; in English, it’s Black Ice Cream. He’s an award-winning musician who’s the son of Ecuadorian immigrants. His recent EP, The Last Sound on Earth, reflects on despair, hope and inspiration against the backdrop of a planet in crisis. And Fabi Reyna is a Mexican-born, Texas-raised musician, activist, entrepreneur and guitarist, best recognized as the front person of Reyna Tropical. She’s also the editor-in-chief of She Shreds magazine, the world’s first and only print publication dedicated to women guitarists. Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical have just released their debut collaborative album, Helado Tropical, and they join us in our Democracy Now! studio.

Welcome! It’s so great to have you with us.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto, why don’t you start? Talk about how this collaboration happened.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Yeah. Helado Tropical, or this collaboration between Fabi and me, was put together — it was kind of like a blind date in some respects. A friend of ours sent out an email and was like, “Do you guys want to make a song?” Literally just one song. And we were just so chill about it. We were like, “Yeah, let’s do this.” And we got together. And it kind of just rolled into this, like, three-day session of just like us spontaneously creating and making things that we hadn’t even prepared. It was just in the moment, mostly, and just — and we kind of fell in love with the whole process and wanted to finish something together.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Reyna, what was it like for you?

FABI REYNA: I mean, I think one of the best things about meeting Roberto is that, for whatever reason, it brings out this, like, kid-at-recess side in me. So, I remember it kind of like being a little bunny that was bouncing around everywhere and very — 

AMY GOODMAN: Were you the bunny, or was he?

FABI REYNA: We were both different bunnies. And yeah, it was — it just was really fun, spontaneous, in the moment, adventurous.

AMY GOODMAN: You both have such interesting histories. You, Roberto, born in the United States, and you were born, Reyna, in Mexico. Talk about your growing up and your parents from Ecuador.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Yeah. I think, well, their story is their story, you know, and them telling me about their world and moving to New York and being in New York, and then moving to South Florida, and I think my whole world of what I think of them is like being in Florida and Miami and growing up in this, like, what I always say is like the capital of Latin America. And for me, it was always like infused with everything down there. And so, I never — it wasn’t until I left South Florida, going to, like, college, and I saw everyone, it was so — the United States was so different. I kind of just thought Miami and South Florida was the same. And so, in that respect, I never really understood it until I got out. And when I did get out, I was like — it blew me away how different the United States really is. And so, that’s — I mean, in my perspective, that’s — I guess that’s the best I can say about it.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Reyna, you were born in Mexico.

FABI REYNA: Yeah, I was born in México, and I was raised on the border in McAllen, Texas. Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And you grew up here?

FABI REYNA: I grew up in Texas, yeah, between Texas — I mean, it’s five minutes from México, so going across the border all the time. And yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, your thoughts on what’s happened? I mean, we’re doing this interview right as your record — 

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: – is being released, and a Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — 

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — in Texas also —

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — but in Houston, killed by ICE agents, his — 

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — younger brother in the car with him, Victor.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Yeah.

FABI REYNA: Yeah. I mean, I have a lot to say about that. And I sort of — my purpose in music is to remind us of the joy and the pleasure that we not only exist in every day, but that our ancestors — that we inherited from our ancestors. And that’s our form of survival, you know. So, we can’t forget where we come from and that we have the tools for liberation through music and dance and community, you know. And so, as long as — I think if we can keep our focus on that and celebrate the joy, really celebrate the joy together, I mean, we’re going to survive.

AMY GOODMAN: And do you see, Roberto, music as resistance?

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: One hundred percent. I mean, I made music in this — my parents, what they would do is have these parties on the weekends, and everyone from everywhere would come to the house, and everyone would sing and dance until like 6:00 in the morning. And this was like almost every weekend. And then I would be asked or told that I had no choice but to, like, sing in front of everybody. So, I’d have my guitar, and I’d be covering songs in front of people. And so, I saw that as like a way that my parents always brought together not just like Ecuadorian families, but people from everywhere. And I always kind of got a chance to understand that that was the way you existed. There was, like, you centered our — we centered our lives. We weren’t thinking about anybody else’s lives, in terms of, like, whatever the narrative is in terms of the United States. It was like we were always centering our joy and our fun and our music together.

AMY GOODMAN: And before you tell us about the songs you chose and the album that you have created together, what about your names, Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical? Start, Reyna, with yours, how you came up with that.

FABI REYNA: Well, Reyna is my last name. It also means “queen.” But it’s also just the name I was birthed with. And Tropical, because that’s where — what my body longs for. It’s where I was born. It’s what my ancestors know. And it’s where I glow and shine, and what I always want to go back to. So…

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s Tropical Queen.

FABI REYNA: Yeah, exactly.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Yeah. And Helado Negro was just this kind of like — manifested out of, like, nothing. It was just like this idea of, like, at the time, there wasn’t an helado negro, black ice cream. And it was like, I was fascinated by the idea of, like, a mysterious flavor that could be anything, you know? And I feel like with music and sound, that’s like something that I’ve always, like, longed for with my process.

FABI REYNA: And I think, like, Helado Tropical, I just feel like these names just chose us, you know? And I feel like when something like that is just so instant, it’s — obviously, you’re just — you have to walk down that path.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the songs on your new album, Sensación.

FABI REYNA: Yeah. I mean, like I was saying earlier, you know, for me, growing up in Texas as a woman, as a queer femme person, I grew up in the — surviving femicides, you know? And I grew up with a lot of shame, watching, witnessing, growing up with a lot of shame and guilt for pleasure, and the suppression of women experiencing that pleasure. Whether it’s not even — doesn’t — whether it’s through community or self-awareness, you know, the suppression of that is really intense. So, for me, part of recycling that, composting that, is to be in my fullest expression of pleasure, in my fullest expression, period. So, there’s a lot of sensuality in this album. There’s a lot of sensuality in my work. And together, I think we bring the spectrum of holding that space and composting it into play, composting it into swimming and, you know, swimming in the air. And so, I feel like “Sensación” is a really great song to ground us into that experience.

AMY GOODMAN: And “Soledad”?

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: “Soledad,” wow! That’s Fabi’s favorite song.

FABI REYNA: It sure is.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: And that one’s really beautiful because it came out of this, like, midnight moment, where we’re in the studio a lot, and just all of a sudden we’re just like, we’re still there. Like, let’s try something else. And Fabi had this beautiful line written, melodic line on the piano, on this Wurlitzer. And I was like, “Let’s just put this drum machine.” We just kind of, like, were merging this idea in real time and just, like, jamming, per se, you know? And —

AMY GOODMAN: And it means solitude?

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: It means solitude. And then, I think we’ve been thinking and talking about this a lot, now that we’re, like, talking about these songs after the fact. And just like this aloneness, but the aloneness of not, like, being lonely, and not the aloneness of being, like, without something. It’s like you can be alone with people and be also, like, dancing alone and always, like, feeling it, even though people are around. I feel like, going back to this, like, party idea — I hadn’t thought about this in a long time, but even like these family parties, like the amount of people that would, like, dance by themselves, and then other people were dancing. You know what I mean? There’s like a joy where you’re watching somebody dance, and you’re like, “Damn, I’m so happy. I’m watching them dance alone.” There’s also these, like, ripples. And I think that’s kind of part of this idea of “Soledad.” So, it’s like, in “Soledad,” the words are ”Dame un momento con mi soledad,” like “Give me a moment with, like,” you know? So, it’s like even, like, you pull away from somebody, and you’re like, “I just want to dance right now by myself,” you know?

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the video, the music video, and the colors that you made. Did you do that for all your songs?

FABI REYNA: We did it for three of them: “Tocando,” which was our first release; “Sensación,” our second; and “Soledad,” what’s coming out on Friday. And we just wanted to create a world where we could play, you know. And we can go back also to the sensation of being present and in the moment and this kind of idea of analog, like just analog. You know, let’s do things with our hands. Let’s texture things. Let’s bring things back to the experience of touching and feeling and using our senses. And I would say those are — that’s the thing that these — all these videos and our world have in common.

AMY GOODMAN: And ”tocando” means both touching, but also playing.

FABI REYNA: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean, I think that song so greatly embodies that, you know? I mean, I don’t know if you want to say anything about that.

AMY GOODMAN: And the brilliant colors.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Definitely.

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Yeah. No, I mean, there’s so much, even just like Fabi talking about this analog process idea of just, like, there’s so much automation and people prompting the world of whatever, artificial intelligence and these things. And I feel like I’ve come from like a place of, like, slow media, of, like, wanting to feel things and, like, take — have it be slow and have it happen over time. And that’s how we made this record over the course of like two years, and we just — it happened over time.

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the difference between recording an album and performing?

FABI REYNA: What a difference! What a difference! I mean, in — and I think we both kind of work this way. When we’re recording or when we recorded, we weren’t thinking about playing these songs live at all. And it was just feeling in the body, you know. And I think live, we know that we’re going to be in connection, in movement with the audience. And it’s sort of a lot about them, which I love. You know, I’m like, “What is the best way to connect with someone and — so that they can leave saying, 'My life has changed'?” You know, because I think music is such a universal tool to completely — to wake someone up, to change someone, you know? And yeah, that’s my thought. What about you?

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: That’s a lot. That’s great.

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Fabi, you experienced tremendous loss in the last years.

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Your musical partner. Can you talk about what happened and what it meant for you and the music you performed after, when you could perform, when you could sing again?

FABI REYNA: Yeah. Oh man, I mean, one of the greatest gifts of, you know, an experience as great as loss and grief is the understanding of creation. I mean, I had no idea how big of an energy grief and anger was. I wasn’t super aware of it. I knew that I had been practicing that and I had been using that growing up in my experience, but I understood, with words, that grief is one of the biggest, most powerful energetic tools to create. And it’s so instant, you know? And when you accept it as part of your life, it can really provide you the energy to change the world, you know, to believe in yourself, to trust again and to be reborn. And for me, yeah, Sumo, Nectali Díaz, who I started Reyna Tropical with, when he passed in 2022, I went through this process of death and rebirth myself, and was able to create my first album under Reyna Tropical and tour it the next two years. And that’s how I actually met Roberto.

AMY GOODMAN: And the song that you sang for him, inspired by him, “This Will Pass”?
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FABI REYNA: Right. Yeah, “Ya Va Pasar.” That’s actually the first song that I made, like, without him, and — or, you know, with him as an energy field. I live really in the energy — now I’m just like the most psychedelic being that you can imagine. I’m just like, “Am I the sun today, or am I the moon?” And yeah, so, tapping into — just tapping into that, right? Like ancestral communication, and just believing in it. I don’t — it sounds like the craziest thing you can say, you know, but it’s something that I really — I got to really get to know my ancestors through that process, and I got to really be in the experience of believing them.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Fabi, talk about this magazine, She Shreds.

FABI REYNA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is it called She Shreds?

FABI REYNA: It’s the world’s first and only print publication dedicated to women guitarists and bassists. And honestly, ultimately, like everything else that I do, I just wanted to create a space where people who hadn’t seen themselves, hadn’t heard themselves, had a place to go and see themselves in their fullest potential, see other people like them, be in community with other people. And at the time, in 2012, there wasn’t a community for women guitarists. There wasn’t a community for women musicians or nonbinary musicians. And now I love the idea of this, of this idea of shredding being sort of redefined. And what is shredding? It’s the expression of an emotion, you know. So, just expanding and broadening our definitions of the language that we use.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s go to your music. What’s the first song you’re going to play?

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: I think we’re going to play “Tocando,” which means touching or feeling, right? Or playing.

FABI REYNA: Playing, yay!

HELADO TROPICAL: [performing “Tocando”]

FABI REYNA: This song is called “Sensación.”

HELADO TROPICAL: [performing “Sensación”]

ROBERTO CARLOS LANGE: Hola, we’re Helado Tropical, and this is our song “Soledad.”

HELADO TROPICAL: [performing “Soledad”]

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto Carlos Lange, Helado Negro, Black Ice Cream; Fabi Reyna, Reyna Tropical, that’s Tropical Queen. Their first collaborative album, Helado Tropical, Tropical Ice Cream. This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.