HELADO NEGRO

 

 

Brooklyn-based musician Roberto Carlos Lange aka Helado Negro – it means black ice cream in spanish – makes bilingual beats that will blow your mind.

Carlos’ artist friend and collaborator Paul Coors calls the Helado Negro sound “Mellow Bump” while his friend DJ rAt labels it “Avant Bolero”. It’s essentially the product of the Ecuadorian American artist’s upbringing in South Florida, fused with his Latin American heritage. His 2016 album Private Energy meditates on themes of identity and finds Carlos looking inwards to process the world at large via songs like ‘It’s My Brown Skin’ and ‘Young, Latin and Proud.’

His new single, Come Be Me, is out now via Adult Swim Singles.

 

1/ How does it feel living in America in 2017 as the child of Ecuadorian Immigrants and having Trump as the President with his anti-immigration policies?

Same as it ever was, I just think white people feel more affected so people are talking about it more like this feeling is new. People of color have had lots of problems regardless of Trump. Trump has created a polarisation that brings to surface lots of people who align themselves with his platform. Which ends up being racist and anti-immigrant policies and actions.

 

2/ I read you wrote the songs on Private Energy as sort of introspective protest songs – is that right?

Private Energy is an album I made as a way to massage my mind to come up with ways to deal with different social anxieties, oppressive behavior and just day to day meditation; dealing with it in the mirror, outwards inwards.

 

3/ Do you think personal protest songs can be a substitute for direct action?

Real protest is subjective, we have a wonderful spectrum of creative, peaceful protest and on the other end there is a deep history of violent protest. Within that there is a nuance of how to display protest, there is a rich history that’s extremely nuanced.

 

4/ What’s your writing process?

I use blocks of processes, sometimes coming up with sound clusters, loops or phrases that I repeat over and over until I can think of something else to add or mutate it.

 

5/ Do you think your music would be more popular if you sang only in English? 

Something like that is just a synchronicity with industry and humans… Lots of people love Enigma’s ‘Sadness’, I think that’s gregorian chant music with an 808. The world is weird.

 

6/ What’s your new music dealing with thematically speaking?

The site of my current mind, which today is hurried, rushed and hopeful. Tomorrow looks like it will be relaxed, curious and busy.

 

7/ How do you think age has changed you?

I’m happier, I’m eager to see what I can keep myself busy with next.

 

8/ In the future will everyone be brown?

We are in the future. Lots of people are brown.

 

9/ Do you miss living in Florida?

I miss my family, the beach and the food.

 

10/ What’s the Helado Negro manifesto?

You do you.

 

 

Helado Negro’s new single Come Be Me can be streamed here: