Helado Negro's Mellow Music Was Shaped by Power 96

When you zone out to the peaceful, mellow sounds of Helado Negro, you'd never think the artist's music was shaped by daily listening to Power 96.

"I grew up in Lauderhill," Helado Negro tells New Times. "It was a predominantly Caribbean neighborhood, so we'd hear reggae and dancehall. But, yeah, Power 96, back when the DJs had autonomy over what they wanted to play. The freestyle and Miami bass in the '80s and in the '90s the electronic music — that was my music."

2 Live Crew and DJ Laz are quite a dichotomy from the neo-folk sound Helado Negro has put out over the last decade. He laughs when that's pointed out, adding, "I never felt comfortable making music like my upbringing. South Florida, as people from there know, has so much that is different."

Born Roberto Carlos Lange, he first learned Spanish from his Ecuadorian parents. They put an acoustic guitar in his hands at a young age, but it wasn't until he left South Florida in pursuit of a higher education that he started focusing on making music.

"I was studying animation and film," he explains. "The sound courses took a fine arts approach; by that, I mean it was experimental and avant-garde like you'd find in sound installations for galleries. I really liked the experimental electronics." 

The first few records he put out contained songs primarily sung in Spanish. In the intervening years, he's leaned more heavily on singing in English. But according to Lange, there's no rhyme or reason for which language he chooses to write in.

"I receive what the idea is going to be rather than me dictating it," Lange says. "Spanish can give you different feelings than English. I saw this video recently where a Spanish language writer said something interesting [about] how English is his favorite language because it's a mixture of Germanic and Latin and how English is always transforming."
He admits his English is better than his Spanish, but the imperfections are part of the charm of making music.

"I've messed up the grammar in Spanish at times, but being wrong can still work," he says. "Invention is why you make music. Music is inventing a world with sounds and words."

His most recent single is the Spanish-language "Ya No Estoy Aquí," which gets its title from the 2019 movie of the same name.

"It's about a kid in a bad situation. He's in the wrong place at the wrong time going to the U.S. undocumented," he adds. "He's alien — so lonely with having to deal with the language barrier. His only respite is music. It was so cool to see how universal that feeling is to lose yourself in music."

When conceiving the track, he started by repeating chord progression before finding a melody and then having the lyrics slowly appear. The song really found its way once Savannah Harris joined in on drums, but the rest of the song is Lange, who, in addition to the vocals, added the synth and bass while also producing and mixing it for good measure.

You'll be able to hear "Ya No Estoy Aquí" along with songs from his 2021 album, Far In, from his catalogue when Helado Negro performs at the Ground on May 18 for a homecoming show complete with a three-piece band. His hometown is very different from Asheville, North Carolina, where he resides. Still, he enjoys the contrast.

"I like to see how distinct my music can be from my upbringing," he says.

Helado Negro. With DJ Ray. 8 p.m. Thursday, May 18, at the Ground, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; thegroundmiami.com. Tickets cost $20.39 via dice.fm.