Helado Tropical: 2026

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

It started with a blind date. Well, the musical kind.

Fabi Reyna (Reyna Tropical) and Roberto Carlos Lange (Helado Negro) were brought together by a mutual friend for a casual studio session in June of 2024. That ended up lasting three days — a musical marathon fueled by creative chemistry and complementary energy as the artists seamlessly exchanged roles and reins, improvising as they led each other into new territories and expanding their sonic perspectives to create something new. 

By the end, Helado Tropical, a supergroup, was born. The thing about a supergroup, though, is that you’ve got more than one packed calendar to contend with. And both artists are active.

Lange released an EP last November and recently dropped collaborations with Irreversible Entanglements and Vines. Reyna is the founder of She Shreds — the first magazine for women and nonbinary guitarists — and is a touring guitarist for Sleater-Kinney. So beyond the initial studio session, the rest of the record was crafted creatively around their busy schedules.

Fittingly, one of their self-titled debut album’s themes is movement, and that also speaks to the way it was written. Lange and Reyna carved out time where they could, working remotely and across the country, from Portland to North Carolina to the Midwest. Then, it was finished. 

Two years after their initial musical meetup, the friends took off on tour — this time, together, bringing their completed record on the road. Helado Tropical dropped in July, and the artists came by the studio that week to celebrate with an FUV Live Session, where they played a three-song set featuring “Sensación,” “Tocando,” and “Soledad.” 

Reyna and Lange perform a full set with my interview. The artists — who have a comfortable, jocular, and almost sibling-like vibe — recounted their first studio session, the qualities they bring out in each other, and what it’s been like taking this show on the road.

[Recorded: 7/14/26. Engineered by Alessandro Badalamenti. Produced by Diana Juarez, Gwen Taylor, and Heather Jones. Videographers: Gina Slavin, Dylan Duong, Kellie McGuinness, and Danny Cifelli.]