Helado Negro Releases New Single ‘Running’; World Tour With Beirut and Album To Follow
25 February, 2019Following on the heels of previous singles “Pais Nublado” and “Please Won’t Please”, Helado Negro has now unveiled the third track from his upcoming album, This Is How You Smile. “Running” continues in a similar vein to the previous tracks with Helado Negro (real name Roberto Lange) in gentle, introspective mood. Vocal coos give way to a relaxed piano, bass and drum groove, with Lange’s singing taking over. It’s been a beautiful trip hearing Lange grow in confidence as a singer, with this latest album seeing him move from the political statements and calls for brotherly/sisterly love of Private Energy to a more homely place, bringing up family memories with a delicate touch that amounts to an aural hug.
Describing “Running”, Lange says that the track is a poem that “started as a voice memo recording I made while on a trip to Mexico City in 2016. I was waiting outside of a restaurant to eat dinner, and I was feeling awkward and anxious, so I decided to be still and listen to everything around me and come up with a melody to sing into my phone. I started vocalizing an ‘oooh oooh oooh’ type phrase in a melodic pattern, with ambiance in the background. It stayed on my phone until March 2018 when I went to Sylvan Esso’s studio in Durham to jump-start the process of finishing song ideas I was working on for This Is How You Smile.” The song was then furthered in another studio in Flatbush, Brooklyn where Lange played the Steinway baby grand Piano that underpins the song’s rhythm.
The accompanying video, which shows a young man running through and across a scrubland, was directed by David Merten, who explains that the video was shot and edited “with a frenetic pace to counter the mellow vibe of the song. The video concept was based around trying to outrun the past, while repeating it. Running in circles with no true end to the journey.”
This Is How You Smile will be released by RVNG Intl. on March 8th. Pre-orders available from shop.igetrvng.com.
From February until April, Helado Negro will be touring North America and Europe, with many dates supporting Beirut. Current tour dates are listed below:
02/26/2019 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre*
02/27/2019 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre*
02/28/2019 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall*
03/02/2019 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater*
03/26/2019 – Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
03/27/2019 – Basel, CH @ Kaserne
03/27/2019 – St. Gallen, CH @ Palace
03/30/2019 – Berlin, DE @ Funkhaus*
03/31/2019 – Berlin, DE @ Funkhaus*
04/02/2019 – Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National*
04/04/2019 – Groningen, Netherlands @ De Oosterpoort*
04/05/2019 – Paris, France @ Le Grand Rex*
04/06/2019 – Cologne, Germany @ Palladium*
04/08/2019 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg – Ronda*
04/10/2019 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall*
04/11/2019 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Town Hall*
04/12/2019 – London, England @ Eventim Apollo*
04/14/2019 – Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer*
04/15/2019 – Munich, DE @ Zenith*
04/17/2019 – Lugano, CH @ Studio Foce
04/18/2019 – Milan, France @ Alcatraz*
04/19/2019 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Volkshaus*
04/20/2019 – Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Motel Mozaique Festival
05/10/2019 – Los Angeles, CA – Walt Disney Concert Hall – w/ Lila Downs
* In support of Beirut
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