Fabi Reyna
WillieJane

Culture

OPB’s Guest DJ: Fabi Reyna

By Jerad Walker (OPB)
Dec. 4, 2021 2 p.m.

The trailblazing publisher and musician shares a mix of songs by artists from around the world who blur the lines between the past, present, and future.

Fabi Reyna was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, but she calls Portland, Oregon, home. That’s where she founded She Shreds Magazine — the world’s first publication dedicated to women guitarists. Reyna serves as that outlet’s editor-in-chief, but she’s also a gifted musician who performs with Sleater-Kinney and makes her own music with bands like Savíla and Reyna Tropical, a project that draws on her love of the traditional and contemporary sounds of Latin American music and defies categorization.

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Fabi Reyna recently joined OPB as a guest DJ and highlighted some of her favorite songs and musicians from around the world.


Estrellas del Caribe - “Bacoco”

“I feel like they’re at the heart of Colombian music. You can hear the combination of Indigenous Colombia, Afro-Indigenous Colombia, speaking to African music from West Africa. And so to me, those rhythms and those guitars and those melodies... I can almost hear history playing.”


hrlum - “innerg”

“... I feel like she’s one of those artists that is just naturally incredibly skilled. She’s going to go far. She’s just one of those artists, you just can feel it. This song is her first song that she has put out. She’s New York-based and I think Harlem-based, specifically. But yeah, she’s dope.”


La Bruja de Texcoco - “Suite Aquelarre”

“La Bruja [de Texcoco] is one of those artists where your whole body just sort of wakes up [when you listen], you know you’re kind of completely realigned and you start to really become aware of your presence in this world. It’s deep, it’s medicine, it’s art, it’s craft...”


Little Simz feat. Obongjayar - “Point and Kill”

“I feel like [Little Simz] is really hitting a certain part of her roots here. I think that in general it’s really important to listen to music and to empower artists to create music from their roots and especially women, especially queer, especially trans, Black, and Indigenous [artists]. And to me, this is one of those songs that really speaks to that moment.”


Karina Galicia, Alaíde, and Hieva - “Fuega”

“... this Indigenous, Afro-Mexican collaboration was really hitting home for me. It doesn’t always have to sound spiritual or anything. They’re playing this kind of pop vibe. It doesn’t sound [typically] Mexic[an], and I like that. I like that there are people who are really coming out and [saying] ‘Mexico doesn’t only sound like this. We are so many different sounds. We are so many different cultures. We are so many different identities and there’s there needs to be room for that.’ People also need to expand their idea of what Mexico is and who’s in it.”


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Tags: Culture, Music