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Years ago, Chilean-American singer/songwriter ChrisBowers Castillo moved to the port city of Valparaíso
and became a walking tour guide.
“I would dress up as Wally and give tours to families
and kids,” he remembers with a laugh. “It was great,
because I got to know the city incredibly well. I’d
walk for hours, then spend the rest of the day partying
and drinking, probably way too much. But I also wrote
lots of new songs.”
Back in Denver, Chris looked for a moniker that
reflected the evocative and subtly rebellious musical
concepts percolating in his head, and settled on kiltro
- a word used in Chile for stray dogs or mutts. He then
teamed up with bassist Will Parkhill and drummer
Michael Devincenzi, later inviting Fez García to join
the band as an additional percussionist on Kiltro’s
live gigs.
“I wanted to do a project mixing different styles and
aesthetics,” he says. “Valparaíso is my favorite city
in the world and will always influence my music. There
were street dogs everywhere, and I’m a mutt myself.”
Titled Underbelly, Kiltro’s sophomore album
crystallizes those dreams and experiences into a post-
rock manifesto of dazzling beauty. Its songs combine
touches of shoegaze, ambient and neo-psychedelia with
the soulful transcendence of South American folk – the
purity of stringed instruments, supple syncopated
percussion and elusive melodies that define the works
of Latin American legends such as Violeta Parra, Víctor
Jara and Atahualpa Yupanqui.
From the propulsive, chant-like groove of “Guanaco” to
the art-pop panache of “All the Time in the World,”
Underbelly is the kind of record that invites you to
quiet down and listen, savoring every single detail.
The album reaches an emotional pinnacle during its
second half, when the majestic lament of “Softy” –
seeped in exquisite cushions of reverb – segues into
the hypnotic reverie of “Kerosene.”
It also signals a new chapter in the fusion of Latin
roots with mainstream rock, anchoring its sonic quest
on a rare commodity: inspired songwriting.
“So much of this album is defined by the conditions
that made it,” says Chris. “Our debut – 2019’s
Creatures of Habit – has a social, almost communal feel
to it, because we played it live time after time before
recording. In a way, the songs were troubleshooted in
the presence of an audience, then honed in the studio.
Underbelly, on the other hand, was made in quarantine.
It was just us obsessing in the studio, and we ended up
following whatever thread seemed most interesting at
the time, which made for an album that is more
experimental and creative.”
“We’re trying to make sense of the process as we
experience it,” adds Will, who returned to Denver and
became part of Kiltro after a few years living abroad.
“The way we make music, we’re definitely not interested
in dropping singles. Something that Chris and I have in
common is our interest in capturing ambient textures
that evoke a sense of place. When we first played music
together – years before Kiltro – we got microphones and
tried to record the sound of water running down a
bathtub. It didn’t work out then, but we revisited the
same concept on this album.”
Quarantine isolation allowed Kiltro to obsess over
every single loop and melodic turn. Now that the band
is ready to tour again, presenting the songs in a live
setting poses a beautiful challenge.
“We were mixing the album when the question came up:
how the hell are we going to do this live?,” says
Chris. “Live shows are a real important component of
what we do – in a way, it’s the very reason of why we
make music. There will be four of us onstage, and I do
a lot of live looping. We have two drummers, which
helps a lot when you consider the percussive element of
this album. I’ve learned that we don’t have to favor a
maximalist approach. People connect with melody and the
concept. As long as the harmonic elements carry the
emotional message across, you can take the songs into
many possible directions.”
For now, the release of Underbelly marks a bold step
forward in Kiltro’s extraordinary musical journey.
“When we first started the band, I was playing folk
songs – focusing on my interior spaces and finding
catharsis through melody,” says Chris. “I’ve always
been attracted to music that is melancholy and
personal. Then we added the rhythmic component, and I
realized that having a bit of noise and chaos can add
emotional depth. Underbelly reflects everything that
happens inside your soul when the world stops on its
tracks.”
“We tried a lot of new things on this record,” agrees
Will. “We were living through unprecedented times and
coming to terms with all of it. The album is a
reflection of that. At the end of the day, we wanted to
create the kind of music that we didn’t hear anywhere else.
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