Aisles – From Chile to Cosmos

1.⁠ ⁠You’re about to embark on a UK mini tour, your first in several years. What are you most excited to share with UK audiences, and how does performing here differ from your shows in South America or North America?

We’re excited to play with our new lineup and show all the people that we’re in our better moment so far, as a live band and also as a human group. We are more cohesive and aligned now than we were before. We’re happy and enjoying every step of this journey. We also have new music written by all of us in a collective way.
Playing here is very special to us because our main influences came from the UK, is special in this way, because we dreamt when we were kids of playing in the UK where most of our music heroes were born.

2.⁠ ⁠Aisles have been recognized as South America’s leading modern progressive rock band for the past two decades. How do you feel your sound has evolved during that time, and what defines Aisles in 2025?

Our sound has changed a lot in the last ten years, we’ve been trough line up changes and of course the influence of modern prog and other styles like djent, for example, has permeated our taste. We have moved from some kind of fusion jazz and experimental pieces to more direct and straightforward songs, always maintaining the melody as the central structure in our songs.
Our forthcoming album has some experimental sections and of course a lot of prog vibes, but we think that people will connect with this music because of the catchy parts of the songs. After we wrote these songs , we can’t get them out of our minds, we keep singing the melodies again and again.

 3.⁠ ⁠Your latest single “Blue Skies” is a deeply emotional piece with a 5/4 pulse and a very cinematic atmosphere. Can you talk about the story behind it and what inspired its theme of distance and longing?

After a successful days of composing the first half of the new album, we still had some time to spend in the beach house where we were staying , so we decided to go for one more song, it was about sunset and we were playing with an amazing view of the sea. Alvaro and JP started jaming on this 5/4 loop, and we recorded immediately. The song came alive during this susnset and by night it was done.  One of the more fluent and natural song we’ve ever written

The lyrics were inspired by the idea of 2 people that love each other but that for reasons beyond their control they cannot be together. I thought of an apocalyptic landscape may be a post war setting but what is powerful about the song is the hability we have as humans to feel someone’s love even in spite of the distance, even death. The line “close your eyes so the skies are blue” implies the control we have of life from our inner world.

4.⁠ ⁠The Beyond Drama album marked a turning point for the band, combining complex musicianship with a more direct, emotional tone. What prompted that shift in your songwriting approach?

We definitely wanted to connect with the audience, and even though we really like the long songs and the intros and different sections in songs, at this time we wanted to do something different from Hawaii, our previous album back then. We enjoyed the process of composing and recording Beyond Drama. We tried 8 string guitars as well as a lot of keyboard programming and effects in the vocals. These were dark times for us because of COVID, politics and some personal loses but despite of that, we think the music is really beautiful and maintain the Aisles essence. We’re really happy of playing some of this songs on this tour.

5.⁠ ⁠Your reinterpretation of Obras de Los Jaivas paid tribute to one of Chile’s most iconic groups. How did you approach reimagining their work while preserving the spirit of the original compositions?

There were some characteristic melodies or lines that we  preserved,  because we have known this music since we were kids, so in a way it was a bit obvious to us what to keep and what to change or re interpret. We took some risks with deep respect and a conviction of our own identity, so we can express ourselves trough this iconic songs. We think we made  good versions of these songs and we received mostly positive feedback from our Chilean fans, which could have been more sceptic about new versions of this classic hymns.  The better way we could tribute them was to arrange or re interpret the songs as if the ideas were ours.

6.⁠ ⁠The Bahamut EP was inspired by a sci-fi novel by Francisco Ortega. What draws Aisles to conceptual and literary themes, and how do you translate those narratives into music?

Aisles music was from the early days of the band connected with visuals and literature, we have always loved to combine arts. As the band grew we were able to do very interesting collaborations.  In our second album there’s a bizarre theatrical act in the middle of a song called Mariachi.  When we finished most of the album Beyond Drama (2023)  we knew we wanted to do something big visually. For  “Fast” we had this cyberpunk vision and I came up with the idea of doing it Anime style, and started to watch classics like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion so we were finally convinced and I started to write a script. I had noticed through social media that a very well known Chilean writer was a fan of the band and I read one of his novels and I really liked it so I invited him to co-write the script for this music video. He was in and I asked him what his fee was he told me he was a fan and wouldn’t charge me anything cos he loved the band but that we would have to return the favor in the future. So The music video was released all the fans loved it and a year later he called me to ask he we could return the favor. He wanted a couple minutes of music to promote his book that later became 12 minutes of music and a new Aisles EP. Well going back to the question in that case we all read the novel and started doing composition based in images and landscapes. In general the music of Aisles is really thematic so we base musical ideas in conceptual ideas. Literature and cinema has beed a huge influence in my life.

7.⁠ ⁠Aisles are known for their dynamic and emotionally charged live shows. How do you bring the intricate textures of your studio recordings to life on stage,  and what can fans expect from this upcoming UK tour setlist?

It’s a really hard job to translate an album to the stage, specially since we use the studio as an infinite palette of colors to convey an idea. Then it’s 5 people to do the best to make it an unforgettable live experience. So to do that we have a qualified technical team and work with some sequences to add textures and effects. A lot of practice is required because it’s a very hard repertoire. People can expect some of our most memorable songs and all the energy of the world in the gigs of this tour.

8.⁠ ⁠Hawaii remains one of your most acclaimed works, an ambitious double album exploring life beyond Earth. Looking back, how do you view that project’s legacy within your discography?

I think Hawaii is so poetic that in the future it’s going to be considered a cult piece of conceptual music. Many people in the shows burst in applause when we start playing a song from that album. I love it, I consider it very inspired and honest storytelling through music with a very philosophical point of view about humanity.

9.⁠ ⁠The progressive rock scene is constantly evolving, with influences from metal, electronic, and cinematic music. Where do you see Aisles fitting within today’s global prog landscape?

We’ve always felt a bit at the edge of what others consider Prog. I suppose because we never “decided” to be a Prog band. We started making music in the early 2000´s without even knowing there was a genre with this name. Critics made us aware that that’s where we were. We still think we don’t want to be constrained by any genre. I’d say that our upcoming album has some electronics, some more alternative sounds, we always include layers of guitars and synthesizers, but it’s a really vocal album, poetic, with lyrics about love, break up, even the sensuality of sex is part of the lyrics.

10.⁠ ⁠You’ve mentioned that a new album is currently in the works. Can you give us any hints about the direction it’s taking, musically, thematically, or emotionally?

It’s a very personal  album thematically because of what I was living at the moment. It’s a very human and even warm album, I’d say it’s truly inspired. We decided to go to a beach house and be together as a band many days focused only on this new work. We felt amazing together, I think we feel more comfortable than ever as a line up. We are all mature people with both personal and musical experience to add something special to the band. It has a very organic sound, energetic as never before and probably more oriented to the song as a format. Even though in Aisles there always is room for experimentation and some extreme sections.

We’re definitely moving into a more straightforward type of songs. Almost every song in this new album has a melody or a chorus that are cantabile so the crowd could sing along with us. We didn’t meant to do this purposely but it came like this organically as we were composing the songs.  We’re really in love with this music and we’re looking forward to release it . 

Information: https://www.aislesproject.com/