Progressive rock band Aisles are sharing their fifth full length Beyond Drama, which will be their first album with vocalist Israel Gil. Hailing from Chile, Aisle was formed by brothers Germán (guitar) and Luis Vergara (keyboards), and childhood friend Rodrigo Sepúlveda (guitar) in 2001. Aisles have gone through some lineup changes throughout the years. Beyond Drama brings a new direction to their sound, which is very different from their earlier approaches.
Listen to the album here:
Recently, we had a talk with German Vergara, the lead guitarist and founder of the band. He gave us some interesting facts regarding the band. The entire conversations is given below, which will reveal a lot more about Aisles:
How long did it take to write Beyond Drama? Which one is your favorite track from the album?
My favorite track is Megalomania. It shows in a very explicit way the evolution of the band from a more experimental, fusion, prog type of music to something heavier and more direct. It’s also a very personal song, I wrote the lyrics inspired by a personal break up.
We wrote all the songs in 2018 and we started recording the album in 2019, lyrics in some of the songs were finished between 2019 and early 2020. All the process behind the creation and production of the album was delayed by countless difficulties, both internal and external, and all of them give the name of the album (Beyond Drama) even more meaning.
Can you tell us how different the new album is than your earlier releases?
It’s totally different from our previous records because we decided to make a heavier and less atmospheric/ambiental album.
We made an aware decision to change our sound from our previous work.
Beyond Drama has, in most of the songs, very direct structures and melodies, songs tend to be shorter, we also used more distortion in our guitars and more electronic sounds in the keyboards.
Our previous album Hawaii was a conceptual album about humanity after the earth is uninhabitable. Beyond Drama is a very human, present album about human feelings and events. The loneliness of the quarantine days also made an impact in the sound and ideas.
There are a couple of tracks that are more complex in structure and more progressive in sound but most songs are a detour from that language that we used in our previous releases.
What does the name Aisles represent? How did you come up with the name?
For us it represents this passage between rows of seats in a theater, that open space that you walk in the direction of the “stage.”
We felt a strong connection with theater, films and of course live music.
When we were looking for a name I came out with the idea and my brother Luis and Sebastian liked it, we talked to the rest of the band and we all agreed. I was looking for a one syllable name and we liked the meaning.
How have the departure of some earlier members impacted the band?
It was very hard because of all the years together, the music we made, the friendship we had, and it feels like breaking up, and you know it’s never easy but in the end when you look backwards you know it was for the best because it allows us to rethink ourselves, it opens more possibilities than the obvious set back of having to look for the replacements.
The ones that are now in the band Juan Pablo, Daniel and myself are the ones that were more conected and are now in the same page.
We are releasing Beyond Drama in April and we are already working on new music inspired by a science fiction book by chilean author Francisco Ortega. So 2023 for us will be a very productive year in terms of new music.
Having played in so many shows so far, which one occasion is the most memorable to you?
When we played in New Jersey in a packed beautiful theater at a festival called Progstock, because of the response of the audience and the connection with the fans after the show. There is not one single memorable moment really but many. When we opened for Marillion in Santiago-Chile was really meaningful because we were huge fans.
What is next for Aisles? Is there any upcoming tour that you are planning?
Right now we’re looking for a lead singer and while we do so we are recording an instrumental suite inspired by this science fiction book I mentioned. The name of both the music suite and the book is BAHAMUT . We will also release this year an EP with reversions of classic songs of legendary chilean band Los Jaivas.
And of course we hope that sooner rather than later we go on tour to play live the music of Beyond Drama.
Presave Beyond Drama here.
Follow Aisles on their official website and on YouTube
Photo courtesy of Ignacio Gálvez
