When you hear that the new Aisles album is called Beyond Drama, you never imagine that the creation process was actually surrounded by so many obstacles and difficulties for the band. This only means that the band deserves recognition, not only for carrying out a production that until now is classified as the best of them but also for being able to maintain the determination to continue forward in the middle of the different situations.

Beyond Drama is the fifth album by the Chilean band and comes after a seven-year hiatus following 2016's acclaimed concept album Hawaii. In the official press release, guitarist Germán Vergara calls the record “a brutal turning point”. Stylistically he also clarifies that their ‘new creative direction’ is about ‘trying to connect more with the public. We wanted to pay a lot of attention to the melodies something that has been a signature of Aisles’ sound from the beginning of the band’.

Produced and mixed by Germán Vergara and Angelo Marini, and mastered by engineer Randy Merrill who has also worked with Muse, Beck, and Paul McCartney, ‘Beyond Drama’ is a lot more welcoming and catchier than the past works, without sacrificing its characteristic complexity and charm.

In this interview, the band opens up about those obstacles, the new musical intensity, and the emotional charge that the album carries with it. So, keep reading.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE ‘BEYOND DRAMA’ IN MUSICAL TERMS?

Beyond Drama is a record with more rhythmic intensity. Drums are hit harder, there are more heavy guitars, and more riffs than in any other record that we’ve made, it is musically more frenetic. We used more than ever before the “song structure” of intro, verse, and chorus. There is a section of the album from “The Plague” until “Game Over”, the final track, where we visit the progressive roots of the band, these are songs with many sections and more complex structures. It is an album where you can breathe the air off a desolate big metropolis. All this was inspired by the pandemic years and difficult personal events that we had to go through.

YOUR ALBUMS USUALLY HAVE A CONCEPT, A MEANING. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF BEYOND DRAMA? WHAT IDEA DID YOU WANT TO EXPLORE WITH THIS PRODUCTION?

There is not one single concept for all the album, but, if there is one thing that encompasses the creation and recording of Beyond Drama, it’s the crisis that we had to face during the period from the writing sessions until the recording of the album. The songs are about emotions like failure, love, loneliness, and existential crisis. One song is inspired by the pandemic, “The Plague”, but it is all a metaphor for something else. When I wrote those lyrics, I was thinking about the actual virus but also about something more lethal and devastating.

REGARDING THE SONGS, DO YOU THINK THERE IS A NARRATIVE LINE THAT CONNECTS THEM OR DOES EACH ONE RESPOND TO A PARTICULAR STORY?

Some songs I wrote as a sort of healing process after my break up. Fast is a very autobiographical song, autobiographical as a band I mean, we were screaming here we go again “faster, stronger than we were before;” others, like “Thanks to Kafka” I wrote inspired in those who have attempted or committed suicide. “Megalomania” is about moving on, and stating that you won’t forget that person you loved. “Disobedience” is about the importance of following your own voice and stepping away from the crowds or the masses, it’s criticism against religions, cults, and any sort of fanatism when they take over people’s thoughts. As you see, each one responds to a particular story, but they all revolve around a conflict, breakup, loneliness, or death.

HOW WAS THIS ALBUM BORN? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO PUT IT ALTOGETHER?

It took us a couple of years to record because we had several problems. In 2018 we decided to change our vocalist, Sebastián, who is also my brother, and it demanded a lot of time searching and auditioning, time that we would otherwise have spent recording or writing music. After that, we were in the middle of recordings and rehearsals when in Chile we had a wave of violence and protests in the streets that reached a level of intensity that led the authorities to implement curfews all over the country, by the end of 2019, but also, we found a new singer, Israel, with whom we worked on this album. After that, the pandemic came, and then the lockdowns. It was terrible for us in every sense. However, both the lyrics and the music were influenced by all of this. When the album was ready, we decided to put off the release in order to try to make a deal with a record label. The hardest part of this process was keeping the energy and hope in what we were doing and where we were going. When the album was ready for release, Felipe, our drummer, Rodrigo, our guitar player, and Israel, our singer, left the band. But here we are, promoting our new record named Beyond Drama, and this one must be the most personal and beautiful album we’ve made.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CALL THIS RECORD BEYOND DRAMA?

Because of all the drama we had to go through. We liked the idea of the name because it has two meanings: Something that is worse than drama, but also that you overcame drama, that you were able to survive all that happened.

THE BAND FACED THE DEPARTURE OF ONE OF ITS HISTORICAL MEMBERS. HOW DID THAT AFFECT THE CREATION OF THE ALBUM? WHAT ELEMENTS DID IT BRING TO THE LP?

Of course, it affected the final product, because all of his individuality is no longer present in our music. The change is even more dramatic when it’s a vocalist because it’s something that really gives identity to a band. He wrote some melody lines in Surrender and in Time (A Conversation with My Therapist), and those lines made it to the final cuts. His fingerprint is in the album too.

WHAT ELEMENTS DIFFERENTIATE BEYOND DRAMA FROM RECORDS LIKE HAWAII, THE YEARNING, IN SUDDEN WALKS, OR 4:45 AM?

It’s the darkest one of all, in spite of the fact that Hawaii was about the end of humanity on earth, it gave a feeling of hope, of a new beginning of not making the same mistakes.

4:45 AM was an album with a more Latin flavor. Many songs had acoustic guitar, and Spanish guitar, there is an influence from Latin grooves and some Chilean music. It’s also less heavy.

In Sudden Walks is what most people would call a prog-rock album in every sense of the word. Only 6 tracks and most of them are 9 minutes long, one of them (Hawaii) is 15 minutes long and it’s more of a space rock/avant-garde/new age piece of music.

HOW HAVE FANS RECEIVED THE ALBUM’S ANNOUNCEMENT SO FAR?

They all have loved the album, we’re so happy to read that people are saying it’s our best album so far.

ARE THERE PLANS FOR TOURS OR LIVE PERFORMANCES?

No specific plans yet, we had to change our singer once again and we are now looking for somebody to start rehearsals as soon as we can. It’s very possible that we release even more music before we can start playing live. We are actually working in a music suite for a science fiction book called Bahamut, by Chilean author Francisco Ortega.

I WISH EACH OF YOU COULD CHOOSE A FAVORITE SONG FROM THE ALBUM.

Juan Pablo “Surrender”

Daniel “Time (A Conversation with My Therapist)”

Germán “Megalomania”

BEYOND DRAMA: AISLES' MOST DIFFICULT ALBUM AND THE BEST CATALOGED SO FAR

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