WE BELIEVE THAT ART MUST
ALWAYS EXPRESS SOMETHING!
Interview with VIOFLESH by Diego Centurión.
Hello, thank you for accepting this interview. To begin, I’d like you to introduce yourselves as a band and situate us sonically within the intentions of the project.
Hello! We are Vioflesh—Vio and Flesh here. Thank you very much for the interview! Sonically, we aim to reflect our deepest sensitivities and emotions, channeling them through music, both musically and lyrically.
If the player you use to listen to music only had room for five of your songs, which ones would you choose?
"Midnight", "Always", "If I Could", "My way", "Within the veil". Many others had to be left out!
Many readers may not know your story. Tell us, how and when was the band born?
Well, we are from Santiago, Chile. The band started in mid-2017. It began as playful experimentation with a couple of keyboards, which led to our first melodies and demo songs, and eventually the band’s formation. At the end of 2017, we released our first album of eight songs, titled Cromático—and that’s where it all began!
Often, when forming a band, the goal is to find a guiding sound, a recognizable mark that shapes the first steps. What was your guiding point in the beginning? And does it still remain?
Our north was electronic music, without a clearly defined style! I think we finally achieved it around 2022 when we truly found our definitive sound with the EP The Time.
"Vioflesh - Always"
How does Vioflesh’s discography look today?
Cromático (2017), Vioflesh (self-titled, 2020), Holograma (2021 – soon on streaming), EP The Time (2022), Feeling You Don’t See (2023), Nostalgia (2025).
What does it mean to be a coldwave and darkwave band in South America?
From South America, we are far away from everything! Especially in Chile, which is at the end of the world. We are infinitely grateful for it, but it’s also a challenge to be so distant from the strong movement happening in the U.S. and Europe.
In the process of creating art, there always comes a moment when one must decide that the work is finished. How was that process for this album?
It’s a long process! You have to listen to the same song millions of times until you can finally say, “Okay, we like it!” And when putting together the album, there’s another process of selecting which songs complement each other best, and then making the difficult decision of which ones to leave out.
In recent years, it seems you decided to switch your lyrics to English after your self-titled 2020 album, although in 2022 you released the single Deja Ser. What led you to that decision?
The idea is simple: to reach as many listeners as possible! And we found that the songs sound much better in English.
This year, following the release of Nostalgia, you put out the singles Dreams, Within the Veil, Drizzle, and soon Ashes. Are you already working on a new album?
Yes, something new is coming soon!
We live in times of great technological advances. The world seems to be heading toward its own entropy, and what once seemed like science fiction quickly becomes reality. Today, for example, AI is accessible through a simple app on a smartphone. Art has always been a salvation for the soul. How do you feel about these times, in which AI appears as a “solution” to bypass the creative process—or phenomena such as songs generated with the voices of artists, some already deceased?
Vio: I don’t like it! It removes the human and analog aspect. Art must come with feeling, from within your soul! AI cannot deliver that emotion.
Flesh: When it comes to generating songs with the voices of deceased artists, I find it entertaining, since it creates nostalgia for what they might sound like today—Kurt, Freddie, Michael Hutchence, for example. But as Vio says, music or lyrics created with AI… that’s dead music, music without a soul!
"Vioflesh - My Way"
Today, politically, we are witnessing a regression to ideas we thought were long surpassed (just look at who governs our countries: Trump in the U.S. and Milei in Argentina). I always like to ask artists whether they believe art should—or should not—be a political expression. What are your reflections on this?
We believe that art must always express something! Whether political, emotional, spiritual, etc. Each band or artist chooses what they want to express in their work. For us, we keep away from politics. We prefer to express emotion, spirituality, atmospheres, the ethereal, the eternal, the human—but focused on the personal.
We live in a visual era, where everything revolves around aesthetics (social networks), but also in times of immediacy. How do you approach these aspects?We focus a lot on the visual side. We try to develop a unique stamp and personal style. In live performances, we also aim to deliver a powerful show both visually and sonically. We keep our social networks active—Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.—and we produce our own videos and photos.
How does life continue for the band in 2025?
An important chapter is coming for us: in November, we will embark on our first tour of Mexico and the United States, which makes us very happy. And of course, we will keep releasing new music.
Thank you deeply for your time and your answers.
Thank you very much!
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