Doors 7pm

Show 8pm

Years ago, Chilean-American singer/songwriter Chris

Bowers 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.”

Nina de Freitas is a singer-songwriter currently based in Denver, CO. Born in Salvador,

Brazil to musician parents, she embraced her artistic inheritance from an early age. Her

musical upbringing is echoed throughout her intimate songwriting that drips with as

much honesty as it does complexity. Her rich voice, luxurious melodies and evocative

lyrics envelop listeners in a visceral sheet of warmth. Nina is currently working on a new

release