And it was such a different country - like, very strange, politically silent. The dictatorship of Pinochet ended in '89. What was your childhood like? I know that's a huge question.ĬHANG: But paint some broad brushstrokes for me.ĪNWANDTER: Well, for starters, I grew up in the middle of the dictatorship. Which is about growing up queer in Santiago, Chile. (SOUNDBITE OF ALEX ANWANDTER SONG, "UNX DE NOSOTRXS")ĬHANG: I want to ask you about the song "Unx De Nosotrxs".ĬHANG. And that's why I kind of set the themes of the album in the dance floor, so to speak. And somehow, I think the nightlife kind of dissolves all of that repression and those rules. It's a very, like, complex web of desires that we act upon or repress. And how we want to be and how we communicate that. But also it's - for me, desire also is extremely related to self-image.ĪNWANDTER. And I don't care if that goes against certain social grain or whatever.ĬHANG: So what happens when you give yourself over to desire?ĪNWANDTER: Well, for instance, it might go against what is perceived as, like, true love, say, only being sexually with one person for the rest of your life. So I think when I'm saying I have the devil in my body, what I'm saying is I want to communicate my desire through my body. And it's a lot about desire as well and pursuing desire and the effects of pursuing desire and societal norms around pursuing desire. The album is a bit abstract, but it's also about the way we communicate with the body. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EL DIABLO EN EL CUERPO") Anwandter was set on making a dance album or, maybe more specifically, a dance floor album.ĪNWANDTER: To me, as a queer person, it has always functioned as some sort of, like, safe haven, I suppose.ĬHANG: The result is an homage to dancefloor culture and the liberation it provides, a disco-infected album called "El Diablo En El Cuerpo" or "The Devil In The Body." And that requirement - danceability - was crucial here. It was a one-man bedroom mirror dance party. (SOUNDBITE OF ALEX ANWANDTER SONG, "EL DIABLO EN EL CUERPO")ĬHANG: That's right. I didn't have, like, a dance studio - in my bedroom using a yoga mat (laughter) and wearing my AirPods, just, like, trying it out in front of the mirror. As Chilean musician Alex Anwandter was putting together his latest album, he had a simple test to see if the songs were danceable.ĪLEX ANWANDTER: It was the middle of COVID.
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