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Love seems to be a reoccurring theme in your lyrics, although youve approached it from different perspectives. In the song Love, you discuss your interpretation of a universal need for love and even suggestions on how to nd it. The song also mentions how youve been waiting so long for her to come and the pain that this search can bring. Later, on Winds of Promise, you seem to have found the love you were searching for, but question whether this love is being reciprocated. What changes, if any, occurred in your life between the writing of these two songs?

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same feelings its just some of them choose to neglect and not explore them. The core feeling of the subjects in question I believe is emptiness and on many ocassions they try to sell an image carefully constructed to attract the other person, driven by alcohol which for many is a condence builder. People should present themselves honestly and in conditions with nothing to hide so the other person takes it or leaves it depending on how they connect and feel about it. Repression, aggression, a burden of shame/ This country is stained with blood and a thousand lost names. Explain what the song Burden of Shame is describing and how this event has impacted your life as a Chilean? Patriotism sickens me, especially coming from a nation that has gone through recent genocide. Im referring to the period of dictatorship between the years 1973 and 1988 where thousands of innocent men, women and children were murdered by the military forces for simply having different ideologies (communism and socialism primarily). People taking pride in being part of a country stained with these crimes and the discriminatory effect that can be witnessed today through classism is a shame. Our largest soccer stadium was used as a prison and the streets we walk by every day have history behind them, like a battleeld. Unfortunately some people dont wish to remember that period, but we must. We must remember the atrocities because in the present, politicians that supported the military occupation are in power and they dont deserve any respect or support. Nothing really changes for the minorities and so many people are blind to the fact the right wingers destroyed democracy and just look out for themselves and their elite. What message do you hope listeners will take away from listening to Remission? Questioning, taking risks, the path to self discovery, humility and passion.

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The absolute high and low points of my life can be atributed to the feeling of love and its something that will always either improve, affect or intrigue me. I was lucky to have experienced love once for a period of six years and I incorporated it to Remissions songs since it was always on my mind. During those six years, I had a total of 3 break ups and as a result came a series of teachings, observations and revelations about myself, my former partner and love itself. When the song Love was rst written (as it appears on the demo), the words went waited so long for her to come, time appeared eternal... and several phrases were changed from past to present tense (as they appear on the Accept LP) because of a long break-up (our second). I was now back to waiting for that special someone to arrive. Several months went by and that same year the ex and I began dating again. She reignited the spark in me and helped me through a difcult time which I will dive into later. A major complication I was facing in this reencounter was giving myself to her 100% and not feeling the same in return. Her inability of saying she could ever love and trust me like before made me sad and angry at myself. Angry because I was the one guilty of that. We were going through a rough time before the break up and on a trip I made to Mexico I

cheated. This remains as one of my biggest regrets ever because of so many reasons. The constant guilt and betrayal of my own values and the trust of a wonderful person ruined me and what I had going. I made a promise to myself and her to never make that mistake again. I let her know my on-going suffering was one of the punishments to my crime and through acknowledging and reection of all past events, this time I was going to do things right and wanted another chance. You say that we need love to live. While many of your lyrics seem to be directed towards the romantic love between two individuals, one could argue that love can be found in other relationships, specically friends and family. Do you think that humans have an innate desire to nd long term, romantic, monogamous love? The desire for love is most likely to hit all of humanity sooner or later. I believe deep down even the bitterest soul must wish to feel it once in its different forms. I agree with what you say about family and friends since they are valid types of love outside of the romantic spectrum. The way love is expressed towards the different types is equally strong but I think the romantic one is more long term and fulllling. Very few people must want to die alone. The Stranger reads as though it could be autobiographical and discusses a revelation experienced by

a young man struggling to deal with his own mortality, and the alienation experienced by voicing his opposition to mainstream morality. What inspired you to write this song? Albert Camus novel that goes by the same name (Ltranger) is a personal favorite of mine and I took some of the main characterizations of its protagonist Mersault and related it to my own life. I felt inspired by how I feel towards the moral majority of Chile which is religiously roman catholic. Faith is something so personal yet there are so many self-righteous believers that look down on other forms of religion, and more so on atheists and agnostics like myself. Eventually we will all be faced with the almighty questions of universal origin, present life and afterlife. While most identify themselves with dogmatized explanations in the form of religion, Im sticking with what I know best - I know nothing because my mind is incapable of understanding my surrounding and time on earth. Living in Chile, I would assume english is not your rst language (although one would never know by reading your lyrics). Do you ever nd it difcult to express yourself in a non-native language? Are their emotions and feelings that can be explained in spanish that dont necessarily translate into English? Spanish is the rst language of all chileans and I started

learning English around the age of ve. Im just as uent in both languages and because of the international school education I received I dont see it as barrier in any way. Back then I prefered the books I was reading in english class to the ones in spanish and one of my favorite classes (taught in english) was creative writing where we mostly read and wrote poetry. I nd it easier to write lyrics and adapt them to the music in various ways when its in english because in all of my years listening to music most of it has been in that language. The song Isolation describes an unexpected separation that occurs as a punishment for misdeeds. Actions caught up with me, theres no escape from this tragedy/ When you do something wrong, it wont take isolation long to arrive. Can you elaborate on these lyrics? Isolation is a rst person point of view narration through the eyes of my father. The name was picked on account of its two meanings, the feeling and the process. Even though I have mixed feelings with the concept and word karma, what I mean in those phrases is its hard to think there wont be any negative consequences to negative actions. Everything in life works out through cause and effect and in my fathers case, he was involved in a pharmaceutical scandal that resulted in three month imprisonment as part of the investigation period. During that time him and our entire family were devastated. Two days a week we were

allowed to visit him for aprox. 45 minutes and his misery struck me. To lose your freedom is almost undescribable and I felt for him. I still have a pair of pants where I slit a small hole to hide his sleeping pills and secretly give them to him, while afraid of the routine police search made to all the prison visitors. Ill never forget that period in his life and mine. On the new split 7 with Police & Thieves, in the opening track Empty Glass, you return again to the search for love as the lling of a void. The song describes a common social interaction, one that is generally empty but could still be interpreted as an attempt at nding love, however misguided. In your opinion, what separates an honest attempt at meeting people and nding love from hollow pursuits that restrict [you] to supercial lives? The intention and result is what separates substance and shallowness. While I was bartending and working as a cashier at a fancy night club, I would observe many cases of men (ocassionally drunk) approaching women with a rude and none humble attitude. If youre gonna treat someone youre just meeting for the rst time in that manner then youre probably just looking for a sexual one night stand. I believe in sexual freedom when it is harmless and obviously with mutual consent, but in the case of these jerks, I imagine its a hunt for them so they feel like winners. All humans have the ability to share the