Since 2014, Seatemples has been hypnotizing listeners with their songs. They’re a Chilean band that’s adding to the diversity of the goth scene and helping to bring more Latin American groups within the genre to the forefront. Their music blends various sounds that fall under the wide goth genre umbrella, including shoegaze, post-punk, goth rock and darkwave. As they approach their 10-year anniversary as a group, they’re continuing to create and flourish.
Thus far, Seatemples has released two full length albums, Down Memory Lane in 2017 and Trópicos in 2020. The first LP features a self-titled track, which I feel is a wonderful representation of who they are as a band. It’s chill and ethereal, and the female vocals are so serene. It reminded me a bit of the darkwave group Lycia. Their second album includes a mix of English and Spanish songs. A few of my personal favorites are “Ecos,” “Verde Catedral” and “Nightfall.”
Members Patricio and Priscila both provide vocals and their voices blend together nicely, adding an interesting layer to their music. Listening to them has a calming, magical effect and their compositions are easy on the ears. They’ve also released a number of singles with their latest one being “Wine and Rockets.” Their newest track was produced in collaboration with other creators and is set to be a part of a larger project.
I’ve been following Seatemples for a while on social media, and I’m glad I’ve been exposed to their music. It’s evident by the quality of their work that they hold themselves to high standards and seek to deliver a transcendent experience with their songs. I’m very excited to have had the opportunity to interview the band so that readers can get to know them. Find out how they got their start, what inspires them and where they’re headed.
Q: So, I’d love to start off by having you share a bit about Seatemples’ origin story. How did the band form and come together?
Patricio: Well, we met at university where we studied English language and English literature. We had a band for covers from The Cure, The Church, Slowdive, Faith and the Muse, Joy Division, JAMC and the early The Cult back in the day. As I finished my training program before Priscila, we lost contact until 2013, and then we started playing again as I had some ideas for original songs. We moved together near the Pacific Ocean so the creative process was extremely influenced by the sea.
Q: What inspires the meaning and themes behind your songs and albums? And, what is your favorite part of the creative process?
Priscila: Well, Patricio has driven the creative process almost completely, even working on recording and mixing in order to get the fresh songs as produced as possible before sending them out to the production team abroad. He usually mentions that films, poetry, and classical literature are extremely influential to him. Also, this majestic mighty vision of the forces of nature and chaos is somehow a universal picture in which love survives to different stages in our lifetime.
Q: You’re carving a place for yourselves in the goth music genre, which is really special because you’re a Latin American band. Do you feel your Chilean roots influence your music, and if so, how?
Patricio: Well, I personally really enjoy this kind of question because they’re sometimes a gate to describe how many artists have been there before us and how we have tried to highlight those remarkable roots as well. We feel absolutely proud of Latino pioneers who started even under harsh dictatorships like the one we lived in Chile with Pinochet. So, bands like Pinochet Boys who were an underground experimental electro-punk project became really special and inspiring for us, mostly because of their biography, they could record more than two songs, but they definitely were the first step for many other bands like Los Prisioneros or Emociones Clandestinas in our country, after Pinochet was taken out and democracy came, bands like Lucybell worked on a crossover between post-punk, shoegaze, dream pop and psychedelia. Anyway, we paid attention to more acts along the continent Caifanes and Size from Mexico, Sumo, and Virus from Argentina. Now, going way further in the past, there are some acts like Los Angeles Negros, which created their own sound and a new trend among bolero and psychedelia melancholic lyrics. And of course, regional poets like Gabriela Mistral and Vicente Huidobro have been essentially influential too.
Q: Since we’re on the topic of goth music, how were you all introduced to the genre? What do you appreciate about the goth subculture?
A: The first time I connected with goth culture was through literature. When I was a kid, my grandma used to have lots of books and I started to look for something interesting to read, then I found The Black Cat, so these dark scenarios and mysterious characters really caught my attention as music did years after when I first listen to Black n°1 being just 14-15 years old, one or two years after Bloody Kisses was released. I just felt in a warm familiar place where no one made me feel wrong about being myself enjoying darkness and this special feeling of belonging to this gloomy shelter.
Q: What have been some of your favorite experiences so far since establishing the band? How has the group evolved over the years?
Patricio: We didn’t expect that much from our project during the early days except being really excited and satisfied when playing our own songs based on the musical taste we shared. But then some press and people from abroad started to pay attention to our music. I had written most of the lyrics in English because they came out fluently and fast, so maybe this helped to catch the attention of many people from Europe or English-speaking countries. After some years, we just decided to go professional and worked a lot on writing genuine songs and getting more professional production results. So far, we have reached many hearts and it feels incredibly good, and we know we will make it to play live shows in different countries as we had planned years ago before the pandemic.
Q: Is there anything Seatemples hasn’t done yet that you’d like to do, such as performing in a certain place, collaborating with certain artists, or experimenting with other music sounds, etc.?
Priscila: We would love to have the opportunity to go on an international tour! This is a goal that we are working towards. We receive a lot of comments from people from different countries asking when we are playing in their cities so I think touring US-Latin America and Europe would be extremely interesting for us. Also, collaborating sounds like a great option! Well, one can dream about collaborating with Slowdive or The Cure, let’s hope the future brings us something awesome.
Q: You recently debuted a new single, “Wine and Rockets.” Can you talk a bit about what inspired the song and how it came about?
A: “Wine and Rockets” was conceived during the pandemic period watching how the human need for escapism from the world chaos through confinement was manifested in an utterly apocalyptic way in social media, and how this need wasn’t something new and the point of connecting with previous decades was unavoidable and inspiring; currently the dystopic dichotomy is even more evident among wars and crises, as an emerging cold war with its own soundtrack. From this perspective, the primal necessity of unruliness grasped by social media becomes something peculiar between posts of bombing raids.
Q: Before we say goodbye, are there any teasers you’d like to drop regarding future projects?
A: Don’t tell anybody yet, but, we are almost ready to release a new EP that contains our last two singles “Weltschmerz” and “Wine and Rockets,” plus some other new songs that come in a very similar line as the previously mentioned. We are very happy to share new music as this is what moves us. Follow us on our social media to keep yourself posted with our latest news!
Thank you very much for this great interview, we appreciate the opportunity to spread our music and a little part of ourselves as well. We wish you and everybody a great 2024, and that the new year brings us great things!
Vamp Jenn's Corner 
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