“Now we dress differently, but we will always be super emos”

The Chilean band Kudai It cannot sing if one of its members is not present. Rather than a theme of unbreakable artistic brotherhood, as demonstrated by their separation, it is due to their song structures and vocal harmonies designed to be performed by two male and two female voices. With 20 years of experience, and a complete change from their remembered teenage emos outfit, the quartet seems to have found a second wind.

“Sometimes coexistence is not so good when you have been in a band for so long. In itself, we are four very different people, it is very difficult to make it work, but we have managed to overcome our differences to be able to return to the stage and we already have projects for next year.”comments vocalist Bárbara Sepúlveda in an interview with El Comercio.

Although they are now in a moment of peace, it was those differences that separated the band, in the first instance in 2016, when in the middle of a tour the vocalist Nicole Natalino left the group due to work and stress reasons. After her replacement, Gabriela Villalba, arrived, the band would only last three more years until its dissolution in 2010.

““We don’t see anything bad in our personal and professional lives having separated, it was positive because we all found other passions during that period, but it was also something positive for all of us to meet again to play our songs again.”mentions Sepúlveda, who took advantage of that time to study Dentistry, while his colleagues began careers as soloists.

Her return in 2016 marked an important moment for Bárbara Sepúlveda, Tomás Manzi, Nicole Natalino and Pablo Holman, who had known each other since 1999, when they were part of the children’s group Ciao, where they performed Italian pop hits in Spanish. After four years, the proposal matured and they decided to focus on a teenage audience influenced by the emos cultural movement under the name of Kudai, which means “young worker”, something that makes sense when you see their first performances on large stages with only 10 years.

“Make us great again”?

One of the great American exports, like hip-hop culture, was the emo movement that filled old social networks such as Hi5, MySpace, Fotolog or MSN Messenger with images that turned popular figures into more “emotional” versions. in memes, like the one where the character Peter Parker (in his version of “Spiderman 3″) adjusts his hair forward, with a ponytail that would not be out of place in a Kudai show.

In Peru, the emo movement gained strength in 2006, 2007 and 2008, evidenced by a report made by the program “Public Enemies”, hosted by Aldo Miyashiro and Beto Ortiz, and the concerts of bands such as Pxnda, Paramore, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Green Day, Simple Plan, Insite, among others, who, like Kudai, influenced the local scene. This gave life to national emo groups such as Kendall, Valerie Series, My Perfect Number, Eiana, Nevay, Civeta Dei or La carroza plastica.

After more than ten years since the furor over hairstyles that covered part of the face, black clothing, checkered gloves and black painted nails, Kudai changed, as did his audience. Tomás Manzi wears braids in his hair, a cap turned upside down, and sunglasses; the polar opposite of his look from years ago.

“Wherever we moved, emo culture was present; We expressed it with our clothes and reflected the emotionality of that movement in our lyrics. We really had our feelings on the surface, so it was a very interesting stage that united all of Latin America.”, Manzi mentions. To which her colleague Nicole Natalino, who wears a white polo and sweatshirt; she adds: “Now we dress differently, but we will always be super emos and a large part of our audience still is.”.

Although his current tour is not focused on reviving the movement or trying to pay homage to the emos, the titles of his classic songs such as “Ya no que se nada”, “Sinawaken”, “Escapar”, “Llévame” and “Déjame scream” ” are sufficient proof that it is inevitable to separate the Chilean quartet from this cultural movement, which seems to resurface in some parts of the city, such as the Noyse Full Fest that will take place on December 2, the Emo Fest that will be held on December 16, or the most anticipated event for the Peruvian emo community, the celebration of the 20 years of artistic career of Kudai, a band that left behind the darkness of adolescent thoughts to face adult concerns, such as filling the esplanade of the Center of Festive Conventions this Thursday, November 30.