Who is Katia?

In the common life Katia is a Chilean woman with work, husband and child, but in her essence she came to this world to write and sing, to make music and share all this with the people.
I’m a very sensitive person, romantic and observer and I write about my feelings and what I see in the common world. People are the most interesting.

How did you get the nickname “Braut”

It has two stories. The first is, that I’m sharing my life with Cristian ten years long but only one year ago he asked me to marry him. Very happy with his decision I called myself Braut or bride. The only problem is that he forgot it on the way, making music together and I’m steel waiting (laugh).
But the second story is deeper because singing electro I feel myself really a bride between strong, hard and serious men. I’m changing, as female, the story of electro in South America and it makes me feel powerful.

On myspace all text is in german as well, how do you manage to speak german so well?

Well, I lived in Germany with my parents 13 years long, all my childhood. German is my mother language and Cristian says that I don’t speak Spanish as well as German (laugh). Here, I don’t have friends to speak with, in German, but I’m happy that I haven’t forgotten it.

Yeah sure, we are focused on Germany and that’s why we use the language. The Europe scene is definitely much better than here. People have music culture and respect their bands. That’s very different in my country and with www.myspace.com we have made a lot of friends around the world who understand what we want to do.
But I think Europe is searching and looking for good stuff in South America, too. Hocico is an example of good Mexican music; Dead Jump (Brazil) and Alien Produkt (Argentina) are good bands, too. We want to show the same, break traditional rules like salsa, merengue, boleros and lambadas, and change our rhythms without loosing our Latin blood in this kind of music.

Can you introduce the band to us?

Die Braut was created by Cristian Soto Vanelli and Katia Figueroa Letelier in July of 2006. Cristian has worked with synths long time before but he wasn’t successful with other bands. On the other side, Katia has always written things about life. On that way both unit their poetical and musical forces to create Die Braut to give life to a project that recreates the darkest and frenetic passages of our times, as well as the solitude and the abandonment which it is put under the human being.
In this way, Die Braut begins to compose based on personal experiences and real facts which are interpreted in dirty and direct lyrics and with musical directives that cause diverse psychic states.
The band has recently sign with Biozazzard Records (Germany) and their first album “Unsehbar” (invisible) will appear on 2008. They are worked on remixes for Wynardtage, Dead Jump, Proyecto Crisis, Acylum and Concrete-Rage and maybe they will make soon a South America tour.

Who are rolemodels for you, both musically and personally?
mmhh….well, when I was younger I liked Punk music and when Cristian introduced me EBM and Industrial music I felt in love with Nitzer Ebb, Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy. But I take my musical influences from Die Einstürzende Neubauten, Der Prager Handgriff and Das Ich. All these bands are wonderful musicians and each one is in me, too.

Everybody has a special song, sometimes even feels like the artist wrote it for them. What is your special song and why?

From other artist I love two songs; “Dancing with tears in my Eyes” (Ultravox) and “Coming up Roses” (Black). I think both songs show the way I love …very strong, deep and intense.

I grow up with Chilean and Latin-American folklore like Victor Jara, Inti Illimani, Quilapayún, Mercedes Sosa, etc. and I started singing with my father when I was 8 or 9 years old. Than I participate in competitions and parties to have more experience on stage. But suddenly I forgot to sing, and only now, ten years later I started it again.
At the beginning it was very difficult because I couldn’t stand my voice with effects and distortions. But than I began to learn to use my equipment, be more secure of myself and take the risk and so, now I’m doing all voices and samples. That makes me feel powerful, strong and secure, and it sounds how I like…wonderful!!!

You are very socially engaged where does this come from and what makes you angry the most?

That’s true, I’m very socially engage and I show it everywhere. Well, I have study social work and work now with young drug addicted persons and it’s impossible to separate it with my lyrics. My work feeds my thoughts and makes me write, tell and shout. There are many things who really shocks me and the only way to stay healthy is to write the songs we made.
The extreme poorness of children and elder people, the ignorance, the discrimination, the delinquency, the politics in my country makes me sick and what I see is that everything will be resolved with repression and more repression. That’s not the way and it makes me sad.

What can people do to make this world a better place?

To love and respect nature and animals, to love and respect human being, to love and respect the world we have. It’s very simple or not????

Does this awareness show in the lyrics you write, what inspires you in writing lyrics?

People are the most interesting and their personality is what inspires me, but I search the dark side of human being, I search for their diseases. My lyrics are real stories and each one has terrible ends, with a lot of pain and death.

Chile is a beautiful country, long and thin, with sea, woods, mountains and a good clime but Chile is also a expensive country and that’s why it’s hard to life live.
The music scene is not very good either and now thinking, I only remember 3 or 4 bands who worked straight on their music. Our people don’t respect and support national bands because they are customary in Europe or USA music. We aren’t a big community as well; electro and Goth is very underground. We haven’t radios, labels, productions interested in electro bands and that’s why it’s difficult to survive on scene. Many bands dies before showing their work and that’s too bad. Die Braut don’t want to die and that’s why we are searching for new horizons.

Chile is a beautiful country like you said, why focus on the “darker” sides in your lyrics instead of the beautiful things?

There are too much artist who talk about love and happiness and some people are tired to here it again and again. We are focused on reality, on true live, on misery and illness, stuffs we don’t talk about (our society). Why do things so simple and don’t open our eyes to see that something went wrong in our life. I made a new song about this one story: there was a young woman with husband and two children. She doesn’t find work in a lot of months and got a big depression. On the other side her husband probably has raped one of her children and she noticed it. With these problems she fined only one way… to kill her two children, struggle them and kill herself too. You might think, doesn’t she has any help around her…I said no, because nobody noticed her, nobody sees her; she was invisible for many people. That’s why I speak about real life and not beauty and happiness. This can’t steal happen in my country and it makes me very sad.

You will release your debutcd next year, what can we expect of it?
Yes, we have to wait a little bit but we are sure it will be a great work. A lot of people around the world are waiting for it.
The album is called “Unsehbar” (invisible) and it’s a review of our carrier in one year. Some stuff is very experimental with a lot of dark melodies and hard rhythms. Other is more powerful and adapted to the present electro style.
Die Braut has a free style making music and that makes our album dynamic.

You are a mom as well, did this change you alot, in what way?

Yeah…I love my family. With children your perception of life changes in everything and she is my little angel, another important thing to life for. I write about thinking of her and “Mädchen und Kriege” and “Ohne Herz” are songs made for her.

Uff…I only want to be successful in my personal and musical life. To be remembered as an important electro band of the 21 century. To be an example, in voice, for other women in South America and the world and to continue it as long we can.

 
Any last words for the readers?
For the people who don’t know me jet, I want to invite you to hear me, to hate me if you want or better to love me, but never be indifferent with my music. Share my world, my thoughts and be free to say important things, too. Never be apathetic about what happens around you.  Kisses for all and thanks for the invitation.

BRAUT from DIE BRAUT