“‘Cuchito’ is a song about a cat. It’s kind of about my cat,” Christopher Castillo Bowers says. “Or maybe a version of my cat that lives on the street, or at least fantasizes about living on the street while he sits at the window.”
Bowers is the Chilean-American singer-songwriter and primary force behind Kiltro, one of Colorado’s most exciting, unique and likeable bands. Their sense of fantasy and the exotic somehow make music which was originally conceived in the lively, bohemian port city of Valparaiso, Chile, sound like home to Coloradans.
Though admittedly inspired by, yes, a cat, “Cuchito,” the band’s most recent single, holds more layers than the obvious, much like the band’s spry, feline-esque sound: an intricate mix of acoustic instruments, warbling vocal and polished dance grooves brought to life by Bowers, William Parkhill and Michael Divencenzi.
“It’s also about longing for things,” Bowers says of the tune, “and how you can sometimes find empowerment in that longing.”
Finding empowerment in unlikely places is certainly a valuable skill in a world decommissioned by a pandemic, and Kilto are old pros at the craft, finding their way as effortlessly as a cat seeing in the dark. Drawing thematic energy from Latin-American folk artists, yet working with engineers whose credits include Washed Out and Animal Collective, the trio keep things fresh, mysterious and fun.
