For KEYI Magazine, we caught up with Villanelle, the duo born from a chance meeting under a Barcelona awning. Bringing together Jessica’s roots in Argentina’s rock and alternative-electronic scenes with Carmilla’s journey from post-punk into European club culture, they blend Italo, EBM, Electro, Techno, and wave with a raw, physical edge. Following their live debut at Stella Nomine, they’re now presenting “Infrarosso”—a hypnotic track filled with analog warmth, driving rhythms, and commanding Italian vocals. We spoke about how the project came together, the poetry behind their music, and their desire to create something that gets “sotto la pelle” under the skin.
Long before you met, you were both building careers across rock, post-punk, synthwave, and electronic music. When you finally encountered each other in Barcelona, what made you recognize that this was more than a shared taste that there was a project waiting to happen?
We think the connection started even before we met in person. At the time, Jessica was based in Argentina, and we had already been following each other’s work online and supporting one another. There was a very natural affinity in what we were doing, not only musically, but also in the way we approached music and the worlds we were each building independently.
When we finally met in Barcelona, we started crossing paths quite naturally, until one day we ran into each other on the street and it suddenly started raining heavily. We ended up taking shelter under the awning of a bar and, almost without realizing it, we started showing each other our tracks and the productions we were working on. We were both so passionate about sharing our music, almost unconsciously trying to show the other person this inner universe we had each been developing on our own.
That night became very significant for both of us, personally as well as creatively. When we finally sat down and talked about what we were doing, where we were in our lives and the processes we were going through, it felt like many things were naturally converging.
By the time we met, we had both already moved through very different musical environments and developed a strong ability to adapt to different scenes and audiences without losing our own identity.
What’s interesting is that we never set out to form a band or create a project called Villanelle. We simply started doing things together. We were invited to different parties, played back-to-backs, and every time we met, we would end up working on the first track we had started together. There was always this desire to keep creating something together, even though we didn’t really know what it was yet.
I think that was what made us realize there was a project waiting to happen. We didn’t have to force it or decide what it should be. It simply started happening.
Jessica’s musical journey developed largely across South America and the international Italo and alternative-electronic scenes, while Carmilla moved from rock and post-punk into Europe’s club culture. How do those different geographies and experiences connect themselves in Villanelle’s sound?
Our different geographies have definitely shaped the way we understand music, but what is interesting is how naturally those experiences converge in Villanelle. Jessica grew up in Argentina, while Carmilla grew up in Europe, yet we belong to the same generation and were shaped by many of the same musical and cultural references. We both arrived at electronic music through a strong connection with rock and post-punk.
Growing up in Argentina, Jessica was surrounded by a very strong rock tradition, as well as a darker and more melancholic side of South American culture that is often overlooked internationally. There is often a cliché of South America as being mainly about celebration, tropical sounds and party culture, but there is another side with a very rich history of rock, post-punk, psychedelic and experimental music. That was an important part of Jessica’s identity as a DJ and producer, and travelling extensively through South America allowed her to connect those different subcultures and audiences. Her Italian family background also created a natural connection with Italian music and, later, Italo and electronic sounds. Her own sound was always difficult to place within a single genre moving between Techno, EBM, Electro, New Wave, Post-Punk and Italo something people would often describe simply as “rocky techno.”
Carmilla grew up in a family of musicians and was surrounded by music from an early age, with rock, hard rock and metal being a constant part of her childhood. She started learning instruments young, initially guitar and later bass, which became her main instrument. Throughout her twenties, she played in different rock and post-punk bands. During the pandemic, being unable to play live became a turning point and sparked a curiosity to explore electronic music more deeply. Moving to Berlin was an important part of that process: she studied production, learned to DJ and gradually became immersed in Techno, EBM, Electro, Italo and disco, eventually travelling and playing across different European scenes.
By the time we met, we had both already moved through very different musical environments and developed a strong ability to adapt to different scenes and audiences without losing our own identity. In a way, we were coming from different places but moving towards the same point. Those experiences don’t feel like separate influences that we simply put together; they naturally converge in Villanelle the darker and melancholic side of our backgrounds, the rawness of rock and post-punk, and the hypnotic, physical energy of electronic music and the club.
Villanelle brings together wave, Italo, EBM, Electro, and Techno without losing the rawness of rock and post-punk. When you are creating, how do you preserve that tension between genres?
We don’t really try to preserve that tension consciously. It happens quite naturally because we come from different musical backgrounds, and those instincts are already part of the way we create.
With “Infrarosso”, for example, we simply sat down to produce together. Jessica naturally tends to approach the synths from a more Italo and melodic perspective, while Carmilla’s instinct often goes towards heavier, more EBM-driven, post-punk basslines and a more physical feeling. When those two instincts meet, the contrast is already there.
We think that is what makes the mixture feel organic. We are not sitting in the studio thinking, “now we need some EBM, now we need some Italo.” The genres are more like languages we have absorbed over the years, and they come out naturally through the way each of us writes, plays and produces.
So we don’t really try to resolve the tension between them we let it exist. That friction between the melodic and the raw, the analog and the electronic, is actually a fundamental part of the Villanelle sound.
Your name evokes the villanelle poetic form, and “Infrarosso” is described as a poem transformed into song. How does poetry influence the way you approach lyrics, repetition, atmosphere, and musical structure?
For us, the connection between poetry and music happens quite naturally. We don’t necessarily start with the idea of writing a poem and then turning it into a song. It is more about finding a rhythm, a repetition or a certain combination of words that already feels musical.
With “Infrarosso”, the track actually came first. We started producing together, with Carmilla already having the beginnings of a bassline and Jessica building layers of synths around it. The track gradually found its own direction, and once the music was almost finished, we knew we wanted to introduce vocals, although we hadn’t decided yet what language they would be in.
Interestingly, when we played the track to a couple of friends, they independently imagined the vocals being in Italian. That gave us the idea to explore it. From there, the lyrics developed almost instinctively. Jessica started humming melodies and experimenting with spoken-word phrases, looking for words that would fit the rhythm, the timing and the rhyme. The track was actually called “Infrared” at that point, and while playing with different words, “Infrarosso” suddenly appeared. That word ended up defining not only the title, but also the identity of the whole track.
So in a way, the poetic element wasn’t something we imposed on the music. It emerged from the process itself. Repetition, rhythm, rhyme and atmosphere all became part of the composition at the same time. That is probably what we find most interesting about poetry in relation to electronic music: words can function almost like another instrument, creating rhythm, tension and atmosphere as much as they carry meaning.
“Infrarosso” places flesh and machine in direct contact through analog warmth, digital precision, commanding vocals, and relentless rhythmic tension. What did you want listeners to feel emotionally and physically when hearing the track?
I think the phrase that best answers that question is actually one of the lines in the track: “Sotto la pelle” “under the skin.”
For us, “Infrarosso” is very much about that point where the human and the machine meet. We work with synthesizers, bass, electronic production and technology, but there is always something very physical underneath it. When we play an instrument or create a sound, the impulse to do it comes from somewhere internal. You feel it before you even translate it into sound.
That is what we wanted “Infrarosso” to communicate: something that moves beneath the surface. Something visceral, physical and slightly hypnotic, but also emotional. The contrast between the warmth of the analog elements and the precision of digital production is part of that feeling the machine is there, but there is always a human pulse inside it.
For us, “Infrarosso” is very much about that point where the human and the machine meet. We work with synthesizers, bass, electronic production and technology, but there is always something very physical underneath it.
What was particularly interesting for us was seeing how people responded to that idea live. When we played “Infrarosso” during our Hör Radio set in Berlin, several people started commenting afterwards specifically on “Sotto la pelle.” They kept repeating the phrase, almost as if it had stayed with them. We didn’t expect that, but it was very meaningful because it showed us that something we had felt very intuitively while creating the track had reached people on a physical and emotional level.
In the end, that is probably what we are looking for with Villanelle: not simply for the music to be heard, but for it to be felt somewhere underneath the skin.
Villanelle debuted live at Stella Nomine alongside artists including Ductape, Years of Denial, and Night in Athens. How has performing the music in front of an audience changed your understanding of the project, and what does “Infrarosso” reveal about the direction Villanelle is now taking?
Our first live performance at Stella Nomine was a very intense experience because every song we played was completely new. Nobody in the audience had heard our music before, so we really had no idea what to expect.
We were playing relatively early on the second day of the festival, and we didn’t even know if people would show up. But already during the soundcheck, people started gathering around the stage. By the time we played, there was a much bigger audience than we had anticipated.
What surprised us most was how quickly people connected with the music. Our live set is almost an hour long and moves through different languages and genres, but there is a very strong narrative running through it. By the second or third song, we could see people trying to sing along, even though they were hearing the songs for the first time and didn’t know the lyrics. They were dancing, repeating fragments, and responding to the rhythms almost instinctively. That made us realize how powerful repetition and hypnotic structures can be as a way of connecting with an audience.
We also understood that the physical side of the performance is just as important as the music itself. There are only two of us on a very large stage, with relatively few instruments, so we have to create a lot of presence through movement, eye contact and the way we interact with each other and with the audience. Carmilla’s bass becomes very physical, Jessica moves constantly through the space, and there is a lot of visual communication between us. We discovered that this physicality creates another layer to the music and makes the project feel much bigger than the number of elements we have on stage.
We also received a lot of unexpected feedback from other artists at the festival who didn’t know who we were but came to us afterwards to talk about the performance. There were people of very different ages in the audience, including some who might not have been familiar with the darker or more alternative side of the festival, and yet they connected with the live show in a very immediate way.
“Infrarosso” is part of that evolution. It has the darkness, tension and hypnotic quality that we recognize in Villanelle, but it also has a stronger sense of physicality and movement. It feels like a step towards defining the live experience even further — where the music, the body and the atmosphere become equally important.
I think that is what the live shows have taught us most: Villanelle is not only about the tracks themselves. It is about creating a space where people can enter the world of the music and feel it physically.
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