Pil Trafa, the musician known as the lead singer of Los Violadores, died at his home in Lima, Peru. He was 62 years old. A Facebook post by his band Pilsen revealed cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of death. The full explanation can be found below.
Trafa was born as Enrique Chalar in 1959 and founded Los Violadores in Buenos Aires in 1981. The anti-authoritarian band – the name translates as “The Violators” – drew influences from the Sex Pistols, the Damned and the Buzzcocks. As one of the first bands to openly belittled the Argentine dictatorship, they had to play early gigs as “Los Voladores” to avoid censorship. Early tracks like “Represión” (from the 1983 debut LP Los Violadores) and “Uno, Dos, Ultraviolento” (from 1985 Y ahora qué pasa, eh?) Became the foundation of Latin American punk rock.
Trafa founded his second band Pilsen in 1992 after the first separation from Los Violadores, which released albums in 1993 and 1994. He also released two solo albums: El monopolio de las palabras from 2004 and Último hombre from 2015. Los Violadores reformed and disbanded several times over the years, with Trafa being the only permanent member of the band’s evolving lineup. Los Violadores’ last studio album was Rey o Reina in 2009; In 2011 they released a double live album before finally breaking up.
During his four-decade career, Trafa released 22 albums between his solo and group projects. He is also co-author of his biography Más Allá del Bien y del Punk with Juan Carlos Kreimer; at the time of his death he was working on a second volume called El Punk Antes del Punk.
