The story of antonio garcia (Cartagena, 1995) and the formation of his group, Bogota burns, is not what one would expect to hear about the genesis of a rock band. Nor is García the archetypal rocker, sitting patiently in a room at his record company whose wall serves as a canvas for a huge portrait of Julio Iglesias, wearing a patterned shirt (García, not Iglesias), a scarf around his neck and a cup of hot tea in the hands. “I’ve been suffering from a sore throat since Saturday, and you have to take care of yourself,” she justifies with a nervous smile.
All of this, this paradoxical disconnect between what can be expected and the pure reality, is shocking and attractive at the same time. Garcia, who for years practiced law in a firm, recognizes the surrealism of the situation and recounts, with that hoarse voice that is the insignia of Arde Bogotá’s songs, how his frantic rise to success has been. From the first trial in a polygon on the outskirts of Cartagena – “in Murcia, not in Colombia, as many believe,” laughs García – to signing the poster of more than 30 festivals this summerincluding the Sonorama, and touching the 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. The tickets for the concerts of his new tour, with a date in November in Barcelona (Sala Razzmatazz) and a triplet in Madrid (La Riviera), sold out in just four hours.
These numbers support how Arde Bogotá has broken into the Spanish music scene to alleviate, in a certain way, the orphanhood of alternative rock groups in recent years. They follow the path of Izal, Vetusta Morla and their countrymen Second and Viva Suecia; groups that usually do not play on radio stations mainstream but they sweep the circuits indie. “Before us there have been spectacular bands with memorable songs that haven’t played on mainstream radio. Maybe the general public prefers another type of music, such as reggaeton or more accessible pop, and the music we make is more enjoyable live. What I wouldn’t forgive myself for is making music thinking about getting there, about how to sound in Los 40 Principales,” he says. “If the presenter in question likes what we’re doing now and decides to play us, great; It’s not something that obsesses me.”
In their lyrics they vindicate the chiaroscuro of their generation, that of twenty-somethings who are looking into the abyss of thirty. And in its sound the forceful rhythms of J are intermingledosé Angel (Jota) Merchant to battery and Pepe Esteban to the bass, together with the distorted guitars of Daniel Sanchez. “We want to be honest and genuine, to continue sounding like in our first rehearsal rooms, without being conditioned by any external agent.” On May 12 they released their second album, Cowboys from the A-3,which remains among the best-selling albums after 15 weeks and was the last boost in his career with songs like The Salvation y Dogs, two of the most chanted in their performances. His debut album is also in the top 50 of the charts. The nighttwo and a half years after his departure.
A boom to which the vocalist dares to put a date and definition. For him, success is getting up every morning “with no more responsibility than doing and playing songs.” And that possibility came in April 2022, when music became their main source of income and Antonio and Jota left the stability of their jobs as a lawyer and a university professor, respectively. “Just yesterday I was thinking that I had more money in the bank when I quit my job than I do now“, he laughs. “But, although there are painful moments as in any profession, and I didn’t dislike the office at all, all this is much more satisfying for me.”
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