We were saying that the Spanish wave (that is, the effect of that flow of positivity from the economic boom which has effects on all the related markets, including externalities) is at its peak and we had talked about it extensively on these pages (obviously here in the editorial office there is an enthusiast of the case). And so here we are talking about another manifestation of the phenomenon, namely that of Bogota burnswhich arrive at Fabrique in Milan this May 28th for their first Italian stop ever (and they tell us, they want to kill themselves with pesto).
We video-interviewed them in view of the date and everything to come: for now a pounding edition of basses and power guitars called Instructionsreleased May 8.
The band presents the new single:
Table parochialisms aside, the Bogota burnsor the quartet composed of Antonio García (vocals and guitar), Dani Sánchez (guitar), Pepe Esteban (bass) and José Ángel Mercader (drums), since 2017 and from the premises of Cartagena, Murcia, a historic port on the shores of one of the smallest Spanish states, squeezed by the borders with Castile La Mancha, the bombastic Valencian generalitat and Andalusia. What does geography have to do with it? If we talk about the origins of a band that literally sells out in its native land (and we're talking about a music market, the Spanish one, which is particularly important, especially on the live front), having won the Odeon award several times (the highest recognition in the Spanish music industry) it ended up being nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2023, for Cowboys of the A3a record with clear influences of that Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American rock (between Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters, these are the established references), is something to consider.
They say so too. “We think that everyone's territory defines the people (bands) they become, whether they embrace it or reject it. You are still defined by where you grow up, the music you listen to there, the relationships you build and the things you aspire to in that context: it's all those experiences that shape you as a person, not just as an artist.” That's where they live, where their loved ones are, and it's not so much a question of pride as of honesty, they say. “We live the stories we talk about in the songs, and those stories happen there. So why would we set them in London?” “We know many people of our generation” they underline “who, simply because they could not continue to live there, to earn a living, they had to study and then leave. There are many of us, people of our age, who live in places where they really don't want to be, whether in Spain or in the rest of Europe or in the world.”
The video of Instructions it is a clear example of this need for reaction and analysis. Recorded in the historic building of the former optical workshop of the Cartagena Navy, in the Los Barreros neighborhood, the concept seems to follow the architecture to merge it into text and sound. We are talking about a multi-storey tower structure, used in the past to test submarine periscopes, which integrates with the “escalation” construction of the piece. Instructionssays Antonio, “it comes from something I personally felt: the feeling of becoming more and more attached to solitude and becoming somehow dependent on it… I think it's something very common in today's world. I have the feeling that the whole way we build societies now, how we communicate, how we build relationships and how we spend our free time, is all built to make you become more and more individual and lose yourself from the fact that you are absolutely obliged to live in a community, communicate, relate and look for love and care for others.” It will be a constant on their next album, recorded in Los Angeles.
“The new album analyzes this above all, how one goes about immersing oneself in that sensation of feeling uncomfortably alone and suddenly at ease in that solitude, and how one escapes it and how one faces it.”
Watch the Instrucciones video
From these sensations, or rather perceptions, also arises what their feeling of what I improperly call here “Spanish wave” “Rosalía is perhaps the highest example of all this. There are a lot of people doing really interesting things. In our scene, there are many who do very different things, but always somehow linked to rock'n'roll, guitars or in any case to that type of sound. But you always find very different proposals, even in the world of hip hop, or Guitarricadelafuente for example, with many artists who come out of the Iberian peninsula and travel the world. And I think it's because for a long time something was building up, growing under the surface, and finally it exploded, and now we're seeing it.” It's something that has to do much more with processing input and payback. A bit like how they were born as a band. Chemistry, they say, and desire to do.
“Dani and Antonio met one evening in Murcia, drinking and talking about the situation of national rock and Spanish rock, what was missing, what was there and what they wanted to do. At a certain point Antonio said he wrote songs. The other responded like: 'Oh yes, really?' I have a band.” So they exchanged contacts. Then we listened to a song he had recorded only with an acoustic guitar: the sound was, well, terrible, but it was promising. We met again in the following days, we tried to work on that song and the feelings were really good, really, really good. So we decided to continue.”
We will have to wait until 2017, however, to see the birth of the band, and their name, born from Antonio's stories to the rest of the band following a trip to the Colombian capital, where he played the first recordings to his local friends.
They started from the absurd happiness of playing in the nearby city and ended up touring all over Spain and most of the Americas. And now Italy. “It's crazy. Some of us have never been to Italy, but we are really fans of the rock that is made there. It's a very direct, powerful rock. And yes, it's almost a cliché to say it, but what happened with the explosion of Italy at Eurovision with Maneskin was impressive. We didn't expect it”but it's all positive. It is also worth mentioning that Damiano David won an Odeon award, highlighting how significant the impact has been in Spain. And now it's the turn of the Bogota burns from us.
Watch the complete video interview with Arde Bogotà.
Thanks to Out-now for the opportunity.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
