Arde Bogotá on Going to Los Angeles to Make Their Most Spanish Album Yet

For a Spanish rock band looking to broaden its horizons, traveling to Los Angeles to record with a renowned American producer might seem like a logical next step. After all, if the goal is to take your music beyond your home country’s borders, why not start by giving it a more international sound? For Arde Bogotá, however, things have always worked a little differently.

After arguably becoming Spain’s most popular rock band with 2023’s Cowboys de la A3, the quartet headed to California to record their third album, Manufacturas del Club de la Gente Sola, with Joe Chiccarelli, whose credits include The Strokes and My Morning Jacket. The goal wasn’t to move closer to the sound of American rock, but to discover new possibilities within their own musical identity.

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“Our ambition was to work with someone who didn’t know our environment, our circumstances,” frontman Antonio García tells Consequence, explaining that they wanted a producer who wouldn’t associate them with the Spanish music scene and could judge the band solely on its music. The result, he says, is their most distinctly Spanish album yet.

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“I think this record is more steeped in Spanish sounds, in a Spanish essence, than anything we’ve done before,” García explains. Chiccarelli even encountered elements of flamenco and pasodoble that were unfamiliar to him, but which he ultimately recognized as part of Arde Bogotá’s musical identity. “It wasn’t about trying to sound foreign, but quite the opposite: discovering things about ourselves that we hadn’t discovered yet,” García adds.

That search for identity comes at a particularly interesting moment for Arde Bogotá. Having earned two Latin Grammy nominations, achieved double-platinum status with Cowboys de la A3, and sold out Madrid’s Movistar Arena, the band is now bringing its music to markets where there’s still plenty of ground to cover. Yet when asked whether conquering new territories is their next big goal, García offers a less calculated answer.

“It’s not about wanting to be bigger than Madonna, but about having adventures,” he says, recalling advice from fellow musicians who warned them that, after a while, festival seasons can start to feel repetitive. Those adventures, however, also mean starting over in places where Arde Bogotá isn’t yet a household name.

Their upcoming U.S. dates will take them back to considerably smaller venues, with shows at The Hall at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, Pacific Electric in Los Angeles, and ZeyZey in Miami during their upcoming US swing. For the band, the change of scale is part of the appeal. “It’s a fantasy, because it allows us to be close to people again,” says drummer José Ángel Mercader, better known as Jota.

García acknowledges that the transition also comes with practical challenges, from traveling with smaller technical crews and adjusting to less comfortable conditions to playing shows that may be less financially rewarding. The goal, he explains, is to maintain the professional standards they’ve achieved in Spain, even when performing in markets where their audience is still developing. “It’s like starting over,” says bassist Pepe Martínez Esteban of the band’s experiences in Latin America. In Mexico, for instance, they’ve watched their audiences grow with each visit, with more and more people singing along to their songs.

They’ve also noticed some unexpected differences in how their music resonates abroad. Esteban points to “Big Bang,” one of the band’s earliest singles, which seems to strike a particular chord with Latin American audiences, while Jota highlights how enthusiastically audiences in the region respond when the band turns up the intensity, embracing the heavier, more energetic side of their live shows.

Their expansion into the United States, however, raises a very specific question: How far can a rock band singing exclusively in Spanish go? García points to the fact that American audiences are increasingly open to music in other languages, not only because more people speak Spanish in the country, but also because English-speaking listeners seem more willing to connect with songs whose lyrics they don’t necessarily understand.

Arde Bogotá, photo courtesy of Sony Music

That doesn’t mean García is considering switching languages, though. “As a singer, I’ve always been interested in the idea that singing involves a certain kind of nudity,” he explains. Singing, he adds, means exposing yourself, revealing something you might not otherwise dare to show. Doing so in a language that isn’t your own can introduce a sense of distance, like a magic trick that conceals part of what’s really happening.

“I can’t imagine myself singing in English,” he admits, although he leaves open the possibility that someone else might someday do so while he continues singing in Spanish.

All in all, exploring new possibilities doesn’t necessarily mean leaving behind what brought Arde Bogotá this far. And perhaps that’s what makes this new chapter so appealing: Having already experienced what it feels like to become one of their country’s biggest rock bands, they’re getting another chance to experience everything that comes before it once again.

Editor’s note: Look for deals and get tickets to Arde Bogota’s sold-out shows here (where fans can save $20 on their first order of $200 or more with promo code CONSEQUENCE20 at checkout).

Arde Bogotá 2026/2027 Tour Dates

2026
11/08 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Hall at Elsewhere
11/15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Pacific Electric
11/19 – Mexico City, Mexico @ Teatro Metropólitan
11/22 – Miami, FL @ ZeyZey
11/26 – Madrid, Spain @ La Riviera
11/27 – Madrid, Spain @ La Riviera
12/03 – Valencia, Spain @ Palau Alameda
12/04 – Alicante, Spain @ Marmarela Mediterranean Cocktail Club
12/11 – Murcia, Spain @ Sala Mamba!
12/12 – Murcia, Spain @ Sala Mamba!

2027
05/07 – Cartagena, Spain @ Cuesta del Batel
05/08 – Cartagena, Spain @ Cuesta del Batel
05/14 – Cartagena, Spain @ Cuesta del Batel
05/15 – Cartagena, Spain @ Cuesta del Batel
05/21 – Barcelona, Spain @ Parc del Fòrum
05/29 – Toledo, Spain @ Recinto Ferial de la Peraleda
06/12 – Bilbao, Spain @ Estadio San Mamés
06/19 – Armilla, Spain @ Complejo Deportivo Rafael Machado Villar
06/25 – Valencia, Spain @ Estadi Ciutat de València
06/26 – Valencia, Spain @ Estadi Ciutat de València
07/03 – Zaragoza, Spain @ Ibercaja Estadio
07/10 – Gijón, Spain @ Gijón Life
07/31 – A Coruña, Spain @ Coruña Sounds
09/04 – Albacete, Spain @ Recinto Ferial IFAB
09/11 – Seville, Spain @ POP CAAC