Diandra Interviews Arde Bogotá: Songs As Life Observations

Speaking to the lead singer of Arde Bogotá was incredibly fun. Antonio Garcia is beyond talented, but, more importantly, he is sensitive. He sees the world as something you receive, which allows him to create fantastic songs about the fleetingness of love and time, despite the fact that they are the two things that feel so weighted to us. These are feelings that can’t be measured but are felt more than anything, and, in our interview, he discusses how vital it is to watch the people around you to learn how to make music for them.

Diandra: How are you in these global pandemic times?

Antonio: It has been hard for us because Spaniards love living in the street. We may love our siesta and our chill, but we live to hang out and go out with each other. I write about the romances I see on the streets or the nights I spend hanging out with friends. So, in this quarantine, I didn’t create. Nothing came to me because nothing was happening, It was scary. I could continue writing about the past and stories stuck in my memory, but I couldn’t write at all. It just wasn’t in me.
Arde Bogotá – Big Bang

Diandra: As an observer of people for inspiration then what do you think things like dating or hanging out will be like in the future?

Antonio: Well, that is a great question. I have been in a stable relationship for a long time, and I laugh because I would not even know how to date, it has been so long, but especially now. I have friends that have gone to date and they say it is between a covert op and committing a crime. You have to be so secretive, not get caught, and then it is like I have to know you for years or really feel you are worth dying for. Dating has become even more dangerous than it was before. (he laughs) Especially, with how some places have requirements like only 10 people can be together in a room, but what if you have 11 friends?

Diandra: Well, there is always that one person, no one really likes, but somehow finds out about events?

Antonio: Yeah, it took the pandemic to finally get rid of him like, “Hey, man, only 10 people allowed. Sorry!” (we laugh)

Diandra: Right there, that is a song inspiration. You can call him Herman and the song can be titled. “Alguien Llamo Herman?”

Antonio: And it is totally from his perspective like, it is him outside watching his friends party without him.

Diandra: Poor Herman! Ugh! But you just released your EP, “El tiempo Y La Actitud” How do you feel this EP speaks to your wisdom about relationships?

Antonio: I think it shows I have no wisdom. (he laughs) We all have love experiences, especially at our young age, but I don’t know if we really have wisdom. So I only sing about the experience, and these songs are messages to people: from the audience to the persons I have loved. In the EP, we have four songs: 3 about love and 1 about fear. One of them is about pure love and really wanting to say “I Love You,” and then we have one where “I don’t even want to hear about you because I already know enough.” Then, we have another one about strong love and romance and wanting to be with someone forever, and then the next one is about feeling abandoned while in a relationship and asking your partner to come back for you.
Arde Bogotá – Te Van a Hacer Cambiar (Audio)

Diandra: That one is about Herman. (he laughs) Is there a song that you really love from the EP?

Antonio: All of them! You know when you write a song, you never really know when to stop: when you have improved it the most. So we reach comfort with a song when all of us say, “Okay, we have done enough!” with a song and agree it is the best it is going to be coming from us. The one song that really feels like it has “all of us” is “Te Van A Hacer Cambiar,” which is the song about fear. When I have played that song, people really relate to it, and I think it is going to be especially relevant to life after the pandemic. Things are going to be different and scary and there have been and will be a lot of losses, in every way, and this is a song about how those things make you change. So I am really proud of it, and that is the band.

Diandra; Do you foresee more songs in the future like that one?

Antonio: Unfortunately, yes! Things don’t seem to get clearer, and it is going to be uncertain for sure. So I think that upcoming music is going to be very reflective of that. Rock music is about people not willing to settle with the life and injustice going around them. Growing up, I always admired the artists that sung to breaking out of the things that were wrong and wanted to bring change. Rock music, and music in general, will always be about people unwilling to settle. Rock music is a place for a congregation of differences and rebels.

Diandra: Do you see yourself as a rebel?

Antonio: As an artist, but as a person I follow the quarantine rules. (he laughs) I think artists are rebels because our art makes us say things we, otherwise, would not say so, I think, in that comes out rebel: in saying the unsaid. Emotions say a lot of things, and music makes us understand what it is saying.

Diandra: What emotions do you press

Antonio: Love, passion, and sensuality. When we are not angry, it is very sexual.

Diandra: So you are “angry sex rock”?

Antonio: (laughing) Yes! With a side of “what is my future going to be like” anxiety!

Diandra: So how did you know this was “the band”?

Antonio: I think it was this feeling of “Whoa! Like there is something behind this!” Just uniting and having the same feeling and vision as a collective was inspiring. We played at a garage and this song came out, “Antiaéreo,” and it was our first single because we wanted our first music together to be the first thing people heard from us. I don’t know if it was destiny or random, but it was good that we found each other to make music.
Arde Bogotá – Antiaéreo

Diandra: And why Arde Bogota for the name?

Antonio: I was in Bogotá with my friends, and I was playing the music for them, and they were like, “Wow this is good! Like, you have to pursue this!” And they would have told me if it was bad and don’t even try! (he laughs) So when I came back to the band and told them how I played the music for my friends, we agreed we should have Bogotá in the name but needed something around it. So we decided on Arde!

Diandra: And Herman was not amongst those friends?

Antonio: No! If Herman had been there, he would have chosen a horrible name like Boring Bogotá. (we laugh)

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