'Los Angeles is a city that can chew you up and then spit you out'

Bogotá burns They reach their third album with an idea as simple as it is uncomfortable: perhaps we have never been so connected and, at the same time, so alone. “Manufactures of the Lonely People’s Club” (Sony, 26) turns that contradiction into an epic rock artifact, but also into an invitation to meet again.

There is an especially fun paradox in interviewing Bogotá burns by video call: four guys who have made music one of the great collective spaces of their generation speaking from three separate windows: the singer Antonio García (and his dog as a special guest) and the bassist Pepe Esteban (maybe he is increasingly the unrecognized twin brother of C. Tangana?) sharing the screen, while the drummer Jota Mercader and the guitarist Dani Sánchez are in their respective homes. The connection is perfect (or almost: Dani’s Wi-Fi fails), the distance too. Because the third album of Bogotá burns, “Manufactures of the Lonely People’s Club”speaks precisely about that: about the contradiction between living in a hyperconnected society and experiencing, with increasing frequency, a feeling of separation, isolation, and emptiness.

Instructions to build a heart
Bogotá burns They began working on their third full-length without an excessively rigid plan. It was as the themes accumulated that García began to sense that there was something that connected them: loneliness in times of hyperconnectivity. “There was a connection in that, in loneliness, in stopping feeling, in why I am feeling bad, in feeling guilty about the feeling,” explains. One of the first pieces that showed them the way was “Señor Herrero”. And from there came a phrase that would end up becoming a kind of conceptual compass: they were doing “an instruction manual for making a heart.” A lonely heart, yes.

“We have created a series of very special shows, which we call ‘Hervideros’”

A manual to understand what happens to feelings when you live in a world that seems to have been designed so that you never have the feeling of being disconnected from anything or anyone. Screens, notifications, networks, messages, stimuli, likes, infinite scrolls, reels, stories, fomo, jomo… Anxiety! And, despite everything, the hole is still there. In “Sacude”, “Asidero”, “Instrucciones”, “Judas” or “Bigger Splash” (the name they used to perform as a surprise at some festivals this past summer) that idea takes different forms. It is not a sociological treatise disguised as rock songs, but a collection of characters, sensations and metaphors that build a kind of world of their own. “We are talking about how to make a device for sensitivity and emotion in a lonely world like this”summarizes García.

The ghosts of their lives
“Manufactures of the Lonely People’s Club” –also abbreviated as “MCGS”– can be understood as the soundtrack of a dystopian story that, in its themes, draws on references such as the work of the British writer, philosopher and cultural critic Mark Fisher. García talks about “The ghosts of my life” and an idea that stuck in his mind: the possibility that what we feel is not exclusively ours, but also a product of the environment we inhabit. “My depression is not mine, but the world I live in,” synthesize. From there, one of the most powerful images of the entire project appears: someone who has installed software inside your body, an engine that is malfunctioning. You try to make a heart and instead you get a bus. He also cites the Catalan writer Irene Solà, especially her way of turning nature into another character in “I sing and the mountain dances.” And that influence filters into lyrics that want to be open, that have no intention of giving the public a closed instruction manual.

The album was recorded at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles with Joe Chiccarelli as producer, a guy who has worked with names like The White Stripes, The Strokes, Beck and The Killers. But, before leaving for California, it was Chiccarelli himself who visited Cartagena to immerse himself in the creative and vital universe of Bogotá burns. I wanted to live with them, work in their place. He wanted to get to know his city, his friends… Live and drink with Antonio, Dani, Pepe and Jota. Once he was a member of the club, they packed their bags and, now, the five of them left for Los Angeles. The contrast could not be greater. If Cartagena is proximity, street and community, LA seemed like a city that can “chew you and then spit you out”. There is a certain irony in that an album about loneliness has been modeled on a city that made them feel so isolated. Dilemma that has helped elevate the sound of a group, that sum of factors that range from the architectural indie of The National to the epic rock of Héroes del Silencio, which is condemned to become the most popular band in our country this coming 2027. Year, by the way, in which Bogotá burns They will celebrate their first decade of life.

Eight days in the middle of the “Hervidero”
If something has turned Bogotá burns The phenomenon they are today is not only the number of reproductions or the position on a list. It is the ability to transform songs into a shared experience. and here “Manufactures of the lonely people’s club” has an almost perfect contradiction: an album about loneliness that only seems complete when shared. The band itself sees it that way. A song can start with Pepe alone at home, coming up with a riff and building a wheel. It is an individual act. Then comes the venue, the four musicians, the discussion, the jam, the recording, the publication and, finally, an audience singing it. “It’s kind of an antidote for us.”says Garcia. A “handle” against the hole of loneliness, using one of the key words of the album. It is not strange, therefore, that there is a certain political overtone in the album. Not because Bogotá burns have suddenly decided to become a slogan band, but because talking about unwanted loneliness in the middle of 2026 is also talking about the society that produces it. Loneliness is not just being physically alone. It can be being surrounded by people and still feeling like something doesn’t quite fit. They see it as a shadow that extends even over those who apparently have a completely integrated life.

It is an idea and a concept that Bogotá burns They have gone beyond the album and have extended it to the presentation tour that they will carry out in our country. It will be one of the most relevant acts on this year’s musical calendar, because of what it is presented and how it is presented: eight cities, eight small-capacity venues. “We have created a series of very special shows, which we call ‘Hervideros’”. These ‘boilers’ are inspired by the Boiler Room sessions: Bogotá burns They will be located in the center, the public will surround them. It will be an experience of proximity, almost a ritual. Eight appointments for which their followers have had to buy tickets physically, queuing in front of the ticket offices of the assigned sales positions, being able to obtain, at most, two tickets per person: to enter the Single People’s Club you have had to turn off the computer and leave the house. Antonio, Pepe, Jota and Dani, who already have confirmed dates in the United States and Mexico for this month of November, are aware that they will not be able to take this format everywhere, because not all venues have the necessary conditions for the show they are preparing. But they assure that later they will reach the cities that have therefore been left out of the route. The single people’s club wants to add as many members as possible.