Here at the East Village Boys office - actually it’s more a dive bar than an office - we receive a lot of interesting submissions. Some we love, others throw us completely off our bar stools - like the California boy who sent his drawings of pornified Star Wars characters. Yoda has never looked so surprised!
This summer we received a few submissions that all follow a similar vein - that of various shapes and sizes of dicks poking through various holes. Not sure what’s in the air, but the coincidence was too weird to ignore, so here’s a couple of our favorites from this growing trend. The video is by EVB friend Stuart Sandford, and the photographs are from Paul Graves.
Enjoy!
I first became aware of the young Spanish super-talent Andrés Borque, model / dj / entrepreneur / musician / all around good guy, through the pages of our favorite Spanish magateen Electric Youth!. Inspired not only by his fresh-faced beauty but also by his naked ambition, I tracked him down to explore the many different strings in his bow.
Richard Welch: How old are you?
Andrés Borque: 20 years old.
RW: Tell me your story.
AB: I was born in Castellón, a small city in the north of Valencia. Since I was a child I wanted to be a star. I learned the violin, singing and dancing. I always wanted to go to acting school, but my parents didn’t let me. In school I was very extroverted. People didn’t understand why I was always with girls and never played football. My mother usually told people that it was because I only had sisters and I didn’t play because I was asthmatic. Poor woman…
When I was an adolescent I began to create my own style, and I found a way to make money doing what I liked. I began to design “brooches” and sold them in a few local shops. The brooches were made from tape measures, buttons, sequins, satin and lots of things that were stolen from my grandmother. Making them took a lot of time, although I loved seeing women on the streets wearing them. Seeing that they were selling, I bought a machine to produce badges and I began selling these too. I made badges using the logos of TV series’ from the ‘90s like The Family Monster, Power Rangers, 90210 and I made lots of money doing badges for discos. Now I use the machine to do badges with the sentence “NIÑO FIXO MADE ME DANCE” and I give them as presents to the people that enjoy my music and dance in crazy ways at my gigs.
RW: Tell us about your DJ name Niño Fixo. Where does the name come from?
AB: It’s because there’s a song by a friend’s band from Barcelona, MegAafonia. I was searching for a DJ name and I found this song. It tells the story of a boy that is “…transparent and adhesive, he’s the Fixo Boy.” In Spanish, ‘cellotape’ and ‘being on heat’ are the same word, ‘celo’. And there’s a brand of ‘celo’ thats called Fixo. Most people use ‘fixo’ when referring to cellotape. Ok, I defeat myself. It’s funnier in Spanish.
RW: I guess [laughs]! Where do you currently DJ?
AB: I’m not a resident at any club. I prefer that my gigs be periodic, like a very special event. Usually I’m djing in different cities around Spain. In April I had my first international gig, and on the 13th of September I will do my first intercontinental gig, playing in your city, New York, at the Nacotheque party. You must come!
RW: For sure, I’ll come. You kindly recorded a mix for us, which we’ll talk about in a minute, but before we do let’s recap. You’re a badge and brooch maker, a DJ, but aren’t you also a model?
AB: Yes, I have appeared in Spanish magazines such as, Metal, B-Guided, EY!, Vanidad, H, laMilk, Lamono, Vg Magazine as well as in international magazines like Dazed & Confused. I have done the most important catwalks in Spain, like Cibeles, Pasarela Barcelona, Pasarela del Carmen. Last month I was working in the showroom of Raf Simons in gay Paris!
RW: What do you most enjoy about modelling? AB: I love to walk the catwalk, to feel all of these people staring with their eyes on you, feeling each step, only you set the rhythm. There’s only one thing that I love more than this - singing on a stage. [laughs]
RW: Is it true that most male models are straight, but bendable? Do you have any experiences of this?
AB: I have some experiences of this. And I know (not for my experiences), that one of the most famous models in Spain is gay, although the press associates him with girlfriends.
RW: Which male models do you have a crush on?
AB: I don’t usually like male models. I prefer normal people. But I love Cole Mohr, the new Burberry boy.
RW: He’s a favorite of ours too! Are there any other things you do or are involved with that you haven’t told us about yet?
AB: I appeared in Vanidad magazine as designer of tees as well as being an “i-celebrity”. RW: What exactly is an i-celebrity, and how do our readers become one?
AB: Really I don’t know how I got into this world of i-celebrities. I only made a Fotolog and a MySpace page. People started to add and comment me. I used to sign on to find 200 posts on only one photo on my Fotolog. There were people that loved my style, my music and when I appeared in magazines. But, as well as having fans, you have haters too. People should know that to become an i-celebrity is not as easy as adding and posting comments to many people and suddenly becoming famous. The correct way is to upload great photos. You know, start a MySpace or Fotolog, be cool and wait to become an i-celebrity. RW: I’ll give it a go! You seem to be the archetypal SLASH KID i.e. model/DJ/musician/designer - how do you manage to juggle all these pursuits? Is it motivated by ambition or Attention Defecit Disorder (ADD)?
AB: People are always asking me about that, and it’s true that it’s not easy. But it’s not impossible. Sometimes I have to cancel some things and I always prefer to suspend classes. Maybe doing these things is motivated by the attention, but I guess it’s because of my desire to be famous. Doing more and more things I have more chances that one will go well. RW: Back to the music and DJing, thanks for creating this mix for us – I know that it’s a very personal selection. Tell us about it and what it means to you?
AB: In Barcelona I met my first love - the boy this DJ set talks about. It is made from songs that have been very significant to us. But now he is with another boy. The songs are put in the correct order to explain our story. I made it to forget him, but it has had the opposite effect on me.
‘FIRST LOVE’ - NIÑO FIXO MIX:
Divine - Sébastien Tellier
“I’m looking for a band today.”
Shut Up (And Sleep With Me) - Sin With Sebastian
I find him and he sleeps with me. In the morning he disappears.
Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals
We meet to go to the cinema, “…and then he kissed me”. This song is on the soundtrack of “Adventures in Babysitting” one of our favorite films.
JC - Mecano
“You, you and me…” having fun together.
I’ve Just Never Seen a Face - Across the Universe soundtrack
“Falling, yes I’m falling, and she keeps calling me back again.”
What I’ve Been Looking For - High School Musical soundtrack
He is it. Although he doesn’t love HSM like I do.
Enamorada - Miranda
I fall in love.
Nothing In This World - Paris Hilton
Our song.
Please Don’t Go - Double You
We broke up and I begin another relationship with a boy. He decides go to Paris. I realize that I’m losing him and I dismiss the boy. I tell him “please don’t go”, but it’s too late.
Here (In My Arms) - Hellogoodbye
“I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you…”
El Modelo - Easy Snap
He has a band. And for my birthday he give me a CD. A CD with only one song. This song. My song.
Ya No Soy Moderna - Silvina Magari
“I’m not just modern, now I want Paris.” I was a bitch, and I know, and I’m so sorry. He tells me that he will come back in two months and one of the reasons was me.
Heartbeat - Annie
One month later I found this song that I usually heard on his PC when I traveled to Paris to visit him, in the MySpace of the boy that I refused. He is now living in Paris too. My ex-boyfriend tells me that he isn’t going to come back.
Cool - Gwen Stefani
“We used to think it was impossible. Now you call me by my new last name. Memories seem like so long ago. Time always kills the pain.” I know we were cool. I travelled to Paris two months ago for job and I met with him.
First Love - Uffie
“You are the one that I always think about, my first love that I made this song about. You know me well, and you always make me feel like I’m the one, and I know your love is real. I’m so alone, I can get her phone… I can call her back, and ask her to take me back.”
Girl: Hello?
Guy: Yeah yeah it’s me
Girl: Yeah, so?
Guy: I made a huge mistake
Girl: Uh huh, yeah, you did!
RW: Oh yeah, before you go is there anything else you do that you haven’t told us?
AB: Did I mention I’m studying Technical Engineering in Industrial Design.
RW: Oh my, enough already! We look forward to seeing you in New York on September 13th at Nacotheque!
For more of Gerard Estadella’s photos check out icanteachyouhowtodoit.com.
Last time I went to London I found myself in a small bar, with a fidgety girl in cotton candy hair walking in and out of the room, “Have The Ghost Frequency played yet?” she asked me. I said no, and she said to make sure I see them. Since I’m reluctant to take advice from strange girls I left. When I later heard the band, what came out of my speakers was catchy dance punk with a shimmering of garage and a whole lot of madness - something you’ll most definitely see in the conversation we had with band’s lead singer Doran - aren’t lead singers at their best when they’re a bit bonkers?
Stef: What did you do last night?
Doran: We supported Hadouken on the last night of their tour at the Brighton Concorde 2. Then we hung out with our friends here and talked about sounding (not exclusively) over many many drinks.
S: Lets start with the basics. Describe your sound.
D: The sound of Kate Bush fucking Bobby Brown covered by Glassjaw after listening to too much Slayer.
‘We Built These Walls’
‘Never Before’
S: What’s a ghost frequency?
D: The Ghost Frequency is the attempt to survive in a state of complete nothingness.
S: The media seems to have a desperate need to compare bands to every other band there has ever been. What’s been the most inaccurate comparison you’ve read?
D: Jesus… I don’t even know if anyone has made an accurate comparison yet. Journalists are too arrogant most of the time to even realize how wildly off the mark they actually are. We’ve had Franz Ferdinand, Pink Floyd, Panic at the Disco, Bloc Party. It’s a real shame when you work so hard and for so long on something you love, only to have some sarcastic under-sexed ball bag sit there and spiel their preconceived interpretations of what they so knowledgeably know to be true about your sound, image, artwork, ideology, etc. None of it is usually even based on the music.
S: Describe each band member in five words.
D: Haha! Amazing! This is gonna be fun. Murphy: Blind, stubble, single, seven kings. Jason: He’s my pop punk princess. Barney: Beefcake, midi, blogs, hard nipples. Ross: Doom, funeral doom, death metal.
S: Tell us something about your teenage years - and don’t leave out the sexual experimentation.
D: I like the five words thing, and seeing as the other guys aren’t gonna get to sum me up, I’ll do it for my teens. Bass, booze, bleak, skateboarding, suckerforromance! (Those weren’t supposed to sound like singles ads!)
S: I read that you guys are influenced by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. How has his work influenced you, and can we hear it in your music?
D:Norwegian Wood changed my life. The way he creates these complex worlds and characters that are so serene and calming, but then sends you the darkest, most twisted abstraction is completely mind blowing. I think creating that kind of beauty in things that aren’t beautiful in my lyrics is important to me, but it’s not like we’re gonna be one of those bands that makes some pompous quack at a concept album based on one of his novels or something. You have to respect your influences.
S: How about your non-musical influences?
D: The people in my life, whether I purely hate them or love them unconditionally! Different colors. Types of weather. Artists. At the moment I’m completely elated by the work of Vania Zouravliov.
S: Speaking of art who does your logo and record artwork?
D: Our previous artwork was done by Shoreditch-based graphic artist Jiro Bevis
S: How about skin art - what’s your latest tattoo, which one is most special to you, and what will be your next one?
D: Hahaahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I’m not telling.
S: Apparently you guys started out in a small North London bedroom. Describe it.
D: It was my bedroom at my Pa’s house. Like every other bedroom I’ve ever had, it was filthy. I’m not good at keeping my own spaces tidy. We didn’t even have a proper set up, like no drums or anything. I would have loved to have been one of those kids with rich parents with an insane garage where we could practice for free and take over the world etc. But no! We had to make do with what shit we had! It was worth it though.
S: I read that you guys bonded over schlock horror films. What are the top must-sees?
D: No we didn’t. Someone looked at our artwork and decided we did. I think it was The Guardian or something. Top must sees though: Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, Frankenhooker, Toxic Avenger, and it’s not a schlock horror film, but still a great DVD - Cannibal Corpse’s The Wretched Spawn!
S: How does your love of splatter films translate to your live shows - or how will it when you make it big?
D: It doesn’t and it won’t… except on Halloween when we go whole hog and see how gruesome we can get with prosthetics!
S: If you had a gimp (assuming you don’t), what would you force him to listen to 24/7?
D: Yeah, we do have a gimp, but he won’t listen to anything but Bronski Beat!
S: Obsessions? Perversions? Fetishes?
D: Rubbing each others gooches with strawberry cheesecake.
S: Do you believe sexuality is fluid, and if so, what fluid best describes your sexuality?
D: Piss.
S: Who are your typical groupies?
D: Errrrrrrrrrr… boys, girls, men, women… I don’t know… whoever.
S: What’s a typical night out after a gig abroad?
D: It depends. If the club is awesome (which it usually is), then we stay there and get totally ripped on the free booze, then go wrestle in public parks in front of Italian police armed to the teeth with machine guns, while Barney keeps telling us to stop for the aforementioned reason.
S: How about after a gig in your hometown of London.
D: We get as far away from each other as possible.
S: If you could recommend anything at all, what would it be?
D: Roasted aubergine!
S: What is in your record collection you think we’d be very surprised by?
D: I’d say about 90% of it. Beach Boys, classical, jazz, everything Kate Bush has ever done (I don’t think anyone’s surprised by that now!). I grew up in two different homes with lots of different music, and I’ve always looked at music as songs rather than genres. If it’s a good song, no matter what the style, it should stand out to you. That doesn’t mean I’m one of those people that says “I LOVE ALL KINDS OF MUSIC!”. Fuck off, yippy.
S: You’re not big in the US just yet. What rumor would you like us to spread about your imminent invasion?
D: That our arms are way longer than our legs, and that our noses actually inverted.
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