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.

We received so many emails after our interview with Luis Venegas about his new Electric Youth! magazine (above), we’ve decided to carry it ourselves. Issue #2 is due out soon, but you can pick up the premiere “I Love Spain” issue in our store now. Hot hot hot Spanish boys on nearly every page. I’m just sayin…

We’ve also got a very few copies of Luis’ first-ever issue of Fanzine137, the “Anything Goes” issue, (below) from way back in September 2004, also in the EVB store.

By the way, if you’d like to hear about things like this before we make it public and sell out of everything, sign up on our mailing list.

So magazines are dead are they? Don’t tell that to Luis Venegas, founder, Editor and Creative Director of two of the most exciting and beautiful magazines to have emerged in the last few years. Coming out of Madrid, Fanzine137 and Electric Youth! clearly demonstrate that the art of the magazine, or magateen (in the case of EY) publishing is far from dead. If anything its getting hotter and cuter.

Anyhow, don’t take it from us let Luis explain.

Richard: Please describe yourself in 137 words.

Luis Venegas: Wow! Love this question! I’ll try the best I can in my not-too-good English.

I’m a Spanish guy who lives in Madrid. Everybody tells me I look like a child when I shave, but I’m 32 years old. I’m not too tall, not too fat, not too thin. As many other gay guys in the world, I studied fashion. Later I became freelance Art Director, and in 2004 I started my own magazine, Fanzine137. Recently I’ve launched a new magateen called Electric Youth! I love magazines in general. I contribute with texts and photographs to some of my favorites around the world. I guess the things I like are the ones that better describe me: tv series, handsome boys, my family and friends, Christopher, singing, kissing, movies, New York City, laughing, Marvel comics, haute couture, Jake Gyllenhaal, biographies, orange juice. I would like to live with the guy I love.

R: When did you start Fanzine 137, what was your initial inspiration and how did you come up with the name?

LV: My endless love of magazines since I was a child. I’ve collected special magazines since I was twelve years old. From Vanity Fair to rare issues of Avant Garde, for example - so it was my dream to make my own special magazine, and hopefully earn money doing it! I’m almost obsessed with numbers, and 137 is a number that’s always brought me luck. I use it often everyday. I mean, for example, if I’m waiting for someone who’s delayed I think “I’ll count to 137 and if he doesn’t come I’ll leave”. I also love to look at the clock and see that is 1:37 - I take it as a good sign. Those kind of stupid things have become very important to me. So I thought it was nice to try to bring that extra luck to my magazine.

R: Editor, Creative Director and Publisher - it must be an extremely hectic life being Luis Venegas. What do you do to relax, unwind and escape?

LV: Well, lately my life is pretty busy, yes, but I enjoy what I do a lot, so I don’t ‘need’ to do anything specifically to relax. Anyway, I love to do the same things that everybody does to relax: watch tv, go out at night, dance, sex, travel, music…

R: So tell us what you did last Saturday night?

LV: I received the visit of a nice, handsome friend at home. After he left I watched episode 12 of Lost season 4 that I downloaded from the internet. I can’t wait to see episode 13 next week - the end of the season!

R: You have an amazing roll-call of contributors for the magazine - how do you select them, or do they pursue you?

LV: Usually I contact them. I show them copies of past issues and they usually like them. Most times that’s what convinces them to get involved.

R: You have published six issues. Which has been the most rewarding, personally?

LV: Always the next one. At this moment I’m finishing it. It will be called ‘Ladies & Gentlemen’ and it will be about people with long-time careers. I prefer to look forward, and rewind as little as possible. That’s why I always like the ‘next’ issue.

R: A little bird tells me you are a huge Barbra Streisand fan. What are your favorite Streisand tracks, and why are they so special to you?

LV: I love ‘Guilty’, ‘Putting it Together’ and ‘The Way We Were’. I love Barbra! I know it’s a cliché, being gay, but what can I say? I simply adore her, how great she makes me feel, all she does - but I really can’t explain why exactly. Love comes from the most unexpected places.

R: Do you have a dream?

LV: I have too many to tell you here. The good thing is, little by little all them are coming true. If you ask about an impossible dream, I would like to have Spiderman’s superpowers.

R: You have recently added a new super hot title to to house of Venegas - EY, Electric Youth! Tell us about it, and why you started it.

LV: Because I felt I needed to take a step forward, and do a magazine very different to Fanzine137. I wanted it to be lighter, even more funny and as sexy as possible. I love young guys and all the excitement around them, so I decided to put it all together.

R: You describe EY as the new cult magateen. Who or what is this cult celebrating?

LV: Maybe I’m not the most appropiate person to say, but if we agree youth is one of the greatest times of our lives, well, I guess that’s enough reason to celebrate, don’t you think?


R: Where did you find all the super cute boys?

LV: Most of them are friends of mine. I wanted “real” pretty boys, not the usual models. The ones that I didn’t know I found on MySpace.

R: EY is essentially about the YouTube generation. How do you think the internet is effecting what you do how we communicate and relate with one another?

LV: The internet is absolutely effecting all levels of communication. Luckily. I have no fear of this amazing change - it’s exciting. You and I are talking because of internet. I think in a 100 years someone will refer to the human story as pre-internet or post-internet.

R: I’d now like you to answer some of the questions you asked the 23 hot Spanish boys in the interviews you did for EY.

LV: Cool! I’m enjoying this interview very much! You should do the questions for the US issue of EY!

R: It’s a deal. So, what do you like to drink when you go out at night?

LV: Rum with Coca-Cola.

R: Do you smoke?

LV: No, almost never.

R: What’s the farthest place you’ve ever traveled?

LV: I don’t know which is farthest from Spain. New York or Buenos Aires? I’ve been to both places.

R: Definitely Buenos Aires. According to you who is the world’s best dressed person?

LV: How difficult. I hate that all the celeb men and women these days have a stylist, so it’s difficult to find real taste or originals. I guess Diane Keaton is a true original, and I also like the black simplicity of Grace Coddington.

R: What’s the most incredible nightclub you have ever been to?

LV: In Versailles, for the celebration of Dior’s 60th Birthday. It wasn’t a nightclub exactly, I know, but the night was unforgettable.

R: In what music video would you want to live?

LV: Any of the videos that Bruce Weber has done for Pet Shop Boys: ‘Being Boring’, ‘Se a Vida é’ or ‘I Get Along’.

R: And finally, what is your tip for the future?

LV: To have as much fun as possible. To keep the joy.