Rafa Saavedra said that “if we lose TijuanaMexico will be left without a future.” And Ramón Amezcua, ‘Bostich’ in the Nortec collectiveagrees with the Tijuana writer who died in 2013. Hearing his name, he remembers: “My dear friend”.
Ramon and Pepe Mogt ‘Fussible’visited Guanajuato to appear at the 52nd edition of the International Cervantino Festivala party in which they said they were happy to participate, and this was demonstrated in their show, which was held in Los Pastitos. With a Kraftwerk-style stage aestheticsthe duo evoked the nostalgia of hundreds of fans with their mix of electronic music with sounds of accordion, tuba and other regional elements.
Within the framework of this concert, Ramón spoke with MILLENNIUM about the home of the collective, that city that houses many universes within itself: Tijuana.
“I think Tijuana, in some way, was the spearhead in some things. From the history of rock, electronic music… we were not pioneers, but we were like an island with its own identity,” the musician acknowledges.
We Tijuana residents, he says, “have always been very jealous of what is uniquely Tijuana.” And he gives as an example the guitarist Javier Bátiz, because “one could not talk about the history of Mexican rock without its chords.”
About him current artistic panorama from the border city, he notices “very dispersed, but that doesn’t mean it’s deadbut it is something very natural for a city that grows so quickly.”
“15-10 years ago we all knew each other, there was a mutual influence, but today it is so great that it is lost, not because of creativity, but because the city has grown so much that there is no longer something very concrete. It’s natural, it happens in big cities, they grow and a lot of contact between the same people is lost,” he explains.
Another factor that directly affects the artistic dispersion of Tijuana is the violenceThis is what ‘Bostich’ recognized during the press conference prior to his Cervantino show: we are “proud to be from Tijuana, even though we know that it is a city with many security problems”.
Since Nortec is a group that has been sailing since the late 90s, its members have had to witness many changes in music consumption. And of the current paradigm, governed by algorithms and streaming, Ramón believes that “it is a problem for those of us who like to search and find new things.”
“Since there is so much music and it is so easy to compose… Going back to artificial intelligence, you can upload albums made with that to which you put your name. With so much production, it is lost, it is more complicated. However, there are still platforms, like Bandcamp, where you can find something. It’s a problem because you no longer have time to listen, 15 seconds and what’s next.”
Aesthetics are another stronghold of Nortec: how can we forget those illustrations of figures with cowboy hats made by Gerardo Yepiz ‘Acamonchi’. “Now we are taking many images of Baja and bringing them to the visual part. There was a time when we used northern things because it was what we had, it was a culture. But now we are taking the natural aesthetic of our state. Much of that will be part of our new show”says Amezcua.
And when will this new show be, which will mark a new creative tone for the duo after the release of the album From South to North (2022)? In March next year. Nortec will present it in one of the most emblematic places in Tijuana, where artists such as Ariel Camacho, Conjunto Primavera, Grupo Firme and Los Acosta have performed: The Fleas.
“It’s going to be a surreal experience. I have gone to Las Pulgas more to bring friends, I don’t go alone much, but it is a reality that is lived in Tijuana, and when we have played there I think it is an opportunity for local people to live that experience, that it is possible to break with issues traditional. Now that we return, it will be an opportunity for many people who have not been to Las Pulgas,” says ‘Bostich’.
