Federico Urdaneta aka Boraxx

Boraxx has played in numerous festivals in Colombia and New York both as a DJ, as a live electronic composer and as a guitar player for numerous mediocre punk bands. Recently he has appeared in famed new york clubs such as Happy Endings, Filter 14 and Subtonic, as part of the Subtext independent electronic scene.


Chief Magazine: You're from Bogota, Colombia... how was it growing up there?   Are the rumors true: cocaine, kidnappings, prostitutes?

Federico Urdaneta aka Boraxx: The rumors are absolutely true. Whoever tells you different is either the president, Shakira, or a nerd. A typical Bogotan night is comprised of:

1... lots of drinking and mountains of cocaine--grade a++, it looks like  mini-diamonds, and it costs like 50 cents.

2... pseudo-intellectual conversations--colombia is plagued by old European ghosts of "enlightenment" and reason and by the idea that ideas are just as important, if not more, than actions.

3... the closing of bars at a pretty early stage in the night, unless you go to "private clubs" which are all just South Beach wannabes so you don't, which forces you--inevitably--to visit the brothels, which are open late! Now you don't necessarily fornicate the women in there--at least not the prostitutes--but you do do a lot of dancing, salsa, merengue and other rhythms that have caused me nothing but headaches, with them.

4... oh yeah, and then you get kidnapped. Always.


Describe a moment when you thought, "Oh fuck, I'm going to die."

One time I fell from my bike in new york on the Williamsburg  Bridge; the front wheel of my steed came off--thanks "Quick  Release".  I hit myself pretty fucking bad in the head and for a second I thought--more than impending death--that I was gonna be paralyzed for the rest of my life.  One of my best friends had just come out of an accident of a similar nature and his own case was a lot in my mind back then.  In the end it was just a bad bruise, not much more. But I do have a crack in my skull that will never heal, and in my own world that makes me special.

You studied literature in school, was that in Colombia?  What prompted a liberal arts education?

Yes sir, that was in Colombia, in the grandiose "Universidad de los  Andes".  I chose literature because I had no fucking idea what to do with my life and the only thing that I had was the memory of wanting to be a writer when I was six years old. So my six-year-old-self pretty much decided for me, even though I spent most of my college years in that aesthetic and judgmental limbo that was called "rave".  Seriously, what the fuck were we thinking? I still blame it all on the drugs.

How'd you make it New York?

In a plane, with money and a study visa.
         
Describe the transition from punk bands to electronic music and DJing...

It was all my ex-girlfriend's fault. I was really into bands like  Rancid and Pennywise and all that stuff--I was young--and then all of a sudden she comes and says like, "you don't know shit, TRANCE music is the future." Again, I was young. And then she slipped some drugs in my drinks and all my reasoning went to waste. I mean the stuff I listened to--when I started getting into the electronic sounds--was absolutely awful, German epic trance, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had a blast. I'm sure many would agree with me. We would all be hypocrites if we didn't, and if we have at least two brain cells we should all have learned by now that in the end it's all transitory, and  good is good and bad is bad regardless of time, and yes, we are all victims of fashion because we all live in time--and not outside of it--and trends are retarded, yes, but so is not  willing to change, and even Oscar Wilde knew so, and it would be just as retarded to say today, "Oh no my friend, ROCK is NOW." So yeah...

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You're playing live instruments, guitar and drums, on a few  tracks, overlaying that with electronic beats and samples... How  would you categorize the music your making now?
 
I don't know. Indie-tronic progressive mellow dub two-step house rock trance? I don't know man, I hate that question even more than when my dad asks me what is it that I do.

OK, then.  What's next?

THE FUTURE, of course.

Downloads

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3

Website

http://boraxx.org (for other tunes)

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