Jan 24, 2026
3 min read
The Asturian artist released "Vidas semipreciosas" on January 23, an album that shows his loyalty to politics and love.We spent a day with him in the town of Gijon.
Nacho Vegas, musician who fought fascism: "We have to fight it in every possible way"
The Asturian artist published 'Vidas Semipreciosas' on January 23rd, an album that reflects his commitment to politics and love.We spent a day with him in his hometown of Gijon
Nacho Vegas talks about his mother, to whom he dedicates a song from his new album Vidas semipreciosas.Taking a drink of white wine in a restaurant overlooking the port of Gijón, the city where he was born 51 years ago and where he lives, he says: "When you are a little older you prefer a father figure. My mother was that selfless woman who always worked at home, and my father was the one who gave the voice and everyone was strong [they have three little brothers]. But when I grew up, I realized that she is always there, that she is the one who raised us and the one who instilled in us."many values that were very important to us, something that enlightened me, for example, I went to public school and I remember that I had some friends who explained to us why she and my father decided to go to public school.
The song he wrote for his mother is called Fiu (Son, Asturian) and says: "If I've ever heard a precious name on earth, that name is without a doubt Cristina Vegas. What she wants for us / I'm an internationalist because inside and out." Cristina Vegas turns 76 on January 20, just three days before the release of Vidas Semipreciosas. Nacho recorded this song in secret.His plan is to show it to his mother as a birthday present.
One day last December the sun did not penetrate the thick clouds that covered the Asturian sky.However, the temperature is pleasant.We walked the streets of Gijón, for which the singer is very famous.In the evening, the singer will give a small concert at a party with Asturian artists (Rodrigo Cuevas will also be present) organized by Radio 3 in the impressive hall of Jovellanos, a symbol of the city's culture.She will be accompanied by the all-female antifascist choir Al Altu La Carrey.Esther Roldan, 49 years old, architect and member of the choir, analyzes the image of a musician in her city: "Of our generation, born in the seventies, Nacho was one of the few people living in Gijón. I, for example, left because it was difficult to find work and did not return. After a while I returned. Nacho is involved in the great culture of politics. Not in the ideas of the left and workers' struggle"Commitment makes him the best person to show the good health of Gijón: he participates in the International Museum Day and demonstrations in favor of Palestine or in favor of people affected by the mortgage. He always has his own agenda regarding political or cultural commitment.
Vadas Semipreciousis arrived four years after his previous work, Mandos Amuels Derambiido (2022), and works as a collection of Vegas essentials: songs about politics, love and connection to his land, and not because he sometimes sings in Asturian.I am suffering.I have to leave my house for a while.This time I did it in two batches.There, in a rural area and colored by the nature of the song, the composer prepared.
The album sounds musical self-aware, with perhaps the most diverse set of songs of his career: It is recognizable NACHIer and structures that are not constantly watching rhythms themselves with an dozening matters, which only he can dress in poetical moralPrinciples.ty characters start as shy lilies and suddenly transform into carnivorous orth in this kind of the totally satisfied all we have to do is tipped them. ThisSo he disappear them not under the carpet.
After such reflections, he goes on, knowing how to use clichés to analyze his music: “But this album is not tortured at all, huh?We have to bring some fun into life.''He is right, because songs like "My Little Beast" (from "Benidorm Sound" (the old Benidorm, not the festival)) or Llueven Flies (Super) are positioned as the most commercial songs of his career, a term that is rarely used to describe him. "The most indisputable value of Nacho is his lyricism," Vegas bassist Hans Laguna said by phone.“I've seen him write and he's come so far on a literary level.He took his lyrics to a disgusting extreme.And it shows because it is far beyond what we are used to."
Nacho Vegas is part of the first wave of Spanish indie, which appeared in the nineties.With groups like Eliminator Jr. and Manta Ray, he fulfilled the standards of the genre, inflated greatly by some media and by the nineties festival: loud and singing in English.He admits that he left both groups because of the group's efforts to express themselves in English, "when the grade was 3.5 [out of 10] in the fifth year of EGB."Political and social issues are also unknown and even distorted movements.It's a bad thing in this environment, more concerned with imitating Anglophile words." When I left the political question, they answered me: 'Panfletario'. And this was told to me by someone who wears Fugazi, a group with politics. Spanish indie is a movie that is a product of aznarato. He sings at the time of 19 and Aznar400. when there is no corrupt PS that no one believes in corporate politics with frustrationbody when indie came out, so "few people got political in that place."so he left without looking back.
When Vegas left Manta Ray, he became a modern singer-songwriter in Spain with some new features.Hans Laguna puts it this way: "It was a revelation for people of my generation (he's 46) who grew up not with traditional singer-songwriters but with Johnny Cash, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen or Townes Van Zandt. There were no references to anyone doing it in Spanish. And then Nacho came along."
His lyrics dealt with torments, such as his complicated relationship with his father (in L'Angelo Simon), who died at only 48, having already divorced his mother.Their attraction to backwardness or their addiction."When I came, you had to have a little brain to run a monkey, but even then I got through more than one."Skills need to be removed or so they manage a lot of people ..." and well there were moments like "and there were moments" and there were moments like "and there were more moments". Addiction happens when there is nothing important in your life.
Later albums shared with Bunbury and Christina Rosenwing became more popular than that, allowing him to be discovered by audiences outside of indie.He also became romantically involved with Cristina, causing the image of Vegas to appear in the most unseemly sections of the media, a situation made worse by his subsequent relationship with PP politician Andrea Levy."When I was with Christina, they gave us a lot of reports, and she told me: 'No, I already know and it's not good enough for us.' Because she already felt it. However, I found it very funny: appearing in these publications and such... I don't know, I had fun. But Christina is smart, and thank God."The musician's current partner is Sofia Castanone, a poet, writer and former Podemos deputy.
Nacho meets his fellow travelers on our trip to Gijon, and the topic of conversation cannot be other than the death of Jorge Martinez, which happened on December 9, shortly before our meeting.Vegas knew him well and tells an anecdote that describes the true character of the Illegales leader: "He always told me: 'Nacho, I have a bad flight, your lyrics will be yours, but you don't play the guitar at all: to start the chord in a major seventh, damn it.'
Semiprecious Life has three entries in the form of comments from many people connected to the left.They were like leaders in the direction leading to songs with anti-fascist themes.The protagonists of this short talk are Francisco Javier Aijón Javitxu, one of the so-called Los Seis de Zaragoza, who spent a year and a half in prison when he was arrested in 2019 after demonstrating against the Vox conference in Zaragoza;the former vice-president of the CUP, Anna Gabriel, was accused of disobedience due to this plan while leaving the country;and Adur Ramírez, one of the victims in Alsasua." These three cases show that there is oppression in the Spanish state," explains the singer.the psychological aspect is very important in music, but also political commitment. The two types of commitment can go hand in hand with Carolina's We art commitment. ¿Where is my education?] that sometimes we think that selfishness and not wanting things are two sides of the same coin. It is the opposite of commitment, when you commit to something, even if you don't want to do it.
In another song from the upcoming album, Tiempo de Lobos, he warns of the arrival of the far right in institutions.Because there is no other way to fight violence other than self-defense violence. And that's what we have to prepare for." Vegas is a member of Anticapitalistas, but is also critical of the left. "Young people are accepting the ideology of the extreme right, and you don't know how to reverse that narrative. It's clear that something is being done wrong on the left and something very good is being done on the right because they are winning the culture war."
The title track of the stars of Semipreciosas is Deslenuarte, performed with Albert Pla, a seven-minute song with a great sense of humor justifying the "deslanguados" who give a voice to the "silent".A composition in favor of those who disagree and where Vegas, their choir and their choir "overcome God" 31 times.
Nacho Vegas went to his house to pick up the guitar and came back with it for the concert at the Jovellanos Theater.She finds herself in the small dressing room with the women of the Anti-Fascist Choir and there are hugs and kisses.Already on stage, and to the applause of a full venue, they play Ciudad Vampira, Ser Arbol and Los Astonishments, the last of the new album.When the performance is over, Nacho takes to the microphone and shouts: "Freedom for [the union group] The Swiss Six, No to the terrorist and genocidal state of Israel and long live free Palestine."The audience stood up and applauded him.
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