Amadeus Nazca

* **Name:** Alejandro Enrico Naches y Ortiz, stage name "Amadeus Nazca"
* **Position:** Headlinging Ergi  recording artist. Owner of Archon Records.
* **Metatype:**Human  (*Homo sapiens sapiens*)
* **DOB:**11/1/2042 Thief River Falls MN, UCAS

I shouldn't even be writing this. There's not a lot to be said about Amadeus Nazca that can't be gotten going through the the archives of "On the Horizon!" "P2 Elite" and other entertainment sites.

But for those of you who managed to live in a wireless-free zone, one entertainment site defined him as "the tributary that flows from the bliss dens and basement clubs of the Ergi to the mainstream" [*On the Horizon, 3/12/2070*]. Or, alternatively "as much as a corporate product as my mom's toaster and about as Argr as my uncle's Concrete Dreams chip" [*False Truths*Ergi newsletter, Aug 2072].

Before he was Amadeus Nazca, Alejandro Naches (known as 'Nacho' or 'Chips' to his friends) grew up on his uncle's ranch outside Thief River Falls, listening to WizPunk and rap-ajo chips after bedtime, and sneaking out to all-ages shows with his friends. When the ranch went out of business in 2059 (part of Ares Agribusiness' push to drive out independent operators in the Red River Valley) and his Uncle Roman moved back to Denver, the seventeen-year old Chips ran off to Fargo  to join the burgeoning Ergi  scene there with a dream of making it as an Ergi musician.

The next three years saw him surfing from couch to couch and failing to get any gigs and getting booed off the stage at local open mic nights. He was even in a band ("Wand Envy") briefly during the Year of the Comet, the high point of Ergi culture locally, although they had broken up by the year's end. He filled in the gaps with a job as a bus boy at the VIP Room.

The turning point came at a now-legendary house show at the Icehouse in November of '62, when the headliners ("Many Different Herrings") didn't show up, legend says because of a sudden car failure, and Chips Naches got up and gave a set that nobody would ever forget, totally new material like nobody had heard before. And 'Amadeus Nazca', local superstar was born.

From that moment on, nothing would ever be the same for Nazca, going from strength to strength, from house shows to the Corner  to the Terrarium. By early '63 Amadeus Nazca was getting notice outside the Zone  and moved to the MSPlex, becoming a mainstay of the Argr scene, playing hotspots like the Wabasha Caves and the Temple of the Drowned Cat. Nazca even opened for Egri favorites Astral Lightning at First Avenue, and cut an album (the weird and inventive *Lines*) with a local label and was preparing a second when the label went under in the Second Crash. However in one of the strokes of luck that marked his career, Shangri-La Entertainment, the local Horizon affiliate was looking for innovative new acts to hi-light their new Wireless Matrix-adapted music distribution networks and signed Nazca as part of their stable of new faces and agreed to publish his second album *Musenomicon*.

This is the part where most of you come in. *Musenomicon* was a top-40 hit, the first time most people had heard WizPunk Ergi music and provided Nazca with three of his most famous singles (*Ghosts Don't Dance, Set's Get*and *Ouroborus*). And that was only the beginning. Through the sixties Nazca went from strength to strength. Hit albums, fame, concert appearances, Amadeus Nazca toured with the controversial band Shield Wall and collaborated with mage-musician Enoch Ian Keys on several songs on Keys' album *The Whole of the Law*, including the chart-topper *The Door and the Key*.

When Nazca was tapped to write songs for the soundtrack for the latest robot romance/action blockbuster *Hearts of Steel VIII: Fists of Victory*, it divided the fandom between the acclaim of the mass-media audience, who said that it made VIII one of the best of the later *Hearts of Steel* series while earlier fans hated how mainstream it was, and it was about this time the words 'sell-out' began to be used on the underground music forums. And Nazca's clumsy online overreactions didn't make it any better.

This would have been just a footnote in Nazca's career under other circumstances, any accusations wiped away by the next brilliant album. Unfortunately, the next album was 2071's disastrous *Songs To Come Back From the Dead To.* The album itself was confused and gimmicky, with Nazca taking on a 'romantic vampire' persona. While there were musical problems with it, the thing that really killed it, and almost killed Nazca's career, was the backlash from the very Infected -supportive Ergi core fandom at the insensitive way that Nazca used the vampire identity like a prop for his music.

This time, the rift between artist and fandom wasn't going to heal and Infected-rights protests and stunts at Nazca's concerts during the tour in late '71-early '72 finally peaked in Denver in 2072, when Nazca personally got into it with some noisy fans and, to the surprise of everyone the non-magical Nazca almost hurled a manaball at the crowd, only stopped by his own magical security (provided by a chapter of the Ancients).

Of course, you all saw the gossip feeds, you all know what happened next. The revelations of an enormous Tempo  habit in '73, the paranoid verbal assaults on other media figures, the canceled concerts, dropping out of the public eye and finally, the rehab and public apology appearances. It was all pretty hard to avoid even if you tried.

It may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise for the Ergi scene. Nazca's public breakdown was the first in a series of scandals and revelations among established figures in the Scene, and public fights over the community's inclusiveness towards the Infected. The diminishing of a number of the scene's icons made room for smaller, more grass-roots Ergi groups to gain exposure (especially in the places like the MSPlex). Some of those who benefited included the runners of the underground show where Saint and Mink (of Saint, Mink and Tachi) first met.

Now, of course, Nazca is attempting a come-back. The new album (released under his own label 'Archon Records'), largely about Nazca's struggles with wanting, but not having, magical ability and his Tempo-addiction, *No Magick But My Own*, is doing fairly well. Well enough at least that a tour to promote the album has been green-lit and will include the MSPlex as it covers the area that Nazca got his start in, working with his original manager from Shangri-La, the infamous Felix Velcro.

Of course, come-backs are tricky things and whether this is a new beginning or just a sad epilogue is yet to be seen.

[*Edit 11.7.2075: Amadeus Nazca never showed up to his 11/1/2075 Chicago show. Subsequent shows in Detroit, Toronto and Erie have been canceled and the No Magick But My Own tour has been put on hold, although Archon Records have refused to confirm shadow rumors that Nazca has gone missing*]

## Discography

* *Lines* (2063) - Berdache Records
* *Musenomicon* (2065) - Shangri-La Productions
* *VantaGoth* (2066) - Shangri-La Productions
* *Ms Tree and Mister E*(2068) - Cuīcatlahtōl Recording
* *Hearts of Steel VIII OST*(2070) - Shangri-La Productions
* *Songs To Come Back From the Dead To* (2071) - Cuīcatlahtōl Recording
* *No Magick But My Own* (2075) - Archon Records

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