Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland Talks To Stereoboard About Black Light Burns Latest Album (Interview)
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
Sometimes balancing life can be difficult when you choose to pursue side-projects alongside being in a world famous band. But the stress of scheduling seems worth it when all that work comes to fruition. Limp Bizkit's own Wes Borland is no stranger to this sensation as his band Black Light Burns released their sophomore offering, a good few years after much of it was completed.
Speaking of the aforementioned record 'The Moment You Realize You're Going To Fall', Wes notes, "We're getting really good reviews. I've been really surprised with an album that's so experimental and I guess noisy at times that people are really loving it. I couldn't be happier with the response."
"The last album was more of a learning experience in trying to find the sound of what the band was going to be like," he continues, touching on the differences between how he tackled this and its predecessor. "I had a lot of people helping me and a lot of guest artists who were on the record. I took the band on tour and learned how to do all this and play all these songs live and they turned into new entities. I felt like the difference between the songs on the first record and the songs I was playing live was night and day in some ways.
"With this record I wanted to do most of it myself and lock myself away in a room and work on it. Then I wanted to bridge the gap between recorded record and live reincarnation of the record - I didn't want that to happen. I wanted it to sound more live on the record. A lot of the approach was to make it sound like it was all happening at a show if I could.
"I really think [the first record] sounded too clean. There was not enough emphasis put on having character in the vocals; the vocals were - when I listen back to them - quite cold and dry, not exciting. I just wanted everything to sound less produced. I still wanted a good warm sound and for everything to sound like a record, I just wanted more insanity!"
Is insanity something he generally enjoys in music? "It depends," he admits. "I like music that's thoughtful, where a lot of time is put into crafting the sound of a record whether it's music that's really wild or music that's very soft and dreamy and happy - although I don't normally listen to very happy music, it makes me feel bad! I like listening to bad, really sad dark music - that makes me feel good. I don't know how that works. Like, Katy Perry makes me feel sad. I feel sad when I hear a Katy Perry song but a lot of the time she cheers people up. I like music where people really take the time to make a record and that's what I try to do."
Wes has openly noted that this record is very personal to him - is this more private and controlled approach to that a factor? "That was one reason because I did most of it in solitary. I wrote it mostly by myself and I recorded it mostly by myself and there was no interference. I also tried to correct a lot of things that I didn't like on the first one and it was really personal to me because I've been done with most of it for a long time and have been waiting for the right time to put it out. It's very- It feels like putting myself out in a way. I'm excited about it to no end!"
Though the record has been out a little while now, the first track was initially released back in 2009. How does he find the sheer timescale of getting this record to release? "I've just been so busy touring and writing with Limp Bizkit - my main band - that I haven't had time to do this," explains Wes. "I was having trouble choosing a time because of both our schedule and Bizkit's. It was really frustrating to wait and release this record. It means some opportunity arose to go back and revisit some elements and change some things that I had sat with and listened to for a couple of years and wanted to fix. In some ways, it's good because I got to fix things later on that I would have wanted to fix if the record had come out earlier, if that makes sense."
"I do [find balancing the bands difficult] at times. Right now I'm having to juggle the two bands that I'm working with - Black Light and Limp Bizkit - but fortunately I think we're going to go and do a tour together, so that'll make it really easy!"
Aside from being a musical artist - for those not aware - Wes is also into visual art, so much so he created the cover of the record himself. Was there a particular story as to how it came about? "I was working on several different ideas and I think I was thinking too much about the album artwork. I was working on it and doing... I think I did maybe three different paintings that I kept trashing because I wasn't happy with them. I ended up just putting the record on and kind of free...
"You know how people do free writing? They don't think that much, they just start writing and see what happens? Usually it's something coming from their subconscious. I started free painting and not thinking that much, just listening to the album and painting and that's what came out of it! That's the album cover. I also wanted an album cover where whatever the subject matter was, I wanted to outline the shape of the first album cover. It kind of does."
Does he often base his art on his music? "I think that music and visual art are connected, at least to me they are because I don't know any different. I've always had the two around. I think it depends what kind of mood I'm in as to what outlet I go to, but one usually does affect the other. There are certain ideas that I'd want to get across that I can't musically, so I'll go to painting. There's certain things that I can't paint, so I write songs. I'm really happy to have two outlets and when they both work on one project at the same time it's excellent.
"I just try to look at the world around me and interface with as many people as possible. People that are interesting to me, you know. I don't want to interface with the cashier at the grocery store too much, who's not interested in art. Actually, maybe they are! I just try to be around people who are interesting and can turn me on to new ideas and new things. I also try to digest as much as I can of different films and I go to a lot of museums and be aware of as many visual artists and as many people doing as many different things out there. People who are sort of sculpting the face of the world, of our world. I try to be as impacted by other cultures as possible. I just keep my eyes open and mix everything I see together and put it through my filter and vomit out artwork!"
Is this the same approach he has to musical influence? "It's exactly the same!" he laughs. "I just try to listen to as many bands as possible, as many different kinds of genres and types of music. I try not to miss out on anything - from pop to Japanese noise to weird bands. I just try to listen to anything and be affected by it."
The band are currently running a remix contest for their single 'Scream Hallelujah'. Is his love of finding influence in as many places as possible a driving force behind his interest in the competition? "It really is," he agrees. "I like to see what people can do. I like to be blown away by something. I want someone to do something really impressive and I also thought it would be interesting for people to hear the tracks separated for entertainment value if they're fans of the band."
With every new album released, downloading still seems to be rife. From world acclaimed bands to those recording in their garage, this seems to be the way to get music for millions. "I think that we're living in a time where things were really bad for albums sales for a while and I think we're slowly swinging back to a place where people can make a living off of records and also where records aren't too expensive. I'm glad that we have things like Spotify and the Genius Feature on iTunes, all these different things that are like "If you like this, you might like this" ideas.
"Now that it's so easy to make an album, now that music is so accessible everywhere online, I feel like the environment is oversaturated with so many bands that it's difficult to sift through so many albums of music," he continues. "Some of it's really great, some of it's just horrible, it's just being made by people who should not be making music at all! But somehow they're finding a way to make music and put it out there and god bless them, but it makes it difficult for everyone to find good music!
"The amount of people that have heard my new Black Light record, for instance, are way more people than the sales figures show have bought the record. Infinitely more people have heard the entire thing without buying it. That's kind of frustrating but that's the world we're living in right now."
What should fans expect from the band in the rest of 2012? "Well, fans over in the UK should be more concerned with the beginning of 2013," corrects Wes, "because we're coming to Europe in the last week of January and the first two weeks of February. A lot of it is the UK. We're going to be there a while - between 7 and 9 shows in the UK and it's going to be really fun, really good over there. So they can expect to see us when the weather is very miserable. We're going to be active pretty much through the rest of the this year into next year for quite a while."
I never know what to say!" he adds, referring to his closing words for fans. "I guess, a massive thank you for being interested in any way in anything that I do ever. So, that's more than I could ever ask for, so thank you a million times over!"
Black Light Burns released 'The Moment You Realize You're Going To Fall' on 20th August 2012 in Europe through Ninetone/Membran.
'The Moment You Realize You're Going To Fall' tracklisting is as follows:
1. How to Look Naked
2. We Light Up
3. I Want You To
4. The Girl in Black
5. The Colour Escapes
6. Tiger by the Tail
7. Your Head Will be Rotting on a Spike
8. Torch From The Sky
9. Because of You
10. Splayed
11. Scream Hallelujah
12. Bakelite
13. Burn the World
14. Grinning Like a Slit
15. The Moment You Realize You're Going to Fall
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Speaking of the aforementioned record 'The Moment You Realize You're Going To Fall', Wes notes, "We're getting really good reviews. I've been really surprised with an album that's so experimental and I guess noisy at times that people are really loving it. I couldn't be happier with the response."
