continued from page 22
also some old myths, just because they had
some interesting perspectives on supernat-
ural phenomena. Stuff like that. So I was
intertwining those ideas into my own sto-
ries of love and relationships and things I
was thinking about, and how our culture is
radically shifting. Everyone’s getting into
music so differently now, and it was really
interesting to see that shift. In response, I
wanted to make an album where all the
instruments were being played by a
human... So I tried some different aspects
of recording that I’ve never tried before.”
Borns – no surprise here – loves talking
ELO and T Rex, hints of which you can
easily spot in “Faded Heart,” for starters.
“If anyone hears Jeff Lynne or Marc Bolan
in my music, that’s a huge compliment to
me – they’re huge inspirations for me,” he
enthuses. “I think you can tell that every-
thing they do – every harmony, every gui-
tar part, comes from within them until you
know immediately that it’s a Jeff Lynne
song from just the chord progression. And
when an artist can find that musical land-
scape and be able to interpret it and articu-
late it over and over again? That’s some
tricky stuff. And when you look back on
the credits for an ELO or T Rex song, some-
times Lynne and Bolan are the only credits
as songwriters, and a lot of times they
played all of their own instruments.”
Something to aspire to, at least. And the
fellow is already wrestling with album
number four, but he has no idea in which
direction it will careen. “I’ve been working
on a lot of different ideas, and I’m continu-
ing to find different ways to sing because
there are a lot of different voices inside
myself that I have yet to discover,” he says.
Lest any naysayers dismiss him as
some overnight sensation, this artist likes
to point out that he has been involved in
show business ever since he was ten years
old and performing paid Florida gigs as
the magician Garrett the Great. He was
already displaying prodigious talent, first
in visual art (which earned him an $8,000
college scholarship at 13), then filmmak-
ing, classical piano, and – at Muskegon
Community College – finally jazz. In 2013,
while residing in New York, Borns took an
exploratory vacation to LA and liked it so
much he moved there. Raccoons be
damned.
Borns has to admit he likes his hushed
new California digs now, once his Blue
Madonna mission was fully accomplished
and the raccoons departed. “It was melan-
choly,” he says of the eventual moving day.
“But everything digresses, I think, and I
was ready for the road again, to be honest.
So you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to
do.” But wasn’t it a little much, effort-wise,
tracking down all the necessary raw ingre-
dients and cooking your own meals from
scratch after dragging himself home from
the studio each evening? He laughs, then
gets serious. “There is always time,” he
stresses. “You’ve just got to find the time.
And there have definitely been nights
when I get home tired, extra-late from the
studio. But you don’t have to make some-
thing too elaborate, so you can always
make it happen.”
Appearing 8/3 at Lollapalooza, Chicago;
9/30 at Aragon Ballroom, Chicago.
VINYL
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26 illinoisentertainer.com august 2018