UK duo Border Scout have already appeared on Alternative Friday, in Emerging #38, as well as in a couple of Mixtapes. so you could already tell we were fans. If we described them an ‘electronic’ band however, we’d be doing them a disservice, as their music is a dazzling mix of experimental, cinematic, orchestral, as well as electronica, with warm vocals, velvet melodies, and some highly polished production too. Their debut album, The Nature of Things, is out on Friday October 30th, but read on to find out what bonsai gardens, flying, and frizzy hair have to do with rock ‘n’ roll…
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~ You’re a male duo who got together last year, but we don’t know much else about you, so how did you meet, where are you from, and roughly how old are you?
We met at a very early age because we are brothers and grew up together in Yorkshire. We’re young enough to dream, old enough to be wise.
~ Where are you right now, what are you doing, and what can you see?
One half is currently in Crete with a blue sky, great sunset, sat in a taverna. The other half is in studio working on a remix with the view of a bonsai garden!
~ Who would you say are your main musical influences?
Pink Floyd, Vaughan Williams, Clint Mansell, Massive Attack, and Jon Hopkins.
~ Have you played many live dates yet?
There should be a few one off shows in 2016. We’re taking our time with live. It needs to be big, bold and unique to match the scale of the album. We have some fairly radical plans for a more filmic approach to live that is a re-imagining of what music shows and cinema can be.
~ Some of your songs feature Stoney, but who is ‘Stoney’ and how do you know him?
Stoney is a mysterious figure, floating between Texas and Yorkshire (and here), who is a solo artist in his own right. We met through the owner of cult house label Paper Recordings who had the vision to know we’d work well together.
~ How long has it taken to write and record the album, and what was the biggest challenge?
The album has taken 2-years in earnest, but some ideas were sketched out long before that. It has been gestating for a while, but only came together as a whole piece of work recently. The biggest challenge was squeezing all of our ideas into the mix. This is where The Cinematic Orchestra producer and mixer Allen Farmelo really helped. He came in at the end of the production to provide us with his ‘Guiding Principles’ which helped us focus and make the whole record coherent. He then took our rough mixes and made sure everything had its place. Allen works from this amazing rural old schoolhouse on the US East Coast and has made this cool custom API mixing desk and still uses analogue tape. This blend of modern digital editing from our end and his old school mixing approach totally gave us the sound we wanted.
~ Which famous song by another artist would you love to have written yourself?
We are having one each! Radiohead – Nude. Portishead – Roads.
~ If you could collaborate with a well-known musician, who would it be?
One each again. Billie Corgan & Lykke Li.
~ Are there any other new bands or musicians local to you in the North East that you recommend we check out?
Tessera Skies are doing some cool moody/dreamy indie tunes.
Razmataz Lorry Excitement does great electro pop.
Trafik have a new album out soon, upbeat and downtempo dance music.
A lad called Jordan Riley helped us a bit during live recording and he is doing great on the London songwriter/producer scene working with the likes of Ella Eyre. We are trying to talk him into releasing music as an artist himself!
~ If you could each have a superpower, what would it be?
Flying
~ What song would you sing at a karaoke if no one you knew was watching?
Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds
~ And finally, whose hair would you like to have, if only for a day?
Slash…
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