Tom Grut
Borderline Are Ready to Take Over the World
Read an exclusive interview with AMA People's Choice winners Borderline, one of our Future of Music 2026 acts.
This interview is part of our Future of Music 2026 series. Follow all the coverage here.
Borderline are arriving at their debut album with the momentum of a band who have grown up in public but never lost the spark that made them start out in the first place.
Formed in Auckland, the four-piece — Ben Glanfield, Jackson Boswell, Matthew McFadden, and Max Harries — have been friends since childhood, first releasing music together while still in high school. Their debut single “Spinning”, released in 2022 when the band members were just 16, quickly landed on the Hot 40 Singles chart and Radioscope Most Added charts, setting the tone for a rise that has only accelerated since.
After closing out 2025 with two singles landing in the top 10 New Zealand songs on radio, Borderline returned home from a 14-date tour across the US and Canada and stepped straight into a major new chapter.
Their self-titled debut album arrives June 26th via EMPIRE, featuring recent singles “Terrify”, “Tainted”, “Watching It Burn”, and latest release “That Girl”.
The album is “the sum of every single corner of musical inspiration from all four of us,” according to the band, shaped through home studio sessions, late nights, and time spent in Roundhead’s Brick Room experimenting with vintage synths and guitars.
“That Girl” captured that sense of maximalist fun. Leaning into their love of over-the-top ’80s-indebted instrumentation, the song is loaded with live vintage synths, big pop textures, and Michael Jackson / Prince-inspired vocals, with the band calling it “the result of four musicians not shying away from self-indulgence.”
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That confidence is coming through beyond the studio too. Borderline won the prized, public-voted People’s Choice category at the 2026 Aotearoa Music Awards, and they also competed for Best Pop Artist alongside global superstars Lorde and BENEE.
They will take their debut album on the road across Aotearoa and Australia in July, with shows in Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch, Tauranga, Rotorua, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.
For a band still only at the beginning of their first album cycle, Borderline already sound like they are thinking bigger, with sharper songs, bolder production, and the kind of live ambition that makes the next step feel inevitable.
Read an exclusive interview with Borderline below.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: What does it mean to you to be included in Rolling Stone’s Future of Music series?
Borderline: It means the world to us, it’s amazing to see the support for so many fantastic artists and we are truly grateful to be included. We take much inspiration from the decades past and legends that paved the way, but we love to create new music in the current time. It is an honour to be considered part of the future of music.
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How did you first get your start in music?
We all come from quite different musical backgrounds, though we all picked up music while in primary school (or even earlier!). Jackson got his first drum kit at three years old and many of us began music lessons quite young. Whether in school groups like concert bands, jamming with our mates, or playing acoustic cover gigs at pubs with parental supervision, we all grew up involved with music in a variety of ways.
Describe your sound to a new listener in three words.
Popping, rocking, funking.
Tell us about your latest release.
Our most recent single “That Girl” is mighty. We worked with the immensely talented Mo’dre and Lucy from The Feel Good Service and our producer Nic Manders to bring this beast together. It’s funky, it grooves, and [it] really shows off what we can do. We love to play live and this one may be a bit self-indulgent.
“That Girl” is made all the more special with one of the best videos we’ve ever had thanks to the incredible Tom Grut and everyone else involved. Filmed at Auckland’s very own Spookers, the video blends retro style with Scooby-Doo and ghouls. “That Girl” is truly one of our favourites.
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What’s your favourite career memory so far?
In October of 2025 we opened for Teddy Swims on the NZ leg of his NZ & Aus tour, and one of those shows was at Spark Arena. We all grew up in Auckland, so being able to perform on the arena stage we’ve spent so many years watching some of our favourite artists come and play was a very emotional and full-circle moment.
To top it off, by the time we started our set the arena was packed — it was so cool to see everyone come out early and bring such good energy. Teddy, his team, and his band were so lovely to us and even came out to watch our show that night. Truly a show we’ll never forget.
@zmonline Teddy Swims on his opener band Borderline 🥝🇳🇿 #nzmusic #teddyswims
What are the positives and negatives of being a musician in 2026?
Having access to production software and all the tools of 2026 makes creating and recording ideas super efficient! Even just an iPhone with voice memos is such a powerful tool that musicians take advantage of. On the flip side, however, with the recent rise of AI technology, many musicians have been aware and observing where it might settle as a creative tool and what sort of impact it might have in the long run.
We live in an age where any musician can build a platform and spread their work online — it is such an incredible tool for artists and has the potential to reach massive audiences. Though for many musicians, engaging with and utilising social platforms has become a necessary component of creating as an artist. It’s a great positive for all sorts of creatives, not just musicians.
What’s one thing you’d change about the ANZ music industry?
As a band we especially pride ourselves on live performance — we love doing it and we love watching it. It would be awesome to see more live shows and events at both a smaller scale and at the larger end. Undoubtedly that has a lot to do with gig culture and people coming out to shows, but after seeing how strong live music is overseas in places like the US and the UK, we would love to see AU/NZ live music thrive like it deserves too!
Are you hopeful for the future of music in ANZ?
Absolutely, we strongly believe New Zealand and Australia produce some of the best music in the world. There are so many incredible artists making music in our part of the globe, and we are very excited to see what is to come.
Name one other ANZ act you’d like to see make our Future of Music series in the future.
Foley are an incredible act that we’ve had the pleasure of playing with before. Their music is grooving hard and so catchy!
What’s coming up for you this year?
We are so excited to have our self-titled debut album releasing on June 26th! This has been in the works for over a year and a half, and is a real testament to how far we’ve come both as a band and as people.
In addition to that, we’re looking forward to playing these new songs live as frequently and in as many different places as possible.
