Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland band Borderline have just wrapped up a breakthrough twelve months, which is putting it mildly.
From Smokefreerockquest to now touring the world, the young band have quickly built up a reputation as one to watch in New Zealand music and beyond. Winning in the People’s Choice category at the recent Aotearoa Music Awards was, no doubt, the clincher.
“It felt crazy,” vocalist/drummer Jackson Boswell says from a bach in Northland, as he, Max Harries (bass, sax), Ben Glanfield (guitar, vocals, keys), and Matthew McFadden (lead guitar) dial in during a week-long music-making retreat.
“We weren’t expecting to win anything at all, but more than that, it felt really special,” he adds.
Borderline began as an indie surf-rock band during high school. Boswell and McFadden, who have known each other since they were kids, began jamming together on drums and guitar. Glanfield joined the band during high school when they needed a singer for Smokefreerockquest.
They officially began in 2022, released an EP in 2023, and then the trio met Harries when they started university. “Everything from then on has been us four,” Glanfield says.
Juggling university and music, the four spent much of their time outside of the grind rehearsing, writing, and playing shows, between working hospitality jobs at the weekends to sustain their music. Now, at 21 and 22-years old, they’ve found a way to make music their full-time career.
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“We had a few challenges, and we really stuck through, and now we’re just 100% adamant that this is what we want to do,” McFadden explains. “We put everything into it… now we get to do this every day. It’s great.”
Their self-titled debut album, out today, has been sitting in the vault for over a year.
Diverting from the original surf-rock space that the “younger bands at the time were all doing,” the record draws on their personal influences instead.
“We started making the music that we felt really passionate about and really enjoyed,” Boswell says.
“We found that all four corners of our music inspiration are vastly different,” Glanfield adds. “Matt learned guitar by playing metal and blues. Max didn’t even play bass all that much when we met him; he was in jazz school for saxophone. Jackson was playing like funk stuff and rock and a bit of the pop stuff as well, and I was just playing Ed Sheeran covers.”
Glanfield says Borderline wasn’t a conscious decision to make pop music.
Describing the album as diverse, with each track a different genre, style, or vibe, they agree there isn’t one route they’re taking. Inspired by Coldplay, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Fleetwood Mac, “everything goes” on this coming-of-age album, it seems.
“We want people to feel a certain emotion when they listen to music,” Glanfield says. “I think that’s why people listen to music, because it makes you feel some kind of way, and I think when you’re growing up, you jump between emotions quite often.
“The album kind of feels like that, where everything’s a bit crazy when you’re young.”
Recorded and produced at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios and with Parachute Music, the band first recorded with Nic Manders, a friend, collaborator, and award-winning producer they greatly admire.
“We were such huge fans of his production style,” Boswell says. “At the core of it, we play all of our instruments live on the songs, and he was really great at capturing that and getting the best out of us, and being very creative and just open to crazy ideas. The whole album process was really fun with him.”
When asked what they think the future holds for Gen Z musicians, Glanfield thinks people are getting more into live music, live bands, and real instruments on stage.
“You can even see it with Olivia Dean, Sam Fender — they’re all quite organic-sounding big rooms. I think that’s what people are leaning more towards now… and I think it’s cool because you get less one-hit wonders.”
“I feel like we had a big period of songs blowing up on TikTok, and then that [feeling of] being the biggest artist in the world for six months. I feel we’re also getting more people actually building their career and catalogue and gaining a loyal fanbase slowly over time.”
“People are attaching to an artist’s story,” Harries adds.
Credit: Frances Carter
Starting on July 3rd, Borderline will celebrate their new release with a New Zealand, Australia, and Europe tour, including a slot at Bittersweet Festival in Poland.
“I think this is the first tour where our shows will be shows and not gigs,” Glanfield says. “We love touring as well, like we did a month in the States [last year], and somehow we came back missing each other, so we were straight back into hanging out and practising and writing.”
“The New Zealand and Australia shows are going to be really special,” Boswell says. “We haven’t played in our hometown in a wee while, so that’ll be great. The UK and Europe [tour] are going to be an absolute blast.”
“It’s a massive, massive year of touring, but it’s going to be fun.”
Borderline’s self-titled album is out now via EMPIRE.
Hannah Powell is a music journalist and radio host based in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
