Wes Borland likes to play with creativity. Back when he was in Limp Bizkit, he used stage paint to accent his notes. These days, it’s more lyrical.
BY ERIKA BOLIN
Wes Borland is now the boss and brings his creativy to Black Light Burns.
AUGUSTA, GA. - Wes Borland is one of those artistic souls who just keeps on creating. At 32 years old, he’s probably best known for his physical accents and ax-grinding guitar work in Limp Bizkit.
But he has moved on. Borland’s open about the breakup, “[Limp Bizkit] was over seven years ago. I’m a lot more focused in my entertainment today. I still use theatrics on stage, but much less — mainly because I am much less contained than I used to be then.”
He explains: “For instance, in Limp Bizkit, theatrical stage makeup was the one thing that didn’t have a ceiling on it. So I just blew everything through that little hole. I love being the boss now.”
Borland has reinvented himself with Black Light Burns. “I have a much broader landscape and I don’t have to cram everything into one place,” he said of his recent creative freedoms.
In the past year, Borland made another dramatic change that would have a big personal and professional impact. “Last year I was lied to by Geffen Records. It was the most awful place I could possibly be. They kept telling us throughout the whole of 2006 they were doing this and that to support my music. Lies.”
Borland feels music labels need to respect their talent and sees the indie labels as the future. “I love it that major labels are going down the tube right now. Because their overhead is so high, they have to jack the prices way up and steal even more money from the artists and the money of the fans of the artists.”
He speaks with anger and tries to paint a verbal picture of what he feels is behind the inevitable demise of all label behemoths. “Independent labels have smaller mouths and their stomachs are smaller. They are trying to stop the bleeding. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next five years.”
“Now I am at a new label and it’s a dream.” Then he says with full intent of a sniping quip, “I also don’t have band mates who are limiting or compromising or putting the ceiling on what I want to do musically. It’s all tremendously liberating.”
Black Light Burns’ debut CD, “Cruel Melody,” highlights his liberation. The titles are all written by Borland himself.
Of his songwriting technique he said, “Ideas seem to be floating around all the time. It’s a race to somehow get them down. Every little idea is like a brick. After a while, I’ll have a wall. Then, I’ll have a house or a floor built.”
“Whenever I’m not making music or outputting something creative, I start to feel rotten inside. I am kind of obsessed and the only way I get to stop is if I’ve done a lot. Then I have like a two-day rest and then my brain starts gnawing at itself again. It says, ‘You have to go do this right now.’”
Another way his brain artistically purges is through painting. He said, “I have always painted. But it’s only now that I actually have a large enough portfolio to present as a body of work.”
Borland is in tune with new media and its importance. He added, “We are already on Myspace where people can download songs. And my new manager and I have just built a Web site for my art.”
He insisted the art venture is not for profit. They are more his way of gift giving. “I usually give them to the people in the painting. I do sell some. But others I just don’t want to let go of yet.”
Borland’s canvases are very much like his music: furiously dark, yet beautiful. The subjects lean towards studies in the macabre with broad touches of whimsy.
He said his inspirations for the brush come from all over, though he admitted his hobbies help. “I collect medieval swords and armor and human remains, like skulls and skeletons. And I have a few of those photo books on crashes.”
Borland is quick to add in his defense, so he doesn’t sound too creepy even for an alt-weekly, “Guts gross me out, though. I don’t like watching surgery or anything like that. I don’t like scalpels cutting skin. Yech!”
Black Light Burns with Horse the Band and Headsnap The Mission 1157 Broad Street Wednesday, June 27 8 p.m. Tickets $10 ($12, day of show) 706-722-1233 themissionlive.com myspace.com/blacklightburns
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