Artist to Watch: BØRNS
Musically, BØRNS can be described as a dreamy blend of folk, glam, and electro rock with an angelic voice floating above the instrumentation. At live shows, like the one on Conan, BØRNS puts on mesmerizing performances. Is BØRNS a group? A solo artist? Garrett Borns doesn’t really get hung up on that sort of thing.
Borns, a native of Grand Haven, Michigan, moved to Los Angeles in 2013 after visiting and deciding to stay. “I was kind of floating around,” said Borns in an interview with LA Weekly. “I came out here on a whim to clear my head, write music, and meet some people. I gave myself a few months to do that and that turned into a few more months.” Borns found the environment “so creative” that he quickly wrote his first single, “10,000 Emerald Pools” with producer Jack Kennedy. The track was passed around, and Borns was signed by Interscope Records.
When examining his early artistic efforts, words like “prodigy” come to mind. Borns shrugs off these sorts of labels even though he received a college scholarship for his visual art at age 13, and by 14 was studying at Michigan’s prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts’ summer program.
Borns, in spite of his relocation to the West Coast, has remained uniquely quirky. The artist lives ain an actual tree house in Los Angeles that he rents via AirBnb, and he has never paid for a guitar – he prefers to borrow instruments from friends.
In November 2014, BØRNS released a four song EP, called Candy, filled with love songs from the infectious “Electric Love” to the sweepingly reminiscent “Past Lives.” Borns sings with unbridled enthusiasm, his soft-toned but powerful falsetto drifting over the irresistible tracks like a soft summer rain. Candy will make you want to fall in love. In January 2015, he released a music video for “10,000 Emerald Pools,” which featured the artist underwater and forced Borns to see how long he could hang upside down while holding his breath. Soon after the release of the video, BØRNS began to receive attention for the song and the rest of Candy EP, including a shoutout from Taylor Swift via Twitter.
So 'Electric Love' by Børns sounds like an instant classic to me….. #justsayingggg garrettborns http://t.co/I32poRlhVd
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) January 20, 2015
BØRNS started on a six-week tour with indie-pop-soul band MisterWives in February, is performing at Lollapalooza on Friday at 5:40, and has a show with Of Monsters and Men at House of Blues Chicago on August 1st. What’s next for BØRNS? A summer tour with Charli XCX and Bleachers through the West Coast and Midwest and, God willing, a new album on the horizon.
Watch the magical music video for “Electric Love” below and stay tuned to PGM for more updates.