“When It’s Raining” explores themes of loneliness and isolation. What was the inspiration behind the song, and how did you bring those emotions to life musically?
With this whole project we’ve been working on, we’ve been heavily focused on evoking emotions and feelings through the music. So when writing and recording ‘When It’s Raining’ we spent a lot of time getting the sounds right so that you can feel those raw emotions right from the beginning.
You mentioned that the song captures the feeling of being lost in anger and sadness. Can you share more about your personal experiences or thoughts that influenced this track?
When we wrote this song we were more focused on capturing emotions rather than telling a story. A lot of our songs are very upbeat and dancy – songs that put you in a good mood. This time we decided to write something in the opposite direction. These themes of isolation and loneliness are feelings everyone experiences at some point, and we wanted to capture how it feels to be in that state through the music and lyrics. The song is meant to serve as a reminder that everyone goes through tough times, but it’s important to remember you’re not alone.
The song follows your 2024 track “Heartbeat.” How does “When It’s Raining” differ musically and emotionally from “Heartbeat”?
“When It’s Raining” offers such a contrast to heartbeat in almost every way. “Heartbeat” is a super upbeat track loosely involving young romance, and the latter depicts the chaos of that falling apart. We tried to create these feelings as well as we could musically for each track. It mattered to us how the songs ‘felt’ more so than just how they sounded. Visually, the music videos for each are polar opposites as well.
This track was recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studio in Auckland. How did that environment contribute to the creation of the song?
Roundhead is such a creative space for us. There’s so many toys and fun pieces of gear for us to explore, we could spend weeks there just discovering new sounds. Being able to freely create in that kind of environment is so special, and I think a lot of the magic of that song comes from the room. Every stage of the song’s creation – writing, recording, producing was all done at Roundhead.
You collaborated with producers Joel Jones and Nic Manders, as well as Vivek Gabriel for mastering. How did they help shape the sound of “When It’s Raining”?
All three of them had such a vital role in the song coming into fruition and it really wouldn’t be possible without them. They really are the best of the best.
The visual collaboration with Tom Grut for the music video sounds exciting. Can you talk about the creative process behind the video and how it complements the song’s mood?
Tom is a genius… He totally gets our creative vision but takes our ideas and makes them 100x better. For this song, we knew we wanted rain, and we wanted lots of performance shots. When we started shooting, we were filming with the intention of the video being in colour but Tom had the brilliant idea of seeing how it would look in black and white, and we didn’t look back. That black and white palette shaped the song’s whole visual identity and it was such a good call from Tom.
You’ve signed with EMPIRE, marking a huge milestone for the band. What does this mean for you, and how does it impact your future as a band on the global stage?
Signing with EMPIRE has been so awesome for us, the team there has been so amazing and supportive of us and what we want to do and allowing us to create. We’ve always had dreams of being a global band, and reaching international markets has always been on the cards for us. We recently made our first trip over to the states to play some shows, which was such an incredible experience for us. EMPIRE has such an incredible global presence which makes us really excited to travel and share our music with the rest of the world.
Your music blends indie pop and rock influences. How would you describe your musical evolution, and where do you see yourselves heading in the future with this new direction?
Our main focus has always been to make music that we would want to listen to, and as we expand our listening palette we bring in a wider range of influences to the creative process. One thing we can guarantee is that we’ll stay true to who we are as musicians and make music that we’re proud of, and this will evolve as our taste evolves. Hopefully others will resonate with that.
The song is described as one that allows listeners to feel seen in their struggles. What do you hope listeners take away from “When It’s Raining”?
I think more than anything, we hope that listeners can feel a little less alone in their struggles. It’s super normal to feel the emotions the song explores, so we want people to know that it’s okay to feel rubbish, and you’re really not alone.
Looking ahead, what’s next for Borderline? Are there any upcoming projects or plans you’re particularly excited about in 2025?
100%, we’ve been hard at work for the past year and a half writing a bunch of new music, and we’ve spent the last 6 months recording a large handful of them. We’re about 60% done, and they are sounding so good. We’re so excited to share this new project with you, we think it’s our best work yet. We’ve also got lots more plans for touring in the coming year, lots of international shows and a bunch at home in NZ too. Keep an eye on our socials for updates, but we can’t wait to see a bunch more of the world this year and share our music with you.
