A lot of interviews with 25-year-old Israeli producer/DJ Asaf Borger, who records and performs as Borgore, come off like blueprints of a particular Vice consumer: the entitled frat bro talking about T&A, porn and “bitches.”
To be fair to Borger, the interviewers are usually at least partly to blame. But Borger, a former death metal musician who is often credited with at least co-inventing dubstep, takes some of the responsibility.
His electronic music mostly focuses on horror (hence his coining of the term “gorestep”), sex and women. Lots of sex and women: his lyrics are straight out of old issues of Hustler; his female Twitter followers flood his feed with pictures of their breasts and butts; and his music videos, like “Decisions,” below, are chock full of half-naked ladies.
So, I talked to Borger about the women musicians who inspire him, his mom and choosing sax over ballet.
I’m fascinated by people who go from bands to being producers and DJs. Why’d that transition make sense for you?
Because I have full control over the music, rather than being a band member and you don’t have control over the other people — if they practice, if they show up, if they do their job. Plus, you make a song and somebody’s not really feeling it and you’re like, "But bro!"
You’re credited with being one of the first people to bring elements of death metal to dubstep.
I love elements of everything. I had the metal thing, jazz songs, that’s probably one of my favourite things. I had trap when people didn’t think about trap. Ice cream. I try to blend all genres all the time.
So what’s your musical background, what did you listen to growing up?
Everything. From the Spice Girls to Cannibal Corpse.
That would be a great party.
F--k, yeah, that would be amazing.
A lot of people have written about the shock value of what you do. Are you interested in shocking people?
I see it as pretty humouristic [sic]. I’m trying to just have fun, you know, make the music be fun.
A lot of the lyrics focus on women and sex and partying. Who are some of the women you respect in music?
I respect all of those in music. I guess my favourite singer is Amy Winehouse. I like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. I love Lady Gaga and I don’t know, there are so many good singers.
Are these people who had an influence on you growing up?
Definitely. Ella and Sarah, they shaped who I am, in a way.
Who got you interested in music originally?
My mum put me in a private school when I was five, and it was a private school for art. For four years you do everything, painting and theatre and everything. In fourth grade, they wanted me to be a ballet dancer. I was like, "Dude, I’ll do whatever the f--k you want to not be a ballet dancer." They said, "Well, how do you feel about learning how to play the saxophone?" and I was like, "Saxophone it is!" ... I played the piano when I was five and was like nine or 10 when I played the saxophone.
I’ve heard people talk about the type of music you play and say, "I’m too old for that," or they don’t see any complexity to it.
Everything has deeper meanings, subliminal, there’s more to it than what it seems. I don’t have a problem if old people don’t get it. What I care about is young people having the best time of their life when they come to my shows.
When you’re out on these big tours, are you exploring the cultural sounds coming out of each city?
Definitely. A lot of times I’ll listen to the local openers and discover new music through them. I’m really open-minded about stuff. This is why my label Buygore was super hardcore dubstep in the past and now it seems like there’s more trap and house because that’s the sound that happens right now in clubs. In the future, if polka will be whatever makes people dance, I’ll shape myself towards polka [laughs].
Borgore performs June 5 at Celebrities in Vancouver.
Follow Andrea Warner on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner .
by Andrea Warner via Electronic RSS
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