Wes Borland on stage with Limp Bizkit at the UK leg of the Sonisphere Festival, July 2011. © Fiaz Farrelly
When Wes Borland left the multi-platinum-selling rap-metal band Limp Bizkit in 2001, he was sure it was for good. And when he split again in 2005 (after rejoining a year earlier), he was more than certain that his second exit was indeed final.
Fast forward to 2011, and the 36-year-old Borland is back in the fold. This time, however, he swears he’s not running away again. “I’m in Limp Bizkit to stay,” he says firmly. “I’ve accepted the fact that Limp Bizkit is my band, one that I’m a part of, a band that I’ve built from the beginning. It does me no good to be in somebody else’s band playing their music, like Marilyn Manson or Korn. Being in Limp Bizkit allows me to be myself.”
Says the man who on any given night dresses up as anything from a gorilla to a creature from outer space. “That’s part it it, too,” he says, laughing. “Without me becoming different characters, I wouldn’t be a real artist, and the band wouldn’t be what it should be. It all goes hand in hand.”
Utilizing a downtuned seven-string Ibanez guitar (which he’s since abandoned) and a seemingly limitless supply of sounds that sprang from his fertile imagination, Borland virtually defined the ‘nu metal’ genre on big-time hits such as Nookie, Rollin’ and Break Stuff. In the process, he helped guide Limp Bizkit (which also includes frontman Fred Durst, bassist Sam Rivers, drummer John Otto and DJ Lethal) to staggering success: the band’s 1999 release, Significant Other, sold over 16 million copies worldwide.
“Selling records is fantastic,” Borland says. “But if you’re not loving what you do, and if everybody is throwing knives at you, it can get old very fast. It took me a while to come to grips with so many aspects of being in this band.”
And so, the third time is apparently the charm for Borland and the Bizkit, who have just released the album Gold Cobra. A robust affair, bursting with aggressive riffs, deep grooves and a surprising amount of guitar solos, it’s both a return to form that doesn’t feel like a nostalgia trip and a giant leap forward that doesn’t come off as a forced attempt at maturity.
On a couple of cuts, Durst, famously branded by music critics as the poster boy for hooliganism of every stripe, displays an astonishing degree of introspection that shouldn’t be confused with standard-issue navel-gazing.
While on tour in Brazil, Wes Borland sat down with MusicRadar to talk about Gold Cobra, his guitars and gear, and his renewed appreciation for Limp Bizkit.
The guitar seems more dominant on Gold Cobra than on previous Limp Bizkit albums. Was that the plan going into the studio, or did the role of the guitar evolve and increase as you recorded?
“I never really thought of it that way. I guess I tried to bring some of the creativity that was there on the first record… a lot of the noise and the sound generation that was somewhat impotent on the second and third records. Those records had something of a clean-cut guitar sound. I don’t know… That’s just how I’m playing now.
“I think it’s just a result of my having worked with other people and getting better at my craft. We never talked about it as a band, ‘Hey, let’s make the guitar more dominant.’ But if that’s how it comes off, fantastico!” [laughs]
You even seem to be soloing more than ever. Shotgun, Walking Away, Loser, Killer In You all feature lead breaks.
“That’s true. Solos seemed appropriate for those songs. In the past, they didn’t seem all that necessary or important, but this album felt different in that way. There wasn’t this big idea of ‘change’ per se, we just… [laughs] Yeah, I felt like playing some solos. On the other records, there were sections that you might call ‘melodic leads,’ but on Gold Cobra, playing real solos felt very natural. Like I said, maybe I’ve evolved as a guitarist, I don’t know.” [laughs]
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