Pop-punks Bornside discuss newest EP, “Light Rain & Dick Moves”

I got the chance to chat with the French pop-punk band Bornside about the release of their debut EP “Light Rain & Dick Moves” and their upcoming projects. Check out the full interview below!
Bornside - Picture by Jonathan Bouillaux

Hey! Let's start this interview with an introduction of your band.

Hi, we’re Bornside, a pop-punk band from Lyon. We have Yévic on guitar, Johan on drums, Florian on bass et Alex is the singer.

How did you come up with the name “Bornside”?

We wanted to play with words to say we’re born not fitting in a box, so on the side. But instead of just using regular words we made one up! Funny story is, we learnt that we did not really make up that word as it’s someone’s last name. This person wrote to us a few months ago asking how we came up with the name! But it’s all good and he said he enjoyed the Fine music video.

How would you describe the French pop-punk scene?

The French pop-punk scene is doing good! You have a lot of really good bands at the moment. I’m thinking about Two Trains Left, Mirabelle or Yvet Garden but the list is much longer. What’s different with other places like the UK or the US, it’s that unfortunately we did not notice a pop punk resurgence like what happened with MGK and other Travis Barker’s projects which are not that popular here.

You've just released your debut EP “Light Rain & Dick Moves”. How long did you work on it?

Too long haha! Yévic and Alex started to work on the songs during the lockdowns in France which were in 2020 and the EP was released in September 2022, so 2 years. But we already started to work on new songs, and we want to release new stuff quicker now that we found our rhythm.

How would you describe this release in 3 words?

Epicurean Pop Punk.

Any funny stories to share with our readers from your writing or recording sessions?

We could not find any particular funny story to tell without embarrassing someone haha! But studio was fun in general. We rented a cottage not far from Headquarter Corp where we were recording. We did it through Airbnb and we were scared that the owner would refuse as we were 5 guys coming to record music. So we said we were coming to work on an IT project. The owner was working in IT and started to ask us questions about the project. Even if Yévic and Florian work in IT we did not really know what to say and you could tell that we were embarrassed. In the end, we still got the cottage, did not destroy it and even got a good rating on Airbnb! We also tried to use the time wisely and gather ideas for what to do once the recording would be done. But we were also having drinks in the evening together. Gathering ideas while drinking is basically how we ended up with a music video with pirates and ship made of cardboards!

Who's the artist behind the artwork of your EP and what's the idea behind this visual?

The artist behind the visual is Nache Ramos. He has worked with the Los Angeles Clippers and Netflix as well as Bornside! We love his work, so we sent him our ideas and a song to give him an idea of what we were doing. He liked what we sent, and as he used to play in a punk band, he was happy to work with us and to fit us in his busy schedule. We wanted to have this old school vibe with the dinner and the neon letters in the background. Someone gave the idea of a character protecting a flower from light rain and dick moves with its umbrella and then Nache’s magic did the rest.

Is there any chance we can see you live? If yes, please share your upcoming tour dates!

We’re working on it at the moment but nothing is set in stone so far, so we’ll announce that later, so sorry, no scoop here for you. All we can say is that it won’t be before 2023 and that if someone wants to make us play somewhere, I mean anywhere, not just the song, hit us up and we’ll come back to you!

The last words are for you. If you have a message to convey, here’s your chance!

We heard there was a music video for our song “When You Lie” in the making, so stay tuned 😉